I found a story online about Guan Han Ji & Xiao Wang Qi, a shopkeepers couple from Nan Ting village.
(…) Xiao says before University City, they opened all day every day and had a busy pool hall on the 1st floor. Now she opens up 8am to midday and 5pm to 11pm. Afternoons are spent weeding a local farmer’s fields because she can earn more money that way. Similarly, Guan delivers gas cylinders throughout the village.(…)
Download a PDF with the whole story here.
Dutch artist Jeanne van Heeswijk:
“is a visual artist who creates contexts for interaction in public spaces. Her projects distinguish themselves through a strong social involvement. With her work van Heeswijk stimulates and develops cultural production and creates new public (meeting) spaces or remodels existing ones. To achieve this she often works closely with designers, architects, software developers, governments and citizens.”
One of those projects is “Shanghai Dreaming, Holding an Urban Golden Card“, made for the Shanghai Biennale in 2008.
This work is a great example of an approach to public art, that involves the local public, it is created through the input and participation of the public, it uses various media, she used local businesses, for instance a marketing company, to communicate the work. I like very much how through the collecting of stories, and transforming them into a visual, physical manifestation, some residents of Shanghai, just everyday ordinary citizens become visible. And through their stories, in fact, a story about the social impact of city life emerges.
An interview with the artist about this project can be seen here:
http://www.dmovies.net/shanghai7/index.html
Consider this an example of how you could think about creating the monument for Nan Ting.
Jeanne van Heeswijk’s website: http://www.jeanneworks.net
