Rockbund Art Museum

The Shanghai Rockbund Art Museum is a contemporary art museum located in the Waitanyuan (Bund Source) area, at the confluence of the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek. It is housed in the Royal Asiatic Society Building, constructed in 1932 in the Art Deco style — a historically protected landmark that was once one of China's earliest natural history museums. As mentioned in a previous blog post, the Waitanyuan area is surrounded by a cluster of historic foreign-built architecture, with cafés, Western restaurants, and hotels lining the streets. The entire area has been developed into a pedestrian zone, making it a naturally pleasant spot for a leisurely weekend afternoon stroll.

The Bund Art Museum is a non-profit contemporary art institution spanning five floors. During my visit, two exhibitions were underway: The Great Camouflage and Peng Zuqiang: Some Omissions, Silences, and Opaque Sounds. The former, an installation and video art exhibition, occupied the first and second floors; the latter, a video art exhibition, took up the third and fourth floors. The fifth floor was not open to the public.

I hadn't previously explored video art, and it was my first encounter with works that use obsolete, outdated film technologies to recreate historical figures, places, and events. As for those jarring, glitchy images produced by film damage from accidental errors. I still consider those difficult to appreciate and will need to study them further down the line. Fortunately, the museum provides every visitor with a small artwork guide booklet, which lists and explains the creative concept behind each piece. For contemporary art that carries a high barrier to appreciation, this kind of thoughtful gesture is truly necessary and considerate.

That said, one video work on the second floor left a particularly deep impression on me. It was Radical Duet, a dual-channel color video installation with sound created by Onejiro Igwe in 2023. This nearly thirty-minute work tells the story of the final years of British colonialism, when international intellectuals, artists, and activists converged on London, turning the city into a crucible of anti-imperialist and Black revolutionary thought. The footage shifts fluidly between performance and rehearsal, between fictional history and present-day reflection. I'd gladly call it a "documentary performed by actors." The exhibition also physically recreated on-site three scenes from the film—a debate, a community discussion, and a workshop—complete with furniture, manuscripts, archival materials, and various props, giving viewers a truly immersive sense of being there. Without watching the film in its entirety, it would be impossible to fully understand or appreciate the spatial arrangement. This approach to filmmaking, and its method of reconstructing a historical period and its events, was a genuinely eye-opening experience for me.

Also on the second floor was another video exhibition, Warped Magnetic Field, which boldly showcases contemporary Chinese avant-garde art—highly recommended for an in-person visit. Suddenly, a fleeting but vivid sense of Shanghai's unique charm struck me while sitting in the exhibition hall. Perhaps only in Shanghai could an exhibition of such cutting-edge contemporary art draw this many appreciative visitors. The city's openness and tolerance toward art and culture fill me with profound admiration.

Admission to the Shanghai Bund Art Museum is free, though visitors are required to make a reservation on-site by scanning a QR code. A complete visit takes roughly one and a half to two hours. Since the exhibitions are primarily video-based, I didn't take many photos or videos inside the galleries this time around—I'd highly recommend local friends go and experience it in person.