Past Exhibitions

Guangzhou-based artist Zhou Tao created his video work 1,2,3,4 for the Seventh Shanghai Biennale, which took place at the Shanghai Art Museum in Shanghai, China in 
2008. He created this work in the immediate vicinity of the museum, People’s Square, by recording morning staff meetings in over forty area shops and companies. The groups include dozens of young women wearing immaculate corporate uniforms, cooks, and salesmen, and a small group of tee-shirted teenagers. Regardless of occupation, the employees count off and move in step to the rhythms of their companies’ corporate songs (or chants), which are meant to build team spirit and corporate loyalty. Humorously, the artist edited the clips to allow the rhythm of these recitations to steadily increase in intensity and build to a crescendo.
   
Prior to 1949, Shanghai’s People's Square was the site of a racetrack; when the new Communist government banned horseracing and gambling, the area became People’s Square, a park and parade area. In the 1990s it became the home to the Shanghai Municipal Government and the square now contains (or is bordered by) several museums, a theater, and major hotels. The new architecture on the Square—and the fact that many of the employees the artist recorded in his 1,2,3,4 are migrants new to Shanghai—attest to the fast-paced changes in Chinese society.

About the Artist

Zhou Tao was born in 1976 in Changsha, China and n
ow resides in Guangzhou
, China. His work has been included
 in many group exhibitions
 including the 7th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai (
2008); Guangzhou Station: Special Exhibition of Contemporary Art of Guangdong, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, (2007); China Power Station Part II, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo (
2007); 24 HR Art, NT Centre for Contemporary Art, Sydney
 (2007); Cubic Image: Art Beijing (2007); Platform China, Beijing
 (2006); La rivoluzione siamo noi, Isola d'Arte, Milano
 (2006); Accumulation-Canton Express Next Stop, Tang Contemporary Art Center, Beijing
 (2006); Gambling, Para / Site Art Space, Hong Kong (
2005); Archaeology of the Future: The 2nd Triennial of Chinese Art, Nanjing Museum, Nanjing (
2004); and FEI, FEI, FEI, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai.