'summit', 2010
fidel alejandro castro
former presdient of the council of state of cuba, primary leaders of the cuban revolution
image © designboom


designboom visited the biennale of sydney where chinese artist shen shaomin's installation
'summit' (2010) is currently being exhibited. known for his way of connecting art,
life and craft with mechanics expressing themes of war, futuristic crisis, scientific abomination
and the manipulation of nature, shaomin uses ancient chinese culture to comment on
contemporary ecological issues, politics and technology.

'summit' was conceived as a response to the global financial crisis.
taking the annual G8 summit as a point of reference, shaomin has created a hypothetical
meeting of five of the most significant communist leaders: fidel alejandro castro, ho chi minh,
kim II-sung, mao zedong and vladimir lenin. their life-sized corpses have been arranged
in a pentagon, resting within crystal coffins that reflect their nationalities. castro,
the still-live exception, gently breathing, lies silently on his deathbed.



'summit', 2010
fidel alejandro castro
former presdient of the council of state of cuba, primary leaders of the cuban revolution
image © designboom

'the G5 summit delegates failed to exercise the power they had, and merely attended
the meeting. as the world sinks into a morass of economic disasters, and people are
questioning capitalist values and systems, will their thoughts turn back to those forgotten
and departed pioneers of socialism? Will people today be inspired to think hard about
the ideas, views and theories of lenin, mao zedong, kim II sung, ho chi-minh and castro?'

'summit', 2010
fidel alejandro castro (detail)
former presdient of the council of state of cuba, primary leaders of the cuban revolution
image © designboom


you may view a video of castro lying on his deathbed here.



'summit', 2010
kim II-sung
former general secretary of the workers party of korea president of the democratic people's republic of korea
image © designboom


each of the life-sized figures are made from silica gel simulation, acrylic and fabric.
dimensions variable. the project was made possible through the support of osage art foundation,
hong kong.



'summit', 2010
kim II-sung (side view)
former general secretary of the workers party of korea president of the democratic people's republic of korea
image © designboom



'summit', 2010
kim II-sung (detail)
former general secretary of the workers party of korea president of the democratic people's republic of korea
image © designboom



'summit', 2010
installation view of 'summit' (2010)
image © designboom



'summit', 2010
mao zedong
former chairman of the people's republic of china
image © designboom



'summit', 2010
mao zedong
former chairman of the people's republic of china
image © designboom



'summit', 2010
mao zedong (detail)
former chairman of the people's republic of china
image © designboom



'summit', 2010
mao zedong (detail)
former chairman of the people's republic of china
image © designboom



'summit', 2010
ho chi minh
former president of vietnam workers' party, president of the democratic republic of vietnam
image © designboom



'summit', 2010
ho chi minh
former president of vietnam workers' party, president of the democratic republic of vietnam
image © designboom



'summit', 2010
ho chi minh (detail)
former president of vietnam workers' party, president of the democratic republic of vietnam
image © designboom



'summit', 2010
vladimir lenin
former chairman of the council of people's commissars
image © designboom



'summit', 2010
vladimir lenin
former chairman of the council of people's commissars
image © designboom



'summit', 2010
vladimir lenin (detail)
former chairman of the council of people's commissars
image © designboom


shen shaomin was born in 1956 in the heilongjiang province, china.
he currently lives and works in beijing, china.