Insight about Art Street

Insight about Art Street

            
            On the date that we were assigned to visit Moganshan Road in Shanghai, A.Ed only gave us a clue that it was something about changing and Arts. We had no idea about this place as none of us had ever heard about this place before. Frankly, we expected to see Chinese style of painting, dancing and also some traditional shows like Chinese-opera and etc. We had to admit that it was quite different from our expectation but it was a good surprise anyway.

            As you have read from information about this place from last page, it is not the heaven for art studio since the beginning. It used to be a residential and factory area before China’s reformation in 2000 which brought a lot of changes into this community. However, we could clearly see that it is still in the process of reformation. Along the street, you can still see the blending between the traditional lives with modern lives. It was shown in form of architecture, painting on the wall, lifestyle and etc. We could say that it was a good experience to see such thing as in Thailand; we also have this kind of situation going on. Authorities in Thailand have been discussing about the way to keep Thai’s traditional style along with modern lifestyle.

            First impression we had on this trip was about the way of art in Moganshan. From our perspective, we used to believe that China is a close country and foreign influences don’t have much effect on people there. However, when we really visited the place, we found out that we could find many kinds of art. It came from Japan, Taiwan and even European Countries. Some of the shops, we went to visit, were even owned by foreigners. Although, they came from different countries, but under the language of art, it seemed like they were talking on the same page. We had to admit the quote “Art is the universal language” and “Nation without an art can never develop”. On Moganshan Road, every style of art whether they are traditional or modern are blended together and it is one of the reason that make this place charming and attracting in itself. To us, it is also a sign that China is now opening itself to outside world more and more. We are also very interested to see how the Moganchan will be like within the next decade.

            Moreover, after making an interview with some of the shops, we found out that the customers are not only Chinese people. Some people fly from European countries to buy pictures here. What surprise we most was one of the shop in the area. The owner was Chinese and he is the artist himself. After we had an interview with him, we found out that he is the one who invent “Deconstruction Art Style” which is now being one of the famous art styles in the world. He is well-known all around the world and many westerners fly to Shanghai just to buy pictures from him. He is like Steve Jobs in this style of Arts. He even writes his own textbook which explains about his style of art.

            Last but not least, we had interviewed with the owner of one restaurant in the area. We found out that although it is a restaurant but its main product is not the food. Although their food is quite tasty in our opinion but they told us that their main product is music experience. They have live band which will come to play great music with traditional Chinese’s music instrument for free and sometime they sell ticket when famous band is coming to play in the restaurant. They also allow shelves for musicians who want to come up with their own styles of music. They can put their CD on the shelves. When CD is sold, shop will take small commission and give the rest back to the musician. In proportion to income, they said that the income from CD selling or ticket selling are even more than sales of food itself. It’s one kind of innovation we have seen within this district.

            In conclusion, we learn several things from this trip. Here they are:

            1. Nothing can be the same forever. As this world evolves, we have to evolve ourselves to match with the new life.

            2. Traditional things are not always worthless overtime if you just know how to create value out of it. For example, in Moganshan, their arts are very valuable because it contains lifestyles and history of Chinese within the art.

            3. In order to create value in something, innovation is one of the most important thing which IMBA has been trying to emphasis that.

            4. Innovation is not always a product. It can be anything.