Shanghai – Contemporary Art Archival Project – 1998-2012 / Arthub – From China to a Global Network – 2008-2018 / Aurora Museum and Arthub – Contemporary Art within a Historical Collection – 2013-2016 (3 books)

Shanghai – Contemporary Art Archival Project – 1998-2012 stems from The Post-1998 Shanghai Contemporary Art Archive Research Project, launched by Vigy Jin, Davide Quadrio, and Xu Zhen—founders of the independent space BizArt—to sort through the history of Shanghai's artistic development from 1998 to 2012.
Through the exemplary case of BizArt, the book attempts to historicize the moment when art in Shanghai, but also throughout Asia, first took on a professional stance; during this incubation phase, BizArt acted as a platform for experimentation. This publication spotlights a major opportunity to explore the actors and organizations that took part in that moment, the production of works and exhibitions, the beginning of the digital revolution that was explored, for example, through the creation of Art-Ba-Ba Contemporary Art Forum.

Arthub – From China to a Global Network – 2008–2018 is dedicated to the first ten years of activity of Arthub, BizArt's nonprofit offspring, which originated from the structural premises outlined in the first volume. Founded by Davide Quadrio together with Defne Ayas, Arthub first emerged as being deeply rooted in the Shanghai context, but right from the outset it expressed aspirations of a cross-national and cross-continental reach. The ambition and need to operate beyond the Chinese context, while exploiting the permeable nature of this locality (from South-East/Central Asia to European countries) has allowed Arthub to become a cross-cultural, global platform over the years.

Aurora Museum and Arthub – Contemporary Art within a Historical Collection – 2013–2016 is dedicated to a case study that outlines challenges and potential embedded in the orchestration of contemporary art initiatives within heritage-focused institutions. An analysis of a three-year program led by Arthub at the Aurora Museum of Shanghai serves as a backdrop to explore ideas to reactivate historical collections in the present tense. The experience of a “de-institution” guiding contemporary interventions in a private museum with a collection of antique Chinese art constitutes a unique project in the Asian context, revealing the potential of a quick-changing, unregulated cultural environment. The book furthermore includes contributions providing valuable insights into the ways two European institutions—respectively the Galleria Borghese and the Van Abbemuseum—have energized and re-contextualized their permanent collections.