Mengqi Zhu

About

Zhu Mengqi is a curator and designer with a passion for contemporary art and visual culture. She specialises in the role of public participation in contemporary art and community-based collaborative curation in the city.

Mengqi’s research interests explore the infrastructures of technology and society from a speculative perspective and the practice and reflection of exhibitions in public space and functional venues. Blurring the boundaries between art and life through flexible and versatile modalities, contemporary art can form sustainable development in communities and enlighten its publics. Such modalities are sustainable in the long term, incorporating changes in the needs of local communities, as well as mobility and autonomy between regions.

Scenario construction and fictionalization provides Mengqi with a powerful tool to challenge the conventional structure of the mainstream system, raising public consciousness, inviting critical and reflexive thinking about the existing social structure. Public participation is encouraged through the first-person perspective presentation of virtual scenarios that simultaneously works to reinforce the public’s individual identity as a member of a collective. Community-based curatorial models of participation in urban public spaces can be applied in different cultural contexts and settings concerning the issues and characteristics of the place. Simple curatorial situations are repeated and innovated in each practice, resulting in sustainable and diverse developments with a long-term impact on the public realm.