Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page A4_5

December 9, 2023

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Feature » Art and Culture

UCCA Edge: from unfinished commercial building to new art icon

By Wang Jie | 00:00 UTC+8 December 9, 2023 | Print Edition

UCCA Edge in Shanghai is almost a miracle.

It turned a once unfinished commercial building into a new art icon on the city map.

Sitting north of Suzhou Creek, the museum is less than a kilometer from People’s Square and directly above the Qufu Road Station of Metro Line 8 and 12.

The UCCA Center for Contemporary Art is China’s leading contemporary art institution. Founded in 2007 by Guy and Myriam Ullens as the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, UCCA later evolved into the UCCA Group in 2017, under the ownership and stewardship of a new group of patrons and shareholders.

UCCA Edge is its third museum following UCCA Beijing at the 798 Art District in 2007 and UCCA Dune lying beneath the sand in the seaside enclave of Aranya in Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province, in 2018, keeping with UCCA’s long-established mission to deepen lives and spark international dialogue through contemporary art.

Opened in May 2021, UCCA Edge occupies 5,500 square meters over three levels of the Edge tower in Shanghai’s Jing’an District. The museum includes 1,700 square meters of gallery space as well as a wrap-around outdoor terrace and public spaces that include a lobby and auditorium.

As an integral part of the UCCA constellation, UCCA Edge mounts exhibitions of leading Chinese and international artists — some developed exclusively for the Shanghai audience, some touring from other UCCA locations.

Architectural style

Housed in the 86-meter-tall Edge tower, the design of UCCA Edge is led by Jing Liu, co-founder of New York-based architecture and design firm SO-IL. Following previous projects by Wilmotte & Associés, OMA and Open Architecture, this collaboration with SO-IL marks the latest partnership between UCCA and an internationally acclaimed contemporary architectural team to bring an open, accessible, multidimensional and public-oriented museum to the Chinese audience.

The design of UCCA Edge breaks away from pre-existing building constraints, while embracing its metropolitan surroundings. The iconic UCCA logo wall that welcomes the public by the lobby escalators is immediately visible as an urban landmark.

Visitors’ journeys begin with an escalator ride at street level that leads directly to the museum lobby, where they are greeted by the reception area and ushered through a generous double-height space into the first galleries and suite of amenities.

Once visitors enter the galleries on this level, they can move seamlessly through all three levels of exhibition space before emerging onto a 360-degree terrace that offers views of Suzhou Creek below and the Shanghai skyline beyond.

Each floor includes both exhibition areas and functional spaces. Inside the museum, several double-height spaces call attention to vertical space and scale. Rooms are distinguished by acoustic plaster walls to optimize a comfortable viewing experience for visitors, while visual depth in public areas is enhanced by curved walls finished in reflective metallic.

The juxtaposition of materials is emphasized in the design throughout, not only for its esthetics but as a strategy to delineate the different kinds of spaces — exhibition, retail and public — within UCCA Edge. Spare and sharp, smooth and textured, light and dark — all are organically interwoven to create a pleasing and unconventional exhibition environment.

Café and restaurant

New Wave by Da Vittorio café represents a new generation of art museum coffee shop. It also hosts a bistro developed by the Michelin-starred team of Da Vittorio Shanghai.

Located on the third floor of the museum with a glasshouse terrace, its interior is designed by studio Linehouse to convey an artistic atmosphere through the collision, transition and reconstruction of different shapes and textures. Arched mirrors are installed in the restaurant to create a dramatic visual effect that adds depth and dimension to the space. Ceiling hangings made of special fabric are used to construct light and cloud-like layers. There is confrontation between contrasting textures and elements: soft and hard, smooth and coarse, orderly and disorderly, solid and transparent.

Apart from its regular coffee program, the café also provides customers with light food. Before and after a visit to the museum, art lovers can enjoy a selection of desserts, sandwiches and different flavors of gelato, with the offerings perfect for a light afternoon snack or a quick lunch.

Best-sellers at gift shop

A gift shop is situated at both the entrance and exit, presenting a diverse array of art derivatives. The product categories encompass fashion accessories and bags, home essentials, exhibition catalogs and more.

One of the highly sought-after products is the plush pendant of Paul Klee’s “The Words of the Wise Man.” The precisely crafted and charming design, coupled with its movable body, adds a playful dimension to the art.

Another popular item is Henri Matisse’s “Blue Nude Skipping Rope” embroidered canvas bag. This canvas bag draws inspiration from Matisse’s iconic masterpiece, skillfully capturing the dynamic energy through meticulous stitching.

Another best-seller is the much-loved exhibition catalog of “Modern Time: Masterpieces from the Collection of Museum Berggruen.”

UCCA Edge

Opening hours: 10am-7pm

Address: 2F, 88 Xizang Road N.

西藏北路88号2楼

Art and Culture


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend