EXHIBITION SYNOPSIS

From September 20, 2019 to March 8, 2020, Shanghai’s Power Station of Art will proudly present its first-ever exhibition dedicated to works from the contemporary art museum’s permanent collection, The Return of Guests: Selections from the PSA Collection. Covering a wide range of media including video, photography, painting, sculpture, installation and literature, the exhibition will present more than 60 artworks by nearly 40 artists and collectives housed inside the former power plant.

The first public representation of the PSA Collection since its launch in 2012, The Return of Guests will provide a systematic retrospective view on the museum’s holdings, with the re-exhibited works retracing PSA’s exhibitory history while engaging with their significance in a contemporary context. The re-gathering will prioritize works from artists who have significantly contributed to the development of Chinese contemporary art as well as emerging talents, including key exhibits from past Shanghai Biennales as well as creations commissioned specially for PSA’s iconic industrial space.

Starting with an “open warehouse” on PSA’s second-floor, the inaugural collection exhibition will allow visitors to approach art from unfamiliar perspectives, providing a view on collection maintenance, restoration, transportation, and research for a close-up encounter with artworks in a different context from the typical exhibition environment. Following on from the “open warehouse”, the exhibition marks out a multitude of itineraries, with a number of pieces presented in the museum’s common space to help create an open context for dialogue.

A transitory snapshot of the ever-expanding PSA Collection, The Return of Guests differs from more orthodox exhibitions, as it emphasizes the ongoing state of “collecting” while seeking to challenge the static relationship between artists (as creators), museums (as caretakers) and artworks (as commodities). Challenging prescribed notions of the museum as “host”, the museum’s guests are invited to experience a newly unstable state of “visiting”. It looks to revisit and explore the rich and pioneering artistic thought within the works of the PSA Collection, while trying to deconstruct preconceived understandings of the exhibition in contemporary society.