Museum of Art Pudong opens to public

The new Museum of Art Pudong (MAP) in Shanghai opened to the public on July 8.

Designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel, the 13,000-square-meter museum in the heart of the Lujiazui area is set to become a new landmark in Shanghai's cultural scene as well as a platform for international exchange, according to Zhu Yaping, director of the new museum.

The museum's inaugural program consists of three major exhibitions - Light: Works from Tate's Collection, Joan Miro: Women, Birds, Stars, and Cai Guoqiang: Odyssey and Homecoming.

Tate Museum of the UK is the operations consultant and partner for MAP.

Neil McConnon, director of international partnerships at Tate, said: "The exhibition Light is the culmination of several years of collaboration with colleagues across Tate and the MAP. It is exciting to see this world-class institution being realized and demonstrates the importance and impact of international cultural and artistic exchange."

A special showcase of Ophelia by British artist Everett Millais is also taking place, featuring the painting as well as the immortal character in Shakespeare's play Hamlet and its cultural relevance during the time of its creation.

Odyssey and Homecoming features 119 of Cai's signature gunpowder works as well as his first VR work Sleepwalking in the Forbidden City.

Cai made multiple trips to the museum for the preparation of the show, and created a site-specific installation that extends more than 30 meters in the central hall of the museum. Titled Encounter with the Unknown, the kinetic light installation was inspired by the nature-based cosmology of the Mayan civilization and was a result of "a boy's fantasy for the space, with aliens, UFOs, and gravity-defying dreams", said the 64-year-old artist from Quanzhou of Fujian province.