On November 14th, MATSU & Wu Xingguo –drama artist and actor performing the role of “Xu Xian” in “Green Snake” showed up in the first “Finance & Arts” show unveiled in the Shanghai Fosun Foundation Art Center, a masterpiece by the UK Pavilion designer Thomas Heatherwick.

A “Miracle of Bund Buildings” by UK Pavilion designer Thomas Heatherwick
With a construction area of 4,000 square meters, Shanghai Fosun Foundation Art Center is co-designed by British architectural design office Foster+Partners and Heatherwick Studio. Inspired by the traditional Chinese drama stage, the innovative three-layered independent and removable “tassel” curtain system endows the building a unique dynamic beauty. The inspiration of the building comes from both the classical and contemporary elements. The overall design creativity can be traced back to the stage of Chinese classical drama and the headdress of Chinese traditional wedding dress. That’s probably one of the reasons why “Finance and Arts Relativity” chose to debut in the form of drama on November 14. By integrating the building with the internal activity theme, a cultural carrier uniting the internal and external comes into being. The Future Arts Center will present a variety of rich and exciting art exhibitions, fashion publishing, cultural performing arts, summit forum and other activities.

Unique tassels vs. popular “Chinese bamboo”
In order to ensure the safety of these metal tassels, whether they can withstand strong winds becomes one of the design difficulties. The tassels are combined with the “bamboo” element. Black damping rings resembling the shape of bamboo combine the golden curtains by segment. These rings can greatly reduce the impact of strong winds and the possibility of sudden swings. Three different colors are used for the three layers of curtains. Four shades of red are also applied on the bottom button parts to create a layering effect looking from afar. For all three layers of curtains a total of 675 aluminum tubes in different lengths are used, the shortest being 2.1 meters and the longest 16 meters. As the diameter of aluminum tubes vary, the aluminum tubes will overlap when the curtains rotate showing a wide range of visual effects.

A show by Wu Xingguo, drama artist and actor performing the role of “Xu Xian” in “Green Snake”
On November 14, the first issue of Bund Financial Center Elite Salon “Finance and Arts Relativity” was presented at Fosun Foundation. This year marks the four hundredth anniversary of the death of Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare. As a guest speaker, Wu Xingguog gave a speech titled “Work out Accounts for Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu”, talking about what he was able to absorb from the works of Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu, maestros of art from the west and east. He also talked with Li Liheng, famous Taiwanese art critic. They talked about how to help with Shakespeare’s financial strategy and Tang Xianzu’s insurance planning. They shared with the audience differences and similarities of the ancients and people today in financial management, as well as financial fun facts and insurance needs within traditional western and eastern theaters.

About Wu Xingguo
Wu Xingguo, the actor who performed the role of “Xu Xian” in film Green Snake (also joined by Maggie Cheung), has brought out outstanding works in not only the well-known film arena, but also in Chinese opera and dance. Wu was once invited to perform in the American Metropolitan Opera together with Domingo, one of the Top Three Tenors of the World. He was also awarded the knighthood of the Order of Arts and Letters.

MATSU uses Ginko, Njord and Uni_verso seats colored in black, white and red – classical drama colors and BL modular building system to create an artistic atmosphere for communication.