The long-awaited opening of Sifang Art Museum in Nanjing has been announced, with an exhibition in “The Garden of Diversion” on 2nd November.  Under the curatorial direction of Belgian-born art historian, curator and critic Philippe Pirotte, the exhibition will consider the utopian tradition of philosophical gardens in China.

Arranged in a creative park around the museum will be works by  international contemporary artists including those commissioned specially from He An, Gabriel Lester and MadeIn Company / Xu Zhen and emerging Nanjing-based artist Li Jingxiong. Alongside these site-specific works, the exhibition will feature works on loan and from the permanent collection of the Sifang Art Museum by artists including Olafur Eliasson, Liang Wei, Yutaka Sone, Danh Vo, Duan Jianyu, Marlene Dumas, Kan Xuan, Anselm Kiefer, Mao Yan, Lucy Raven, Luc Tuymans, Yang Fudong, Zhang Enli, Zhou Chunya and Zhang Peili. Amongst the themes of the exhibition are the meaning of monuments and folly gardens, the body, hedonism and economies of experience.

The opening event will also feature the first viewing of work by award-winning architects including Steven Holl Architects (the designer of the Sifang Museum), Irata Isozaki, Wang Shu, David Adjaye, Ai Weiwei, Matti Sanaksenaho and others.