Taopu: Shanghai's Creative Factory and the Artists Redefining Chinese Contemporary Art

Taopu, a former industrial zone in Shanghai's suburbs, has since 2010 become a hub for artists and home to ShanghART Taopu, China's first warehouse gallery. This creative factory hosts MadeIn Company, a collective founded by Xu Zhen that operates like a parody of a corporation, producing unique artworks through industrial methods. Artists such as Shi Qing, Yang Zhenzhong, Zhang Ding, Yang Fudong, and Xu Zhen explore themes of individualism, collectivism, and the role of art in a rapidly changing society. Shi Qing's installation 'Factory' (2009) uses miniature factory models with 1970s furniture to critique collective social organization. Yang Zhenzhong's video 'Spring Story' (2003) features 1,500 workers reciting fragments of Deng Xiaoping's 1992 speech, questioning individual autonomy. Zhang Ding's performance 'Buddha jumps Over the Wall' (2012) critiques capitalist excess. MadeIn Company's 'Action of Consciousness' (2011) features constantly moving sculptures that prevent clear viewing, while 'True Image' (2010) presents photographs of destroyed original works, questioning media influence. The article, published in artpress in 2014, also discusses the artists' engagement with Western philosophy and their ambivalent relationship with politics and the market.