Chanel at Power Station of Art — Next Cultural Producer Season 4: Collect (2026)

The Power Station of Art's third-floor Gabrielle Chanel Space hosted a text-and-art exhibition built around a circular shelf.

The venue

The Power Station of Art occupies a converted power plant on the Huangpu riverfront in Shanghai's Huangpu district, its tall turbine hall and concrete volumes now operating as a municipal contemporary art museum. The third-floor Gabrielle Chanel Space is a white gallery with timber detailing, normally given over to temporary exhibitions and long-run displays drawn from the museum's own programme.

How the space was used

For this season the gallery was rebuilt around a ring of open shelving. The outer band carried news reportage and fiction; the inner ring held 31 works spanning art, architecture, literature and film. Visitors moved in loops rather than a fixed sequence, stopping to read, turning back, and switching between text and object where the two zones met.

Why it works here

The museum already programmes cross-disciplinary exhibitions and public talks, so a season built on reading and conversation sits inside its normal rhythm. Its riverside cultural district draws audiences who expect long-form content rather than a quick visit, which suits a show asking people to stay, read and return.