Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

(Re-)Making Space for a New Culture of Art

Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong

Bibliographic Data

ID12496610
AuthorsBenjamin Clavan (Architect, Los Angeles, U.S.A./Valencia, Spain, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume22
Issue2
Pages189-215
Publication date2018-11-25
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSpace and Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1206-3312 • E-ISSN: 1552-8308
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1206331218809660
OpenAlexW2902727608
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited11

Despite its headlong rush onto the modern world scene, China is a country that has long been cut off from the mainstream of cultural activity in the world. Nowhere is this more pronounced than in its visual arts and its venues for presenting this work. Starting from almost nothing, the People’s Republic has opened literally thousands of new museums in the past two decades. Among these is a large and intriguing subset consisting of industrial and commercial buildings repurposed for use as art venues. This study explores a number of these re-makings in three of China’s major cultural centers: Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Although the repurposed spaces are often architecturally interesting and sometimes even dramatic, the overall effect is unusually derivative. Profit motives, at both the public and private levels, also play a significant role in the long-term success of the projects. As a result, this new attempt at providing and promoting a new art culture has limitations for making China a new focus of world attention in this arena. More importantly, repurposing historic and otherwise historically significant buildings for art reveals how such spaces can at the same time both enhance and confuse the issue of cultural identity within a heretofore predominantly closed society

Aesthetics · Art · Beijing · China · Mainstream · Media studies · Nothing · Political science · Sociology · The arts · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · French Urban and Social Studies · History · Law · Urban Planning and Governance

  • Painting an inclusive enclosure

    Open Access•Curry Chandler•Environment and Planning D…•2025

  • Architecture of Modern China

    Duanfang Lu•Journal of Architectural Education•2010

  • Remaking Post-Industrial Cities

    Juan Alayo, Garbiñe Henry et al.•Remaking Post-Industrial Cities•2016

  • Space of Creative Industries

    Jinliao He, Jin-Liao He et al.•European Planning Studies•2014

  • Museums in China

    Marzia Varutti•Museums in China•2014

  • Museums in China

    Tracey L-D Lu, Tracey Lie Dan Lu et al.•Museums in China•2013

  • Museums and nationalism in contemporary China

    Edward Vickers•Compare A Journal of Comparative…•2007

  • Art in capital’

    Open Access•June Wang, Jun Wang•Cities•2009

  • La production de l'espace

    Henri Lefebvre•1986

Unique citing works1
Citations per year1
Citation span2025 - 2025 (1)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 1

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae