Since its inauguration the Shanghai Biennale has repeatedly taken the city itself and its urban conditions as a starting point for its artistic explorations. In line with this inner logic, the curatorial team of the 2008 edition proposes to focus on one of the most import cornerstones of urban design: the public square which is a prime location of transfer, connection, connectivity, meeting, social and economical exchange.For this reason, twenty emerging and established artists have been invited to take People’s Square as visual metaphor for the complex dynamics of the people’s mobility. Their work will be displayed on various media within and outside of the museum. Works that are shown outside were created with an intent to interact with the environment or the public. Each artist will also create an additional piece to be shown on the ground floor of the museum.On the second floor, the curatorial team will focus on solo-exhibitions of three prominent artists. This rather unusual proposal was conceived in reaction to a tendency among many Biennales to present a vast number of hardly distinguishable artistic positions. As a guideline for the choice of artists in this section a more reflective and general attitude towards the issue of mobility related to the urban, economical and social development should be apparent in their artistic production.On the third floor, under the same theme, another twenty artists will be showing their work using non-shanghainese elements, to explore and discuss mobility issues in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.First group of confirmed artists: Lonnie van Brummelen & Siebren de Haan, Bu Hua, Bethan Huws, Mike Kelley, Kim Sanggil, Hito Steyerl, Clemens von Wedermeyer. Yin Xiu and Zhou Chang Jiang.Seventh Shanghai Biennale will hold on Shanghai Art Museum.The opening ceremony is 8 September 2008 and the duration from 9 September untile 16 November 2008