SHANGHAI.- ShContemporary, Asia’s most dynamic and international contemporary art fair, will launch its third edition on September 9, 2009 with a new artistic direction and initiatives to engage with emerging collectors from the region. A unique curatorial team consisting of Wang Jianwei, Mami Kataoka, and Anton Vidokle is working with Fair Director Colin Chinnery to give ShContemporary09 an experimental and daring artistic vision.

ShContemporary09 is organised around three major areas:

Best of Galleries, ShContemporary’s unique selection of invited top Asian and International galleries

PLATFORM, ShContemporary’s new section focused on emerging artists and on art work produced in the last two years

DISCOVERIES - This year’s theme: Discovering Contemporary

The Exhibition, a special curated exhibition to showcase works by some of the most significant artists who emerged from Asia during the past two decades as well as some of the most promising emerging artists: Marina Abramovic, Aiko Miyanaga, Heman Chong, Feng Mengbo, Fiona Tan, Jun Yang, Liu Wei, Joseph Kosuth, Li Yongbin, Susan Norrie, Shi Qing, Martha Rosler, Sanggil Kim, Shinji Ohmaki, Takahiro Iwasaki, Teppei Kaneuji, Xu Zhen, Young-whan Bae, Zhang Hui.

The Forum, organized by Anton Vidokle, where international experts will debate around the question “What is precisely Contemporary Art”?

The conferences will be structured as a series of short lectures and panels animated by international professionals among others Hu Fang (artistic director of the art gallery Vitamin Creative Space), Boris Groys (philosopher and essayist), Raqs Media Collective (a group of media practitioners), Carol Yinghua Lu (vice editor-in-chief of Contemporary Art & Investment), Jan Verwoert (art critic), Hal Foster (professor at the Priceton University), Martha Rosler (artist), Gao Shiming (professor at the Department of Criticism and Executive Director of the Center of Visual Culural Research in Huangzhou), Hans Ulrich Obrist (curator and art critic, co-director at the Serpentine Gallery in London), Jörge Heiser (art critic), Dieter Roelstraete (curator at the Antwerp Museum of contemporary art), Cuauhtémoc Medina (art critic, curator and historian).

On September 10th collectors will have the opportunity to join the official launch of ShContemporary’s newly announced Asia Pacific Collectors’ Development Program: a special programme that actively reaches out to potential and emerging collectors by working in partnership with institutions that have direct access to this sector of China’s growing economy.