Rockbund Art Museum 上海外滩美术馆

In 2024, Shanghai Rockbund Art Museum is proudly launching a new long-term project, the Semi-Permanent Occupy Initiative, which invites the most creative minds of our time to offer alternative definitions of museum spaces traditionally seen as marginal. The museum commissioned a mural from Swiss artist Claudia Comte titled There Was No Up, There Was No Down, There Was No Side To Side (2024), occupying the wall of the whole staircase of the museum from the first to the fifth floor, and eventually stretching its body into the west hall on the first and second floor.

Growing up in the forests of the Jura mountains in Switzerland, Claudia Comte has been exploring the complex expressions in rendering nature. Her paintings and sculptures are inspired by organic patterns such as waves, sonar, cacti, and strata, and often manifest as large-scale outdoor installations that respond to their surroundings. There Was No Up, There Was No Down, There Was No Side To Side is the largest staircase project Claudia Comte has made to date, in which she introduced the pattern "bloom" for the first time. The building that houses the Rockbund Art Museum was built in 1933, one of China's first natural history museums. Inspired by this history, Comte transformed and abstracted, through digital means, a series of 18th-century scientific graphics of jellyfish into 10 groups of multi-sized "bloom" patterns that swim across the five floors of the museum.

Influenced by Op Art, Claudia Comte's works are characterised by precise geometric compositions and repetitive patterns, creating striking visual effects that challenge the viewers' perception. By incorporating optical and illusive manipulations, There Was No Up, There Was No Down, There Was No Side To Side skilfully combines traditional mural techniques with modern technology to form a full-angel mural sensation that drives audiences into the history and memory of marine life. Semi-Permanent Occupy Initiative offers an immersive experience for the audiences to lose their orientation in Comte's world and reach a perceptual environment beyond the boundaries of space and time.

上海外滩美术馆在2024年启动的全新长期项目“半永久占领计划”旨在利用美术馆的“边缘地带”作为出发点，委约当下最有创造力的艺术家重新定义这些空间。项目的首期委约了瑞士艺术家克劳蒂亚·孔德（Claudia Comte）为美术馆的楼梯空间创作了题为《没有上，没有下，也没有左右》的壁画作品。该作品从一楼延伸至五楼，覆盖整个楼梯空间，并扩展至一楼和二楼的西厅空间。

克劳蒂亚·孔德在瑞士汝拉山脉的森林中长大，一直围绕“自然”的多重表现形式展开创作和探索。她的绘画和雕塑作品受到了如波浪、声纳、仙人掌和岩层等有机图案的启发，通常以大尺度和户外装置为主要表现形式，直接和周围环境发生关系。《没有上，没有下，也没有左右》是迄今为止克劳蒂亚·孔德所创作过的最大的楼梯间项目，也是她第一次在作品中引入艺术家称为“bloom”的图纹。上海外滩美术馆所处的大楼建于1933年，曾是中国最早的自然历史博物馆之一。受这段历史启发，克劳蒂亚·孔德将创作聚焦在了一系列18世纪的水母科学绘画。通过一系列的数字转化、抽象化，10组不同尺寸的“bloom”图纹以崭新的表现形式游走在美术馆的5层空间。
受欧普艺术的影响，克劳蒂亚·孔德的作品以精确的几何构图和重复的图案为特色，创造出引人注目的视觉效果，挑战观者的感知。《没有上，没有下，也没有左右》中融入光学效果和幻觉，巧妙地结合了传统壁画技巧和现代技术，通过360度巨幅壁画的形式深入探索海洋生物形态的历史与记忆。这个“半永久占领项目”是一场沉浸式的感官体验。在艺术家创作的楼梯空间中，观众或许会暂时迷失方向，进入超脱时空界限的感知。

受欧普艺术的影响，克劳蒂亚·孔德的作品以精确的几何构图和重复的图案为特色，创造出引人注目的视觉效果，挑战观者的感知。《没有上，没有下，也没有左右》中融入光学效果和幻觉，巧妙地结合了传统壁画技巧和现代技术，通过360度巨幅壁画的形式深入探索海洋生物形态的历史与记忆。这个“半永久占领项目”是一场沉浸式的感官体验。在艺术家创作的楼梯空间中，观众或许会暂时迷失方向，进入超脱时空界限的感知。