Master Project

Emma Miao He

Sustainable Art in Developing Country: Trend or Trendy?


Swissline Booth View of Art021 Shanghai, Shanghai, 2021 ©Swissline

“Sustainable and Innovative art and related exhibitions have been a topic of great interest in China in recent years. During 2021, the author curated three exhibitions of very different scale and style in three cities in China: Guiyang, Chengdu and Shanghai , in collaboration with various institutions. The main artists of the exhibitions are Swiss artists Marco D’Anna and Bernard Garo with local Chinese artists. The exhibition concentrations fall under the general development theme of the Swiss Embassy in Bei jing: Smart & Sustainable. This paper will analyze the three exhibitions from the curatorial preparations to the on site exhibition conditions and audience reactions. They will be related to Western theories of the development of sustainable art to see if it is possible that the sustainable art can motivate the development of the art curating industry as a whole in developing countries. In addition, it will be questioned whether the development of sustainable art can truly act as the catalyst of the sustain able development in the society.”

Originally from China, Miao He first graduated with a Master’s degree in International Development at Cornell University in the US. After which she continued with MAS in Curating at ZHdK, which opened the door to the art world.

She currently lives in Kathmandu, Nepal with her husband where she is committed to promoting Nepalese art in the world. Before that, she worked in the culture section at the Swiss Embassy in Beijing where she had the opportunity to meet leading personalities in the Swiss-Chinese art world and planned important art events in Switzerland as well as in China.

Of particular note are the recent exhibitions she curated during MAS Curating program in Jiangsu, China with Swiss masterpieces and Art 021 Shanghai, China. Her impression of art is that it resides in every element, it is in the human being to be able to grasp its signals and interpret them with a creative lens. She is currently rediscovering her passion for photography, which had accompanied her in the past, culminating in solo and group exhibitions of Arabic portraits in Beijing and Dubai.