Jola took some pictures of the occasion, which she assembled on a collage. You can come to Projection 216 to see Jola’s exhibition for the next few weeks. Look out later this week for pictures and video of Jenny’s latest collection.

Projection 216 Room 216, Building 3, Lane 210
Taikang Road, Shanghai, PRC
泰康 路210弄 3 号楼216 室 Tel: 021-54656616

Jola Kudela is a photographic artist based in Paris. This is her first exhibition in Shanghai. This is her bio:

“if loneliness has its God, Jola Kudela must be one of His high priests”

Jola Kudela, an international artist born in Poland, has been living and working in Paris, which became the main focal point for her works and international projects coming from India, Luxembourg, Canada or Tunisia. The precursor of neo-photography, active graphic and motion-designer, animated film director, book-illustrator, special visual effects creator for the needs of film and television. She joins the techniques not a long time ago considered as classical with the latest achievements of technology and digital image processing.

The areas to which one can categorize her know no boundaries, what she offers to the contemporary public falls outside any explicit categorization or trends. Her works never stop astonishing the public and with her artistic ideas being an inherent part of ultra-modern image of art she can truly amaze.

Loneliness in a behemoth city as well as confusion characteristic of the relationship between man and woman, the everlasting desire to experience closeness, becoming a unity, which seems to be impossible as we are limited by anxiety seem to be the main subject themes of her works. The present oscillates between constant pain and temporary refuge sought in amusement. This is the world her heroes live in – exposed to us, scared, helpless and yet, invariably heroic. Jola Kudela reminds us of a contemporary shaman leading both the characters she creates and us – the public – sneaking up into some “paper” world, the magic moments where between the sunrise and the sunset of art, every day, at some point, we may perceive both painful beauty and the everlasting truth about human existence. Petrifying and tempting , she can never be indifferent to us.

Her commitment to various dimensions and genres (from the well-known high-budget commercial productions (Tim Burton – NINE), and global projects creating new photography trends (NEO-PHOTO, IDN – Hong Kong), individual graphic art exhibitions (METROPOLIS, Paris), awarded digital cycles , panoramic photo collages (THIS IS MY HOME NOW), to street art dealing with the icons of modern pop culture ( ART MAKES YOU FREE).

Jenny will also be showcasing her new collection and designs from Eva, DK and Emma. We’re looking forward to another great party at Projection 216. Get in touch with Jenny if you want to get an invitation. Jenny has printed some great invitations, which you can see at the top of the post.

Venue: Projection 216, Room 216, Building 3, Lane 210, Taikang Road, Shanghai, PRC
泰康 路210弄 3, 号楼216 室
Tel: 021-54656616

Date and time: Sunday 15th June, 7 pm

Denmark’s Mais Uma have been performing some shows at Shanghai’s JZ Club (46 Fuxing Xi Lu) since April 13th, which ends tomorrow night (April 29th). The video above shows Mais Uma at JZ last night performing Tao Feliz (So Happy). The song is taken from their excellent album ‘Caminho Do Norte’.

We have not been big fans of Latin jazz, because we find it too loose and frothy. However, Mais Uma performed two excellent sets of Brazilian jazz last night, which has forced us to reconsider. Jenny summed up everything she liked about them. Carsten was quiet and sensitive on the piano. Morten’s bass sound was very open. Janus was wild on the drums. Pelle was a bit mysterious on the sax and flute. The musicians had their own personalities, but gelled together as a team. We were really impressed with Mai’s vocals. She sang with a lot of emotion, but she still sounded tight and controlled like another musical instrument that tied everything together.

We liked the way Mais Uma made an old genre fresh and new, although they started to sound a little laboured by the middle of the third set. Maybe we were also a little jaded by this time.

Anyway, two enjoyable jazz shows in one weekend is challenging my preconception that Shanghai jazz shows are conservative and predictable. I should also take another look at Latin and Brazilian jazz instead of dismissing them as glibly as I have in the past.

Links: Mais Uma’s Website, JZ, Singing in the Chen

Wu Man is known to The Kronos Quartet as”The Princess of the Pipa”. She came on the stage after two songs to give the music a feminine Chinese flavour. “Ambush” is an adaptation of an old Chinese war song about soldiers circling around the King to protect him from attack. The tension between Wu Man’s screechy pipa playing and TKQ’s powerful riffing was really thrilling, but then the performance got all slow and noodley for half an hour until the interval. Half way through, I was quite disappointed, because the music was too intellectual like a studied fusion between experimental classical and traditional Chinese music. Don’t get me wrong. The Kronos Quartet are wonderful musicians who were always trying to blend new styles into a modern classical format, but there was something missing at points during the show last night. I felt the venue didn’t help, because it is too elegant and made the event seem serious and formal.

The second half was much more fun. Everyone changed into black and took new positions around the edge of the stage to perform Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera. This set was much more experimental and unpredicatable. The musicians did not just play string instruments. They used a variety of noises and sounds, including cymbals, screaming voices and even water. There were quiet moments and a lot of dissonance. This sounded much more like the mischievous avant-garde music that I had come here to listen to. By this stage, the theatre was less of a barrier between the audience and the musicians. The music had more life and that the performers were having a lot of fun, but it still lacked the passion and urgency that makes TKQ’s soundtrack to Requiem for a Dream so compelling.

If only the musicians had played the encore during the first hour of the show. Wu Man’s solo pipa playing was extraordinary. Then she left the stage and TKQ came on to perform an amplified version of Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze that could have blown away any rock band. The audience loved the noise and energy coming out of the chamber quartet, although two old ladies sitting in front looked horrified. I wish the whole show could have sounded so wild and reckless.

Sonic Youth are playing at the Shanghai Concert Hall in a few weeks time. I hope they get over the fact that they are playing in a venue designed for wealthy people to listen to music for corpses.

The building stands proudly at the corner of Huai-Hai Lu and Gao-an Lu, a few minutes walk from Hengshan Lu Metro Station. It is a beige, modern two tower structure that nods towards Shanghai and China’s past in a way that looks like a cross between a cathedral and Orwell’s ministry of truth. I am not quite sure if I like the exterior design, but it works by fitting in as a prominent, cultural landmark.

Inside the library is light and airy as a peaceful place to read a book or carry out some research. There is a reading room on the fourth floor for foreign publications and periodicals, but I was a little disappointed by its range of English language technology titles. The books they have, are rather old and they mostly seem to be about wireless communication protocols. The reading room does have a good range of newspapers and magazines, although the editions on display were at least a month old. The fourth floor has a few terminals linked to online journals, but overall you can easily find more relevant and upto date information on the Internet. I would still recommend the library as a good environment for study and reflection, but it is not without its limitations.

Here are a few things worth bearing in mind when you come to Shanghai Library.

1. Full membership gives you access to all the reading rooms and allows you to book out publications to take home. Full membership costs 60 RMB a year, but you also need to pay 1000 RMB deposit. Bring your passport as proof of identity.
2. Opening hours are from 9am to 8.30pm, Monday to Sunday. However, the reading rooms and the registration desk close at 5pm and 3.30pm respectively.
3. There is an Internet room (open until 8pm) on the ground floor that is only 2 RMB to use for 30 minutes. You have to give out your passport number and contact details. Libraries do not tolerate anonymous web surfing.
4. There is a coffee shop on the ground floor, but Casbah Coffee is across the road and that is the finest place for pizzas and sandwiches in Shanghai.
5. The library has an English language website (http://www.library.sh.cn/new-eng/), but it is poorly designed and very difficult to navigate. The search bar is absent from some pages and the online catalogue (i-PAC) is only available in Chinese.
6. Shanghai Library’s address is 1555 Huai-Hai Lu (on the corner of Gao-an Lu), Tel:021-64455555
   Chinese address: 地址：上海市淮海中路1555号, 邮编：200031, 电话：021-64455555转各分机, 传真：021-64455001

Welcome back to Catshanghai.

Sorry it’s been a while. I’ve been busy.

Here are the show notes:

Culture: Interview with Jenny about Shanghai fashion

Arts: Album reviews: ‘Orkestar 2′ by Beirut, ‘Radiodread’ by Easy All Stars

Film reviews: Red Violin, Titus

Technology: Mojopac (www.mojopac.com) Logitech 350 USB headset-mic, open source content management systems

Shanghai life: Crazy traffic

Host: Shanghaimat

Culture: The Matthew Barney Restraint #9 video at the Shanghai Biennale

Arts: CD reviews: ‘Espers 2′ by Espers, ‘On Leaving’ by Nina Nastasia, ‘The Letting Go’ by Bonnie Prince Billie

Film reviews: The Wicker Man (original version), Naked

Technology: TuneTalk Stereo mic for 5G Ipod Video, Portable apps (www.portableapps.com)

Shanghai life: Hongsen Forest Park, dealing with street vendors

Blog: http://catshanghai.blogspot.com/

Direct download: catshanghai1.mp3

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