Art flourishes down by the river
The new museum, designed by the British architect David Chipperfield, is now being built. The Pompidou Centre says it has signed a renewable five-year deal with the State-owned West Bund Group to stage exhibitions in the new museum from next year.
The deal is "the most important long-term cultural exchange project" between China and France, and will "give an important place to contemporary Chinese art" in the new Shanghai facility, the Pompidou Centre says.
Another art establishment located in the area is Tank Space, a compound with five giant oil tanks, a water tank, a wharf and other structures that once served as fuel storage facilities for nearby Longhua Airport. Qiao Zhibing, an avid collector of contemporary art who heads Tank Space, says the five tanks will soon be transformed into exhibition spaces and connected to one another by passageways. The water tank had already been used as an art space during a series of exhibitions that took place in September.
