The inaugural edition of the Shanghai Project will launch on September 4, 2016, and take place over the duration of eleven months, ending in July 2017.[3]
Taking "Envision 2116" as its theme, the festival gathering—from China and abroad—"artists, filmmakers, performers, musicians, designers, architects, writers (including journalists, bloggers, science fiction novelists, and poets), philosophers, historians, scientists, economists, geographers, sociologists, anthropologists, doctors, lawyers, engineers, hackers, and activists, all of whom will be dubbed 'researchers'",[4] and the people of Shanghai to think, discuss, relate, and act on the sustainability of the humankind's futures in the 22nd century".
Phase one of the first edition includes exhibitions, gatherings, screenings, talks, workshops, an open call, a commissioned architectural pavilion, and public art installations across sites in Shanghai, as well as the annual International Biennial Association Conference in collaboration with the Power Station of Art from September 3–4, 2016.[5]
Researchers of this phase included: Xu Bing,[6] Jenova Chen, Otobong Nkanga, Douglas Coupland, Liam Gillick, Liu Yi, Sou Fujimoto, and Cildo Meireles, etc.[7]
The Shanghai Project invited Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto[8] to design and construct a pavilion, titled "Envision Pavilion" and situated besides the Arata Isozaki-designed Shanghai Himalayas Center, to house various cultural activities and amenities.
The Shanghai Project's exhibitions program creates multiple narratives in response to the theme of "Envision 2116", through an open and flexible configuration of multi-media installations, taking place at different venues across Shanghai.[9]
The Shanghai Project's public program includes a wide range of public activities, including performances, film and video screenings, discursive programs and participatory events. Notable ones include "Community Participation Program," a series of neighborhood events intended to open a dialogue between the city of Shanghai and its residents that launched on July 15, 2016, joint programs with Jifeng Bookstore and Shanghai Flaneur, as well as a children's program located in Century Park.
"Qidian," which loosely translates into "starting point", is an nationwide open call designed to tap into the talent and interests of China's new generation, which is based on the long-term international project "89plus" (co-curated by Simon Castets and Hans Ulrich Obrist in collaboration with Katherine Dionysius).