Over a period of ten months, Van Parys travelled to the different corners of Shanghai, seeking the architectural landmarks that gloriously represent the city’s breakneck progress since China’s economic accelerations in the early 1990’s. Researching Shanghai’s urban development and architectural history, while living and experiencing the city, directed him towards a number of mysterious monuments, located on top of the metropolis’ skyscrapers. This installation—presented in Sala D'armi at the 2017 Venice Art Biennale— is the result of a selection of ‘monuments’ that truly represent the city’s history, present and future.

Theses reproductions of Shanghai's elevated structures are (re)presenting not only a different aesthetic perspective on Shanghai’s progress of the last decades, but they also illustrate that apart from the traditional monument’s purpose to represent the ritual, memory and identity of a (local) community, a Monument can

also be the image of progress.”

The final installation is now on show at Sala d'armi in the Arsenale at the 2017 Venice Art Biennale. 

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