Cities on the Move

The Cities on the Move exhibition originated in 1990, when Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Hou Hanru both moved to Paris at the same time. An animated dialogue ensued between the two curators, during which Hou introduced Obrist to Chinese and Hong Kong art. Obrist's interest was stimulated, and he began exploring the Orient. Thus the Vienna Secession had no trouble whatsoever to get the duo interested in putting together an exhibition with an Asiatic theme.

A complicated world

OBRIST: Normally curators know what they're looking for, but our research was a complicated process. We never worked out a complete exhibition concept - it was only during our travels that the whole complexity of urban conditions started to dawn on us. As a result of this research it became clear that the theme of the exhibition would be the city and its dynamic variables. A city is never static, it never sleeps. Using these materials, we put together an exhibition that is in constant motion itself.

HOU: Our idea has also to do with globalisation. The role of the Pacific region is becoming more and more important globally, and we wanted to represent the explosive growth of the urban Asiatic areas. We wanted to examine the activity between art forms, that is, different people engaged in creative work, and a city is the best place for such research. We wanted not just to exhibit things, but to emphasise our view of the exhibition as some sort of laboratory. The exhibition is a kind of performance, touring different places: Vienna, Bourdeux, New York, Copenhagen, London, Helsinki. We try to create a different exhibition in each place, so it evolves constantly.

Global + local = glocal

OBRIST: Every time the exhibition arrives in a new place, it also gathers something from the local context. It is local and global simultaneously, because we want to show the dynamics between these two concepts. We also want to bring forth the internal currents of a city. In Japan they build enormous skyscrapers, reaching over a kilometre in height, but these cities are also more vulnerable than ever before to traffic and pollution. The exhibition does not exhibit a city - it is a city, and operates like one.

HOU: Wherever this city goes in its perpetual motion, it creates close connections with the local cultural life. We organise a lot of co-operation between the Asians, the Europeans working in Asia, and the local artists.

OBRIST: Many Asian students have been interested in architects such as Peter Cook and Cedric Price, who themselves have been impressed by the Japanese metropolis. In this way students have become teachers, and have had an indirect effect on numerous European architects.

HOU: The exchange between Asia and the so-called West is a current issue. Especially in architecture, signs of interaction can constantly be seen, as is signified by new urban planning, for example. This exchange is fascinating, and it has created a whole new generation of Europeans.

A meeting place for art

HOU: Even though we are emphasising the role of architecture as we talk, contemporary art plays a significant role in our exhibition. The relationship between contemporary art and urban conditions is very close. We have therefore invited along those artists who have dealt with this subject directly. On the other hand, the significance of Asian art is becoming increasingly more global. Many artists exist between Asia and Europe. Their work creates a kind of a bridge, connecting contemporary art to contemporary culture. We exhibit several artists who live in Europe, but who regularly travel to Asia, doing all sorts of projects all over the world. Occasionally, they also work with the architectural profession.

OBRIST: Towards the end of the Millennium, people are wanting to break down boundaries, but it is very hard to achieve an interdisciplinary quality. It is a popular subject at conferences and on panels, but there's never time to actually do anything about it. Cities on the Move is a moving inter-arts project, bringing together artists from various fields. Artists and architects have come up with a spontaneous method of cooperation within this constantly moving process. This is one of the basic ideas we wanted to realise. We can't examine visual culture as a narrow field, belonging only to artists or architects - it also contains the extensive genre of popular arts. This is what we're trying to show with our exhibition.

The audience makes art function

HOU: The audience has an important role to play in the exhibition, too. Many of the artists present artworks or projects that would not work without the audience's participation. It is therefore crucial to make the artist and the audience meet. We just try to create a venue for such a fusion.

OBRIST: The idea of fusion is related to the network quality of Cities on the Move. The exhibition consists of cells that interact with each other. But the exhibition extends its tentacles further, into the city around it. Thus the museum becomes part of the city. The city is within the museum, but the museum also spreads itself into the city. It is the function of the exhibition to show what the network makes possible. The museum no longer remains the absolute truth, but a relative truth, surrounded by other relative truths. This doesn't mean that the museum is any less important, it remains central.

HOU: Even a network has its junctions, so the museum becomes a place where the connections are emphasised. On the other hand, talking about a network also means talking about the network of cities. We have several net projects that exist within the exhibition, but actually happen all around the world. The links are not just mere external parts of the exhibition, they are also integrated into it.

Free interpretation
HOU: We also wanted to show that you can create significance in countless different ways. Instead of limiting the interpretation, we try to stimulate all possible ways of seeing, and to get the viewer to give his own significance to the works of art, drawing on his own experiences. The entire exhibition is an open system. An exhibition such as this is always a challenge to the institution, the curators, the artists, and the audience, even to the media. We want to create a living event in which the viewer can participate, and embark on an adventure into the unknown - we do not want to exhibit nice works and clever ideas. At the turn of the Millennium our culture will undergo an enormous mutation, and the outcome is so far unknown. There are so many possibilities and possible changes, and we are trying to be ready to face these changes.

An expression of resistance

OBRIST: One could compare the exhibition to a Russian matushka doll. Each part of the exhibition has something else concealed within it. Cities on the Move is a place where the audience is invited to discover exhibitions within an exhibition. We think it very important that the exhibition has many forms. I think it's awful to go to a museum with only one-way traffic, as if it were a ski slope. We are vehemently against guiding the audience like cattle through the exhibition. In that sense, Cities on the Move is an expression of resistance.

HOU: We are also against all forms of institutional security. Our culture easily latches on to security, so we are trying to promote something that is vital and unexpected, something that is open to all the different opportunities of the future. For example, insurances are an economical, not an intellectual issue.

OBRIST: We also oppose all kinds of check lists. Normally, the curator makes a list of objects and artists that he wants to exhibit. Then s/he spends the next two years getting everything on his list. This exhibition is definitely against the check list mentality.

Contemporary = western

HOU: Urban expansion is the motive force of the new economy on the global scale. We are talking about an entirely new way of conceiving the economy: the contrast between Europe and the rest of the world. Modernity is being redefined at the moment.

OBRIST: Modernisation does not mean westernisation. We try not to define the cliché of an Asian city, we try to praise contrast. Cities on the Move is also an educational exhibition, since it presents a part of the Japanese and Singapore architecture, dating from the 60s, which is mostly unknown to Europeans. It also presents a whole new generation of architects and urbanists who have organised themselves in the 90s. They have started an interesting dialogue, which no longer runs through London or New York.

HOU: In Asia there exists a network of artists, building their own institutions based on their own exchange programmes. We wanted to bring this phenomenon to the notice of international audiences, because this will be the global motive force of the next century.

Overcoming the crisis

OBRIST: Tuk tuk is a work of art that accurately represents the entire exhibition, which is like a road movie itself. The exhibition is very organic and changes constantly. These changes have not been planned beforehand, they just happen. We have gradually learned how to create an exhibition like this. It works best when we have the exhibition architect as part of our team. We wanted to build something completely different for Kiasma. We had invited Shigeru Ban, a young Japanese architect, to build a cardboard house for the Cities exhibition in London, and now we asked him to act as our exhibition architect in Helsinki. Shigeru Ban was a natural choice, because he has been strongly influenced by Alvar Aalto's work. As a matter of fact, he developed his cardboard houses after designing an Aalto exhibition in Finland. The economic difficulties in Asia have also influenced his work.

HOU: When we started planning the exhibition, the Asian economy looked bright. But then the crisis began, all of a sudden. Many people are desperate, but many others are working hard to come up with new solutions and survival tactics. We also wanted to present this view in the exhibition. There are artists who criticise imbalance, and architects who find more practical ways to survive the crisis. This creates a new way to consider urban life. Shigeru Ban is only one of many who put forward ecological means to survive a crisis. One of the central themes in his works is the Kobe earthquake, after which he designed an emergency house of cardboard for the homeless. Coming up with eccentric ideas is a typical reaction to a crisis, and a way to survive it. This view is also integral to Asian modernisation.

From periphery to a centre

OBRIST: Kiasma's central location in the heart of the city makes it an interesting venue from the exhibition's point of view. We hope that the building's architecture will provide an appropriate setting for the exhibition, since it contains both human and the contemporary aspects. The high tech facades of Steven Holl, alongside the humane design of the interior space, create a current that can be sensed throughout the exhibition. Cities on the Move will test how contradictory and harmonious an exhibition can be at the same time. A city on the periphery suddenly becomes a new centre.

HOU: Helsinki's status in Europe is in a way the same as Asia's status in the world. It is on the periphery, and has to constantly renegotiate its identity. Finnish and Asian thinking are therefore alike on some subconscious level, even though the cultures are totally different on the outside.