From Bob Dylan to Zaha Hadid: how new artistic director Shai Baitel is shaking up the Modern Art Museum Shanghai

Lockdown affects us all in different ways. During New York’s first lockdown renowned art creative Shai Baitel, recently appointed artistic director of Modern Art Museum Shanghai (MAM), felt so starved of creative inspiration that he begged anyone he knew with access to an art gallery near his New York City home to let him visit – just him, socially distanced – just so he could get his artistic fillip.

‘Everything was shut down from mid-March and by mid-May I started calling friends of mine who were owners and directors of galleries, asking them just to open for me so I could go and see the art,’ he says. ‘No-one else was there and I would walk between the artwork and actually sniff the frames. I was so art-deprived I couldn’t believe it. I was walking around like someone kept away from the thing he needs the most. I needed it for my inspiration, my thinking process and my everyday new ideas.’

When Connecticut allowed museums to open ahead of New York, Baitel drove to the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield on the very first day, to visit an installation by Eva LeWitt which he describes as ‘fascinating.’

‘I was the happiest person ever,’ he says. ‘It was the same feeling as after an excellent workout. You are taking in something so powerful that it gives you hope and an optimism to move forward.’

It is safe to say that Baitel is an art obsessive. In spite of studying law and business, initially in Israel and then in the US, Baitel soon ditched his promising legal career for one in arts and culture.

‘I was brought up in a very artistic environment,’ he recalls. ‘As a family we were always studying music and theatre and going to art events, operas and concerts.’

Baitel graduated from Tel Aviv University with honours in Law and Modern History of the Middle East and moved to the US to work as a legal advisor at the United Nations in New York, but it wasn’t long before his artistic leanings begin to make themselves a priority.

‘I started my legal career but quickly realised it wasn’t as intellectual as I’d thought,’ he said, explaining: ‘It was far more technical and never satisfied me. So when I was working at the UN I was looking instead at how I could create art exhibitions in the phenomenal spaces there.’

Aside from his United Nations day job, Baitel found ways to bring artists into the iconic headquarters and curate exhibitions there, and from then it was a short step to pursing a creative career full time. He co-founded Mana Contemporary in New Jersey, now an internationally-recognised arts destination, spearheading collaborations with the likes of Jeff Koons, Marina Abramovic, Richard Serra and Whoopi Goldberg: she curated an exhibition on Marilyn Monroe at Mana in 2016, entitled Marilyn: Character not Image.

Baitel soon became known for his work conceiving large-scale productions incorporating visual content, performance art, theatre and technology. As he explains, it is not merely a way to stand out from the crowd.

‘Smartphones and other technologies have greatly impacted the way we tell stories and the way people consume them,’ he says. ‘People aren’t as patient anymore. In the past a visitor to a museum might spend an hour or two looking at the artwork, gazing at the details and reflecting on the images, whereas nowadays people are more likely to spend 20 or 25 minutes there and once they’ve taken pictures and posted them, their obligation to visit a museum has ended. They no longer go as deep as they used to: it’s less about the meaning and more about the optics.’

To remain true both to the artist and to the concept of a museum as a place of learning, means that museums have to find the right way to present the same art but in a more attractive way to new generations, believes Baitel.

‘We still want to teach the audience, not just about the visual aspect of an artwork but the background of the artist, the historic period they worked in, the social background, the economy of the time, the dialogue between artists in that area and so on, but the challenge has become greater,’ he says. ‘One way to do that is to add a layer of interest, something that will ‘trick’ the audience into spending more time there. I don’t want to use the word sugarcoat, but we certainly need to tell the story of the exhibition in a more compelling way.’

By way of example he cites a commission a few years ago to create art for a private event which included classical paintings for inspiration, one of them being Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus.

‘This powerful art work has so much energy behind it and so many meanings, and I was looking to break it down into the components, thinking ‘What if it was made today? How would it look like today?’ he says. ‘So I recruited actors and took them in front of a green screen and we dressed them exactly like the figures in the painting, moving from the classic artwork to a moving one, wanting to see how an artist today to look the possible recreation of such an iconic painting. That was a very interesting experience and what was even more interesting was to see audience looking at it and experiencing it.’

He might approach a similar commission ‘completely differently’ if he were to do it today, he says. ‘I’m continuously asking questions about classic painting – what would it be today? How it is different today?’ he says. ‘Story telling has not changed: there is always going to be a narrator, and there’s always going to be listeners and observers, but what is different is the way we chose the parameters, the language, the way we design the peak of the story and the fall. You can no longer expect our audience to pass by images hung on walls and assume they are having the experience we would like for them – it’s just not working anymore. But if we allow the audience to use their entire senses in a multi-sensory experience then we’re more likely to achieve with our audience what museums are meant to.’

Baitel’s first exhibition with the Modern Art Museum Shanghai (MAM), which focused on Bob Dylan’s life and work, was a case in point. Called Retrospectrum, the exhibition, which opened in September 2019, was designed as a journey encouraging the audience to jump on a virtual train – the same train that took Dylan from Minnesota to New York for his first professional performance at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village – revealing physical, artistic and inspirational landmarks in Dylan’s life.

The exhibition, which was seen by a quarter of a million people, was a critical and commercial success, later moving from Shanghai to Beijing, and will open at FIU (Florida International University) in Miami during Art Basel Miami Beach week at the start of December 2021.

‘It really gave visitors to an audience an insight into this iconic American artist through his own experiences and I think including the museum visitors in that journey, was what made it a success,’ says Baitel. ‘Dylan is such a phenomenal artist, who can speak to people through music, words, painting and sculpture. The success of Retrospectrum showed that art crosses every barrier, border and language and allows audiences of all background to enjoy the unique mixtures of words and tunes, colours and styles.’

It also led to Baitel being offered the inaugural Artistic Director position at the Modern Art Museum Shanghai, a position he took up in last November.

‘There were a lot of things that were attractive about this position to me,’ he says, ‘including leading a museum as an artistic director rather than a chief curator, but also the location. Coming from the West with my own experience and understanding, and then catering to an audience which is very advanced and sophisticated in terms of content consumption and their understanding of technology, I saw there were endless possibilities.’

The growing influence of Chinese culture on Western trends was also an appeal, to go right to the source: ‘Creative directors of fashion houses in Europe are nowadays first looking to their clientele in Asia, so in a way Chinese culture is dictating to the west,’ he says.

Baitel’s first show as artistic director at the Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai (MAM), Neo Golden Age, opened in November 2020 and featured British neo-pop artist Philip Colbert and Canadian street artist Trevor Andrew in the form of a ‘duo solo exhibition.’ Following their China debut exhibition Reset in 2018, the two artists use exaggerated and unconventional installations in Neo Golden Age, including an immersive art experience to depict pop culture and the consumerist world, and, says Baitel, ‘the show was an amazing success. We had more than 3,000 people attend in the opening weekend alone and I’m very pleased with how it went.’

Conceiving an international exhibition during Covid restrictions was a huge challenge, not least for Baitel who for the first time opened an exhibition remotely. ‘Like everything else it was challenging and involved a lot of video calls between myself and the artists and the local team in Shanghai and a lot more virtual planning than in person. But it was a great achievement to be able to hold such an exhibition of two such prominent contemporary Western artists.’

Neo Golden Age ran until April and Baitel is now about to open its latest exhibition, which features the architecture and artwork of the late British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid. Running from 3 July – 29 August 2021, ZHA Close Up will explore the ground-breaking projects created by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) over the past 40 years in a retrospective display of projects dating from 1982 to the present day.

The exhibition will have some of Baitel’s signature experiential elements including virtual reality pods which will allow the audience to immerse themselves in Hadid’s designs and inspirations. ‘We’re very excited about it,’ he says. ‘This is a way for us to show that the museum includes all part of art and design, not just visual art but music, theatre, architecture and fashion. Hadid was an exceptional woman, and we are delighted to show our audience the development of her movement as a researcher, designer, and architect through various geographies and histories.’

There’s also a personal connection as Baitel counted Hadid as a friend and last saw her just days before she unexpectedly died of a heart attack at the age of 65 in Miami while being treated for bronchitis.

‘It was shocking to me because she was the most gentle, clever, elegant, sophisticated lady and it was a shame to lose her at such a young age when she could have accomplished so much more,’ he says. ‘She achieved so much in her lifetime. Her projects were so complex and her designs had such movement with such a unique relationship between the design and the material. She was untraditional in every possible way and won every possible prize and accolade and deservedly so. She was one of the most brilliant architects of her time.’

Just bringing all the elements in the exhibition together was a major achievement, thanks not only Covid travel restrictions but also the blockage of the Suez Canal and a mid-Atlantic storm providing logistical hurdles. ‘The only certain thing is uncertainty,’ says Baitel, philosophically. Just to add to the challenge, Baitel is planning three simultaneous remote openings in Zaha Hadid buildings in London, New York and Miami alongside the official opening at Modern Art Museum Shanghai (MAM). ’We want to celebrate Zaha and her genius in places designed by her,’ he says.

Closer to home, and following his belief that art belongs to everyone, a whole range of institutions from museums, organisations and businesses often ask him to develop artistic concepts and collaborate on projects. One example of such an engagement is the fitness and lifestyle company Equinox, where he spearheaded the transformation of club areas into museum-like gallery spaces. During Covid he worked with renowned graffiti artist Crash – real name John Matos – on live, outdoor street art experiences in New York City to complement the outdoor gym concept, Equinox+ In The Wild.

‘Art plays a regular role in the lives of many Equinox members and so we wanted to incorporate art into these spaces too,’ he says. ‘It’s fascinating to see people react to the inclusion of art into places you wouldn’t think of. It’s all about bringing the street energy of New York City and the hip hop movement together with imagery of graffiti art, and music and dance – it’s a real New York City story.’

Baitel aspires to not only keep up with but also to help shape trends in the art world. A case in point are his preparations for a significant NFT – non-fungible token – art exhibition at Modern Art Museum Shanghai (MAM) featuring prominent artists who have embraced the movements, including Grimes (War Nymph), Beeple and Crypto Punks. A large exhibition of works by Grimes is expected for 2023, as are two concepts embracing public and publicly-accessible art. The Night Museum will feature projected art after sunset as well as a sculpture garden running along Modern Art Museum Shanghai (MAM)’s 1.5km promenade on the Huangpu River’s waterfront.

Regime change in the United States is always a turbulent time and arguably never more so than at the beginning of this year. While Baitel refrains from expressing any political views outright, he does add: ‘I think it’s a good thing that the regime changed here because it is bringing more hope, recovery and unity and a lot of things that are important to artists and the way they display and convey their message through their art.’

‘Art and artists flourish when the economy flourishes, when people are feeling more secure and optimistic and are ready to go back and explore and enjoy and consume art. I feel people are now feeling a little more uplifted and inspired.’

‘Artists are the mirror of what’s happening in every society and they continue to support or protest – we’ve seen a lot of this happening during the four years of the last administration,’ he adds. ’One thing for sure is that the dynamic and the unusual sequence of events has provided artists with rich layers of new events and sights and inspiration. There is going to be a lot of discussion and art has its own importance in every discussion, anywhere and everywhere. It has to be this way. This is the right way.’