A Shanghai Showdown

A Showdown it certainly was when Miu Miu decided to host a big party in Shanghai in one of the world's tallest hotels and create an entire Miu Miu world out of it.

Sebastian Suhl invited me to go along for one night in Shanghai, literally. I got on the red-eye arrived in Shanghai at 5 am and was escorted by a Miu Miu girl to my car. I was deposited at the Park Hyatt, where there was construction taking place. I wish I wasn't so groggy and took a picture as it was not any normal construction but Prada construction, a huge backdrop where the 1940's was starting to appear in the form of smoky facades, mirror cut silhouettes and big lights just for the night. No one had told me this, well, Seb certainly did not, that Hotel was actually closed to the public for Miu Miu.

It is without doubt one of the best hotels in the world, my 84th floor room with a Bund view was spectacular. The fact that I was greeted by a big pink Goody bag which contained a next season Miu Miu purse, the invitation and a letter from Sebastian AND breakfast would prove that!

View from my room

breakfast, bed and prezzie

As I was in Shanghai, I was adamant on getting myself out of the Park Hyatt to do a little bit of exploring and eat Shanghainese dumplings. One absolutely cannot go to Shanghai without having Xiao Long Bao, true there this now a din tai fung in most capitals including Bangkok but there is nothing like having them in Shanghai. I thought I would find the perfect ones at at Jia Jian Tang Bao, however when I got there, it was closed. I was saved by the other dumpling I read about, Yang's friend dumplings across the street.

CLOSED!

saved by Yang's Fried Dumplings

The cheap fatty neighbour Yang's was a good fix and after devouring them understood the queue for them. I popped along to Xin Tian Di as it is so pleasant and there is a branch of Din Tai Fung there.

dumpling perfection

When I was last in Shanghai it was freezing and hailing, so I missed the Bund walk, touristy as it is, it is very cool. I also managed to squeeze in a little visit to 18 Gallery where there was a street art show, beautiful restored building 18 on the Bund.

JonOne at 18 Gallery

The Park Hyatt is in Pudong, it is on the other side of the water . . . not the most convenient for site-seeing but I suppose the new buildings on Pudong side justify it, they too are spectacular.

The Park Hyatt, notice window cleaner on left

Topped off my exploration day with a swim in the pool at what has got to be the highest indoor pool I have ever swum in. Then at 7 pm on the dot, my Sebastian friend arrived and we went straight down to the lobby of a spectacular 1940's NY hotel that just happens to be in 2011 Shanghai on the 87th floor of the Park Hyatt overlooking the Bund. I met the Thai contingency, P'Ann is absolutely lovely, she's Prada Thailand. And also P'Aaew and P'Vicky who are the Prada landlords as they own the malls Prada are in (Miu Miu will open in October). The drinks in the "lobby" was only the beginning.

before in Sorada and Miu Miu

lobby of skycrapers and mirror palms

The party was to take place over 4 floors in different room with different themes and different activities. Dinner at the very private Supper Club was wonderful, I felt like I was sitting in a pod in the clouds, the idea was to see the view but that did not happen but it gave it a certain mystery being literally high in the clouds.

supper club

I was on the table with Sebastian, my date for the night (and also the Host), HK actress Cecilia Cheung and Taiwanese actress Terry across from me and on my right Tanny Kea, an amazing lady from Singapore.

The AW 11 Miu Miu show took place literally, next to us. The shoes were definitely the high lights, I have three different pairs on my wishlist and also the backless black dresses with the fur shoulders. Please excuse the blurry pics, Seb did keep saying I was incapable of taking a clear pic, well, I would agree in this instance as we sat so very close it was impossible to focus! The backdrop was Metropolis with a dash of Jetsons

Cecilia Cheung and I

Miu Miu AW 2011 in Shanghai

Next up was the dash to lifts to get to the next activity . .we went to a quiet "Sparkle Club" to realise that it was too early and we needed to be on the top top floor for the Cabaret. The Park Hyatt's highest view point was turned into a dimly lit, 40's style cabaret, totally risque, totally fun. We sat on super low velvet seats and so close I thought the lasso guy would hit us. I was next to beautiful actress and MTV vj Zhu Zhu. We loved the lasso guy and also the funny looking hula hoop guy. Let's not forget the super hot hostess.

Me, Tanny and Sebastian

Next was a performance by Florrie in the Sparkle Club. Perfect for Miu Miu in the Sparkle Club. . .cheeky girly, totally a pretty doll but full of surprises. I mean, no one expected her to starting banging on the drums like she did. The club was filled with porcelain versions of all the things that girls love and like floating from the ceiling with a sculpture in front.

Sparkle sculpture

Mimi Xu (aka DJ Misty Rabbit)

Florrie

Next we back down the freight elevator (the fastest way) to see Dan Lywood play and hang in the lounge, by this time I had lost track of what floor we were on and where we were going. I just know that it was fun and Nadia, Seb's friend from HK who manages the Gagosian HK was awesome.

Next, I found myself in the Moonshine Room, made myself some new friends and met the set designer Karl Sprague who did the ridiculously amazing sets, no surprise that he works in film and on Wes Anderson's Royal Tenenbaums. Definitely cinematic. Then back it was to the Sparkle Club where Mimi Xu was rocking the dancefloor so hard with her final set that non one wanted to leave.

What FUN! If there is anyone hows knows how to throw a big fat bash and still make it feel like it's a big family party, it's gotta be Prada. It was so intimate and fun that I really did not want it to end, it was like one minute it was 7 pm, the next 2 am and the lights were coming on. Intimate 1940's everyting in a roaring metropolis set way above the clouds - how's that for a contradiction? I am sure I will soon find myself in a Miu Miu store swooning over the shoes I mentally noted and buying them, just to remind myself of the magic of Miu Miu in Shanghai. Thank you Sebastian for inviting me, it was amazing. Until the next Prada memory . . . xx

Miu Miu girl the morning after waiting to put me in the car

Hong Kong Hero

Uncle Boonmee (though he is no longer with us) was the first person Apichatpong Weerasethakul thanked as he accepted the Best Film Award for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, at the 5th Annual Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong last Monday night.

P'Joei has been globetrotting around the world with very little time to rest for the success of Uncle Boonmee has been just phenomenal and as he said on Monday night, for such a small film, it has come so far and he is very proud. A hero in HK with his small film against big budget Chinese ones, this should give us some hope. I believe that it does.

There were some especially memorable moments that night with the speeches made for Japan, in the light of earthquake, tsunami,and nuclear catastrophe. It is always seen as somewhat decadent when a natural disaster hits or political turmoil is rife for entertainment awards to go on, in this case, the Japanese contingency showed their resilience and strength by being there. I found the speech by Thomas Yoda, the director of the Tokyo International Film Festival to be sincere and most touching. The Chinese blockbuster Aftershock which was about the aftershock of a huge earthquake in China was a tale about the human spirit and the human will to survive, this was somewhat appropriate and relevant that night.

I went along to the Award Ceremony and was very lucky to have been taken care of by Norman Wang and his friend Helen so I had a pretty good seat and could see all the action pretty up close. Apart from P'Joei's win which was certainly the best monment of the night for me there was an awesome performance by an Indian band called Indian Ocean, sensational, so fun and a bit of exoticism to what would otherwise have been a rather grand, quite formal Chinese affair . The band won best score for an Indian film called Peepli Live. I did like how these big blockbusters sat alongside small indie productions and both were recognised. Rather refreshing. It was nice to have a brief catch up with Harvey Weinstein, in a rather jolly mood, I would be too though if I had the victories he had for his recent films, The King's Speech and not to mention The Fighter and the reception Blue Valentine has had. I will forever agree with VF that Harvey is probably one of the last cinema impresarios, love or hate him, I find him rather inspiring.

The AFA after party was quite fun, especially as dinner was served (the award ceremony took HOURS and we were famished)and in true Asian style, the big sponsor, Audi was in full display with a vehicle placed in the centre of the room. Nonetheless, I did enjoy seeing P'Joei congratulated and applauded as he did the rounds at the party:)

Me and P'Joei

Lee and I

The AFA was a highlight though I was actually in HK for Filmart which is this humongous film market that is part of Hong Kong's annual entertainment expo. It was my first time, not so different from Art Fairs and I suppose Fashion Salons but this was a whole different ball game, films were being bought and sold. I saw a brilliant documentary about Sir Norman Foster called "How Much Does Your Building Weigh Mr Foster?" and the short films commissioned by the HKIFF Society. The Malaysian short was great, cheeky, funny but still quite dark and I liked Apichatpong's M Hotel for its imagery and mood, again, dreamy but this time a bit grittier. At first I was a little confused and after some time it just sort of sucks you in.

It is customary to have a press junket for the best film winner the next day and I had the chance to sit in to watch P'Joei answer many questions in the most fluent and thought provoking way. In the background was a poster of Ananda Everingham, this too was part of what was being unveiled that morning. His new project, a film that he will be producing, Lee Chatametikool's film, the name has been changed from Past Love to Concrete Clouds and will be starring Ananda and Jane, the film will also be produced by iconic filmmaker Sylvia Chang, Thai producer Soros Sukhum and Electric Eel. Lee is P'Joei's frequent editor (also award winning editor having won best editor at the AFA twice) but this will be his directorial debut. I am bit excited (an understatement really, very excited). The movie will be set in 1985 and 1997, the earlier years as flashbacks and the present in 1997, the height of the economic meltdown in Thailand where a tragedy brings back the hero from NYC to deal with "home", and what he left. Lee is particularly poignant when speaking about monuments which are what these characters search for, monuments of their youth which might or might not be there anymore. All the while he searches and goes back to find that the monuments are faded and like the big empty abandonded skeletons of bangkok, they are empty. This echoes the writer/director's own experience as he returned home to these stark lonely buildings resembling concrete clouds. The hero's story is mimicked by his younger brother, 18 years old and discovering things for himself, building his own monuments. I do like the title, it captures the slow heart break as well as the physical and economic reality of that time, these concrete clouds.

P'Joei and Lee with legendarly filmmaker Yonfan

Film festivals, fashion weeks and art fairs have in common many elements, hard work being one but there are also the parties to lok forward to. The Japan party was sweet but my favourite was the Hollywood Reporter dinner at a stall on the street just off Stanley. Street food a la Hollywood. So cute.

Kay, P'Juke, Yuni and friend

It was also fun that Jane decided to join us (she will be co-starring in Concrete Clouds), straight off the plane with her giant silver Rimowa case that the lucky chap she was with wheeled up and down the hill. It was HK after all.

Jane and I

Jane, Lee and I

We went to Lily and Bloom for Penicillen cocktails and corn bread and a surprise meeting with Ivan Pun whom I seem to bump into everywhere. HK works well like that, surprise encounters, all very transient, always fun. My last night was about intoxication vs my first, a catch up with Dee Poon who took me to Kiku where I had a special Kiku roll that knocked the socks off Honmono in Bkk (and tripled my cholesterol leval for sure, it was all uni, toro and egg) and then to get my ears candled. Strange strange way to spend a Sunday night but after all it is HK and for such a straight place, it always has its way of surprising, in a good way.

798 Art Zone, Beijing

Low and behold, there is a cool contemporary side to Beijing . . . this was confirmed by a visit to the 798 Art Zone. I was not quite sure what to expect. Stephie warned me that it is not like Chelsea in NY nor the Design District of Miami and has become very commercial. It was exactly that, a lovely commercial art district with numerous galleries, an industrial complex of ex-factories, Soviet built, Chinese run, a sturdy compound of bricks, pipes and unmistakably sturdy interiors. That was cool.

red dinosaurs by resident artist

The scene stealer and highlight was the Ullens Contemporary Centre for Contemporary Art.

The Ullens are big collectors, I was only familiar with their name being associated to a beautiful sailboat that was in Venice at the Biennale last year and also recognised them to be big big patrons of art, the biggest collectors of Chinese art nonetheless. Their art centre was well worth the trip, the head curator there is none other than Jerome Sans and for me, he managed to strike a great balance between slightly low brow hype which is very accessible to the young fickle generation, something a bit in between, and then last but not least one of the most substantial and holistic solo shows I have seen in a long time. He then managed to make all these shows sit together and work together. In truth, I know very little about Chinese art, sure I am familiar with the masters like Cai Quigong and the new guard comprised of Cao Fei and Yang Fudong, that is quite limited so getting thrown in deep at 798 and particularly at the UCCA was a great introduction.

First room by Yang Yong titled Lightscape reminded me of what Urs Fischer did for PPR last year in Venice, cool, fun, lights with pics of fashion, fast life, luxury. Good looking hype that touches upon and comments on the new generation of materialist superficial chinese (the world) obsessed with gloss. It was definitely good looking but too disposable and trendy for my taste, which was probably the point!

The next was room was interesting and guest curated by Rong Rong, Qui and Ren Hang's Inner Ear. Contrasting 2 photographers one from the rural contryside showing rural Chinese life, the other a Beijing hipster who explores eroticism and urban life. The contrast was great . . . on their own they might too fashion-like where you have young photoraphers referencing Araki or Cartier-Bresson but put in this context of modern China and placed next to each other it had weight and relvance.

The next room was interesting, another contemporary Chinese master, Ling Jian's Moon in Glass. Beautiful chinese women in mirrors reflected off mirrors. I liked it, though it feels pop-like the theme was interesting and that whole Dorian Gray thing going on, reflections, moonlight, highlights. . .tears and smiles . . . things not as they seem.

Last but not the least, a show commissioned by Jerome Sans and designed specifically for the Centre by Liu Xiaodong, called Hometown Boy. The museum officer did good to force me to enter the right way as it was truly a journey. The show is by one of the most prolific of Chinese contemproary artists. I did not realise this till much later. What I did realise and appreciate from early on was his thought process and his sincerity. The fact the as an artist he acknowledges the conflict between expressing himself as an artist and being a professional artist how the paradox exists. The show was about his homecoming. After 30 years, he decided to go home, a rural China which is far removed from the fast life of Beijing and everywhere else he presides as a very famous individual in the art community. He wanted to go back to capture moments, his past and what to him is a China which is disappearing.

The way the show started with extensive diary entries and pics, from the initiation of the project and his talks with Jerome Sans to the end. We are invited to go with him through time, it was like reading his script for Hometown Boy.

In a way it was a script, as for him as a painter, he painted throughout his friends and family iconic Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien godfather of Taiwanese indemependent cinema and a prolific filmmaker documented the process. There are layers and we were invited to join the show and become an audience before the "show" (film) even started.

It was walls after walls of sincere anecdotes, pictures, and thoughts. One reaches the last picture, the last day at home where Liu is pictured with his parents, their dog and contemplates preparing to grow old in the way that his parents have.

We then see character studies where he draws his friends in a in few phrases comments on their qualities, their uniqueness. It was lovely.

The black walls then open up to vast space with high ceilings, the "script" becomes paintings.

Liu captures a moment in time, freezing it forever but having shown us the story before. What was refreshing was that the paintings were beautiful, classical in composition, modern in technique and contemporary in its feeling. He has a cute voice, sensitive and but cheeky and not for a moment condescending. It felt the whole way that he was in touch, there is a sadness but an appreciation. Not for a second does the nostalgia feel forced.

Home, 2010

Next, the documentary . . . by this point, in my mind I had accepted that Liu is able to use different mediums to create his own world, perhaps what Jerome Sans says is true, he approaches art as a filmmaker, yet, he is a painter, that is what he does, he has left the filmmaking to a filmmaker. I love that this is possible, he admits that as a painter he captures a single dimension, one angle but in cinema, you can capture almost all.

My Egypt, 2010

Until that day I had not heard of Hou Hsiao-Hsien, I did not know how famous he was or what he had done, what I did know was that the documentary I watched felt like he captured not only what Liu talked painted but real life. It was that other dimension that Liu mentioned at the beginning of hte film. It felt seamless. I really loved how the paintings literally came to life and you see the longing, the sadness, the hope, quite simply a glimpse into the daily lives of a group of people dear to the artist, of whom he believes will be left behind as China's past as the country goes through speedy urbanisation. The music used to accompany the story was classical . . .fitting, as it gave it a certain grandeur, the dialogue natural and I liked the faded tinted shots that were interspersed throughout to give it a feeling of a fading world, but a valuable one at least for the artist. It was hard to believe that in some parts that the documentary was made last year and not 50 years ago.

What then happened to me was that the documentary made me go back to"watch" the paintings again, at least now that I know who some of the people are more. The oil on canvas becoming more than just paintings but life, captured in time.

The UCCA was not all, the Zone, like all of Beijing is large - what I was curious to see was some of the big galleries with the blue chip work. There were other smaller galleries around the palce but they felt derivative and I guess a bit commercial.

Originality Square

I liked Faurschou Gallery that had an exhibition curated by Jeffrey Deitch with 3 big American artists paying tribute to the BIG American painting. David Salle, the late Robert Rauchenberg and Micahel Belvilacqua.

Next was Continua Gallery, a cheeky show by Nedko Solokov.

All in all the fact that it exists, 798 is evidence of a market for art that exists and an indication that truly, this is just the beginning. For such a tightly controlled country, the fact that this market should be able to exist, let alone grow sheds light on Chinese pragmatism (Stephanie's theory but she has her whole team at HSBC in corporate banker is only none Chinese person there). They are able to see that the "market" for Art is big and not only that but a very lucrative one. It is also those weird markets that have very little relation to reality and a piece of work can be priced just so because the people who drive market say so. So if one is pragmatic then will realise that if he can create then control and drive the market, he will be rewarded. Unfortunately what this has also created is very commercial hype, the recession a few years back highlighted the real deal and the derivatives so at least there is some balance. On the other hand, one can see it as the country actively investing to improve and develop, to own for themselves these fragments of frozen time if one believes that art captures certain moments it time, it freezes it, there is value in itself..

Liu raises this point about art for the community and the art market, the value of art in itself and the monetary value. In Hometown Boy, he is painting his old friends and family, he is a professional artist and those paintings are worth something in the market. He explained that he did not want to "use" his friends and his home as he is a professional artist, he raises this paradox between art and the art market. He then goes on to explain that his friends do not feel this way, that they are being used for commercial gain that hey are happy to contribute, to spend time with HIM even if it meant sitting for him. They are removed from the art market and to them, Liu's art means that he is working, happy and they get to spend time with him. I wonder if life in China, despite its hardships and poverty can continue to be so simple.

Many questions . . . not many answers, was completely inspired by what I saw.

My introduction to this side of Beijing would be further explored that night at the Prada show where the new Beijing would come out in full force.