In May/June 2012 1st year students from SIVA's Public Art Undergraduate course were in volved in a groundbreaking project in an area of the extensive urban zone of Shanghai which is known as Pu Dong, literally the East Bank of the Huangpu river. The history of Shanghai has up until the 1990's focused on the west bank of the Huangpu, hence the importance of the "Bund" along the river front, and which became the financial and commercial centre of the so-called "International Settlement".
The term 'bund' refers to an embankment or an embanked quay, and comes from the Persian word band, meaning an embankment, levee or dam. The reason why it was named after the bunds/levees in Baghdad along the Tigris, is because when the Baghdadi Jews, such as the prominent Sassoon family, settled their business in Shanghai in the 19th century, it was they who built heavily on the Huangpo bankside. Since the 1990's Pu Dong has arisen from a few warehouses and fields to become the new commercial centre of China, and consciously challenging the status of Hong Kong for a dominant role in Asia.
As a result of the recent extensive development Pu Dong, many old settlements have been absorbed, swamped or swept away by this wave of urban sprawl, and it is in one these old settlements, called Sanlin, that the SIVA Public Art course made a significant and groundbreaking intervention.
This is the leaflet and guide to the public art interventions along The Bund of San Lin, Pudong Area, Shanghai
Some of the projects:
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