Kaleidoscope Asia #4 - Simon Denny Takeover

“Technology, knowledge and a window to the external world.” This is Shenzhen, one of China’s instant mega-cities. Some call it the Silicon Valley of hardware, or a maker’s heaven. For New Zealand-born, Berlin-based artist Simon Denny, whose exhibition Real Mass Entrepreneurship is currently on view at OCAT Shenzhen, the city became the setting of an ambitious new body of work about the complexities of this ecosystem.

With the Simon Denny Takeover, a special edition that continues thr magazine’s tradition of guest-edited issues (inaugurated in 2016 by Sterling Ruby), we bring you a behind-the-scenes look at the artist’s creative process.

This hybrid object, somewhere in between a magazine issue, an artist book and a research report, features three extensive conversations between Denny and collaborator Mario Pfeifer, OCAT Shenzhen artistic director Venus Lau, and Chinese architect and urban planner Tat Lam.

In addition, several photo stories by Ilya Lipkin, Ann Woo and Issac Lam shed light on the multitude of people and locations involved in the making of this project—from the artist’s studio to the museum team, from the sculpture and painting workshops to the stalls of the world’s largest electronics market.

The issue is completed by exclusive footage from Denny’s new video and a series of case studies of his most representative projects to date, introducing the reader to an artist who has explored notions of innovation, neoliberalism, and entrepreneurship throughout an outstanding, decade-spanning career.