Ahead of Rain Room's Asia debut at Shanghai’s Yuz Museum this week, publicity about the immersive installation by the UK-based collective Random International had deluged the city. Bus stops, videos in taxis, magazine covers and spreads depicting the indoor downpour had been building anticipation for months. The opening day on 1 September attracted near-capacity crowds of around 1,000 visitors to the private museum founded by Budi Tek. Ashok Adiceam, the Yuz Foundation's director, anticipates attendance of up to 200,000 visitors during the installation's four-month run.
The largest Rain Room to-date at almost 150 sq. m, it occupies half of the museum's main hall in the converted aircraft hanger. The other half is filled by visitors standing in line to enter. Visitors are restricted to 18 at a time and tickets are timed. Selfie sticks are banned.
“The work changes based on the context,” says Hannes Koch, who was in Shanghai with his Rain Room co-creator and Random International co-founder Florian Ortkrass. “It is super interesting how they will perceive it here. Shanghai has water [but] there’s a question of how it’s treated, and its cleanliness.” Koch adds that China also offers an additional subtext to Rain Room: “It actually is a surveillance machine, that reads you and your presence."
At the press conference the curator Klaus Biesenbach, who brought the Rain Room to Manhattan for an exhibition organised by MoMA PS1 in 2012, said: “Rain Room has to be understood as serious—it is not a fun house, it is a paradigm of fragility.” However, it shows in Shanghai at a time when public-friendly exhibitions are on the rise. Last year’s Yayoi Kusama exhibition at Shanghai MoCA and Monet's at chi K11 art space were popular hits. Though Rain Room entrance tickets cost 150 RMB ($24), which is unusually high for China, group and other discounts are offered and free tickets have been given to schools and other groups, including the elderly.
Meanwhile, an imitation Rain Show opened in Shanghai on 28 August, the day before the VIP opening of the real Rain Room. Boasting imprecise sensors and gaudy colours, Rain Show is part of Vogue China’s Fashion Night Out (until 6 September).
“Outrageously, it is Vogue-sponsored, and they used images from Rain Room at MoMA to promote it,” Koch says. He calls Rain Show "the shittiest copy ever, it’s just slapstick” but does not think it can be stopped. "You just have to work with knock-offs in China. That does not go for the rest of the world, I would get very upset if someone did this in the US."