Gucci at Columbia Circle — Blooming Shanghai Art Open Call (2022)

Shanghai venues including Columbia Circle, Julu Road and Shaanxi Road hosted a citywide open-call art project in summer 2022.

The venue

Columbia Circle is a former industrial campus in Shanghai, adapted into a public complex of open spaces and buildings. For this project it operated alongside other city venues—Shaanxi Road, Julu Road, Jing'an Kerry Centre, Shamei Building and Xiansuo—so the setting was a network of streets, commercial interiors and heritage sites rather than one enclosed gallery.

How the space was used

During the project, these locations served as distributed display points for selected artworks and campaign materials. Posters, animations and works from the open call were placed in street-facing and interior settings, guiding viewers between sites. The experience was encountered while moving through the city, with public streets and building interiors forming the route rather than a single ticketed exhibition.

Why it works here

A citywide open call fits these locations because they are embedded in Shanghai's everyday circulation. Streets, commercial centres and adapted heritage buildings bring the work into contact with passers-by, and the spread of sites allows the project to reach different audiences without depending on one exhibition venue.