{"id":198927,"date":"2025-12-18T20:27:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T20:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/198927\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T20:27:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T20:27:13","slug":"chanel-and-power-station-of-art-launch-espace-gabrielle-chanel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/198927\/","title":{"rendered":"CHANEL and Power Station of Art Launch Espace Gabrielle Chanel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Power Station\u2019s third storey is now home to a multifaceted research and exchange platform.<\/p>\n

Shanghai\u2019s Power Station of Art (PSA) and CHANEL have launched Espace Gabrielle Chanel, a new multifaceted space that enhances the institution\u2019s capacity to create deeper engagements between artists and audiences. Espace Gabrielle Chanel holds China\u2019s first publicly accessible contemporary art library and archive for contemporary Chinese art (designed by Japanese architect Kazunari Sakamoto), and also features a theatre, exhibition space, design centre (Power Station of Design) and riverside terrace. The opening of the centre was marked by a new exhibition curated by Hou Hanru titled Home and Beyond, which reflects on the fluid, often precarious condition of \u2018home\u2019 in a world shaped by migration, displacement and rapid urban transformation, alongside a commissioned performance by Xiao Ke and Zi Han, All Possible Bodies AP91 (2025), using dance and video to explore the multiple facets that lie within constructing identities. Xiao Ke and Zi Han are Next Cultural Producers, a PSA and CHANEL Culture Fund open-call initiative that supports emerging artists and cultural innovators, as well as makers in craft, architecture and theatre.<\/p>\n

Launched in 2012, PSA is China\u2019s first public contemporary art museum, hosting the Shanghai Biennale and a series of regular exhibitions. The CHANEL Culture Fund was founded in 2021 to support arts partnerships internationally, and immediately began by partnering with PSA on the Next Cultural Producer programme. The Espace Gabrielle Chanel evolved from this collaboration, devised as a space to allow for further growth, experimentation and cross-cultural conversations.<\/p>\n

\"\"Gong Yan, Director, Power Station of Art. Courtesy PSA, Shanghai; Yana Peel, President, Arts, Culture & Heritage at CHANEL. \u00a9 CHANEL<\/p>\n

PSA\u2019s new space is the latest in a lineage of CHANEL\u2019s cultural partnerships that extend across the Asia region. \u201cPart of what we do is weave a web,\u201d Yana Peel, President, Arts, Culture & Heritage at CHANEL, tells ArtReview. \u201cIn Korea we have built an Idea Museum with Leeum Museum of Art. In Taiwan we support Camping Asia, a fluid knowledge-exchange programme around dance. In Hong Kong, with M+, we restore and promote avant-garde cinema. Across mainland China we have numerous projects in Beijing, Shanghai, Xining and Xiamen\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2025, there could be nothing more powerful than creating a civic space that celebrates human creation,\u201d continues Peel. \u201cThe Power Station already welcomes approximately 500,000 visitors a year; this space is built for them and for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peel\u2019s framing positions the Espace not as a standalone gesture but as part of a longer-term model of patronage, one that prioritises infrastructure, trust and locality over short-term visibility. Within this framework, institutional partners are encouraged to rethink how audiences encounter art as a lived civic experience rather than a discrete exhibition format.<\/p>\n

Gong Yan, Director of PSA, describes how the centre furthers the potential for what a museum can be now. \u201cAn exhibition today must become a meeting point \u2013 a place where like-minded people gather, discuss immediately and cocreate. That dialogue itself becomes part of the exhibition. The library lets us go deeper, connecting us with history and with other imaginative minds. The ultimate goal is to make the museum truly part of people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"River Lin, curator, Camping Asia festival. Courtesy PSA, Shanghai<\/p>\n

\"\"Direct by Xiao Ke and Zi Han, All Possible Bodies AP91 (2025). Courtesy PSA, Shanghai<\/p>\n

This emphasis on encounter and copresence echoes a broader commitment to enabling artists and institutions to operate within supportive ecosystems. Across CHANEL\u2019s cultural partnerships, the focus remains on creating conditions where experimentation and dialogue can unfold over time rather than in isolation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an ambitious project to create the first public library in China entirely dedicated to arts and culture,\u201d stated River Lin, curator of the Camping Asia festival, an event at the Taipei Performing Arts Center that is also supported by CHANEL. \u201cSeeing Xiao Ke and Zi Han\u2019s commissioned work presented for the reopening of the theatre and the launch of this space shows that PSA is willing to embrace fearless, cutting-edge practices that question identity and everyday politics. That means something very important to the artist community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alongside commissioning new work, the Espace Gabrielle Chanel embeds these practices within a wider infrastucture of learning and reference, where access to archives and shared histories plays a central role in sustaining artistic communities across generations.<\/p>\n

As Sunjung Kim, artistic director of the Art Sonje Center in Seoul and a long-term art partner of CHANEL, noted: \u201cThis space brings many possibilities for the audience. I was especially impressed by the Hou Hanru archive. It\u2019s important for young people to see how one of the most important curators of our time worked with artists. The library also becomes a great knowledge place for younger people to learn about everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Sunjung Kim, Artistic Director, Art Sonje Center, Seoul. Courtesy PSA, Shanghai<\/p>\n

The architectural and spatial design of the Espace Gabrielle Chanel reinforces this ambition to make cultural engagement collective and embodied, countering the increasing dematerialisation of knowledge in a digital age. Physical proximity \u2013 to books, images and other visitors \u2013 is treated as a catalyst for shared experience and exchange.<\/p>\n

The Espace\u2019s design involves large open spaces, with the library shelves integrated with a long ramp, creating an interactive and fluid environment. \u201cThe fluid passages where you look at books and at each other reminded me of a cinema experience \u2013 enjoying culture socially makes a huge difference in individualistic societies,\u201d said Silke Schmickl, CHANEL Senior Curator, Head of Moving Image at Hong Kong\u2019s M+ Museum. \u201cBrowsing a physical library is completely different from scrolling on a phone \u2013 you take an object, open it, it has smell and texture. It\u2019s quite extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

While supporting art initiatives and cultural partnerships internationally, the opening of the space marks a further engagement with institutions across Asia. \u201cCHANEL acts as a connector, linking institutions \u2013 large or small, public or private \u2013 that share the same values,\u201d PSA\u2019s Gong notes. \u201cIt provides a platform for cultural creators and managers to share trends and phenomena, offers multifaceted support and turns isolated islands into an archipelago where voices resonate and cocreation becomes possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Espace Gabrielle Chanel, Shanghai. Courtesy PSA, Shanghai<\/p>\n

\"\"Silke Schmickl, CHANEL Senior Curator, Head of Moving Image, M+ Museum, Hong Kong. Courtesy PSA, Shanghai<\/p>\n

\u201cCHANEL plays an important role as a mediator. Arts institutions in East Asia rarely collaborate, even within the same country,\u201d Lin adds. \u201cCHANEL takes time to build genuine partnerships and bridges those gaps, creating more opportunities for artists, not just for programmers, to be in dialogue with each other and with institutions. In many places in Southeast and Northeast Asia, public arts ecosystems are limited or nonexistent. When a globally recognised partner gets involved, artists finally feel seen and valued despite the lack of cultural infrastructure. Many artist-run collectives struggle with sustainability; this support gives them confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taken together, these perspectives articulate a model in which CHANEL operates as a connector, linking institutions across Asia into a network shaped by shared values rather than uniform outcomes. The Espace Gabrielle Chanel emerges as one node within this constellation, locally grounded yet in active dialogue with a wider transnational cultural landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are partner-led and deeply localised, creating the conditions for artists across disciplines to go further than they could alone,\u201d Peel describes. \u201cOur model is one of patronage: we work with the greatest cultural leaders, remain deeply localised and accelerate ideas that advance culture.\u201d Espace Gabrielle Chanel is now open as a resource for Shanghai\u2019s current and future audiences. \u201cThe goal is genuine exchange, knowledge-sharing and collaboration on a global scale,\u201d Peel adds. \u201cIt has been an organic, trust-based process \u2013 le temps CHANEL is very long, it flows like the Huangpu River.\u201d<\/p>\n

ArtReview<\/a>Partnership with Chanel Arts and Culture<\/a>December 18, 2025artreview.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Power Station\u2019s third storey is now home to a multifaceted research and exchange platform. Shanghai\u2019s Power Station…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-198927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}