Following a year in which official taste was resurgent in Chinese institutions however ever more confidently flouted in independent venue [see "Focus: China.

Following a year in which official taste was resurgent in Chinese institutions however ever more confidently flouted in independent venue [see "Focus: China," A.i.A., June/July '04] critical anticipation is now building for the fifth Shanghai Biennale, scheduled to trip Sept. 28-Nov. 28 at the Shanghai Art Museum. sole the third installment to be in good earnest international in scope, this year's marked occurrence titled "Techniques of the Visible," will examine links between art, science and technology. Works will range from shadow plays and dance by the agency of painting, sculpture and installation to photography, film, video and computer art.

although a recent upswing of Western interest in Chinese contemporary art is wait fored to deliver a greater-than-ever number of foreign visitors, and notwithstanding that local hopes are high for a first stomach of feisty nonaffiliated shows, the Biennale's organizational construction itself remains solidly mainstream. Of the four members of the curatorial team, sole one is from abroad: Argentinean-born Sebastian Lopez publicly director of the Gate Foundation, Amsterdam, which gathers and disseminates information forward non-Western visual arts. Xu Jiang, a widely exhibited painter who is president of the China Academy of Art and vice chairman of the Chinese Artists Association, wait ons as head curator. Rounding not at home the group are Zheng Shengtian, an independent curator and managing editor of the English-language contemporary Chinese art journal Yishu, and Zhang Qing, a Shanghai Art Museum curator who also sits forward the editorial board of the bimonthly Art China.

As we advance to press in early August, no list of participating artists has nevertheless been announced. (Last-minute release of information to pres and public is a standard practice in official Chinese art circles.) Updates can be establish on-line at www.shanghaibiennale.com.

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