During World Expo, Artist Brings Chinese Peasant Inventions to Downtown Shanghai, Highlighting Individual Creativity Over Expo's National Pavilions

SHANGHAI, May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Cai Guo-Qiang: Peasant Da Vincis opened today in the heart of Shanghai across the river from the World Expo 2010, commenting on the Expo's theme "Better City, Better Life" and China's modernization from the point of view of Chinese peasants.

Cai Guo-Qiang: Peasant Da Vincis features ambitious inventions by over 60 Chinese peasants including homemade flying machines, submarines, robots and a 20 meter-long aircraft carrier made of scrap metal. It is the inaugural exhibition of the Rockbund Art Museum, located in a building that was one of the first museums in China, recently redesigned by architect David Chipperfield.

With a glowing UFO on the roof, the six-floor museum will feature inventions, installations, and films. Bringing the spirit of the exhibition to the streets, slogans by Cai Guo-Qiang—Never learned how to land, What's important isn't whether you can fly and Peasants – making a better city, a better life—are painted in giant Chinese characters on the Museum exterior and environs, and screened hourly on the world's largest outdoor video screen on the Aurora Plaza high-rise.

Inside, a wrecked plane suggests the risk and courage involved in inventing. Videos depicting a forty-year chronology of the inventors' adventures are projected onto "flying" indoor kites.

One peasant inventor, who's robots perform tasks such as pulling a rickshaw, watering and picking flowers, was commissioned to make robots that will paint and perform for the duration of the exhibition, replicating the iconic gestures of modern and contemporary artists Jackson Pollack, Yves Klein, and Damien Hirst.

Hand built submarines, airplanes, helicopters, and flying saucers will hang amidst grass, flowers and live birds, representing the whimsical dreams being chased by participating inventors.

A massive aircraft carrier and handmade submarine will occupy an adjacent bank lobby used by the colonial British; films documenting Soviet space expeditions will be shown in the bank vault and aircraft carrier interior.

Artist Cai Guo-Qiang is renowned worldwide for large-scale explosion projects and installations, including the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. The exhibition is presented by the Rockbund Art Museum, with assistance from the Center for International Cultural Exchange (CICE), Ministry of Culture, P.R.C.

www.rockbundartmuseum.org and www.caiguoqiang.com.

Images available upon request.

SOURCE Rockbund Art Museum