Today, "Night On Earth" exhibition opens at MoCA, and there's more than cheese and crackers: five electronic music acts and 2 VJs will perform at "Art Lab," MoCA's new alternative art space.

Night On Earth is a three-part exhibition touring Berlin, Shanghai, and Helsinki. The exhibition is named after the Jim Jarmusch movie that follows five cabbies in five cities around the world on one crazy night. For their Shanghai stop, Asian and European artists thread together the urban cultures of three cities in one crazy exhibition.

Apropos, no? The Shanghai version of the exhibition is called "Spatial Constructions and Time-Based Collisions," and hopefully artist and Berliner Hans Hemert (pictured above) will bring his balloons.

As for Friday's party, the five electronic acts are thus: Hugo Capablanca (also known as "Fuck Hugo", how delightful), Eero Johannes, Clouds, OP:L Bastards, Samuli Kosimen, and Moby Dictator.

The only DJ on the bill who isn't Finnish, Spaniard Hugo Capablanca currently spins in Berlin, and although he's new, he's slated to play alongside Erol Alkan in June in Berlin, so you can expect he'll provide fun techno with retro hooks. Eero Johannes is a DJ/ drummer and improvs with drumpads as part of his live act. Production duo Clouds sound like "a soundtrack to the invasion of earth by little and green, but dubwise, aliens." OP:L Bastards play electroclash, Samuli Kosminen plays electronica, and Moby Dictator plays trippy, psychedelic electronica.

All of them sound like a party, but check the MySpace pages yourself (below) for audio samples. The show is rounded out by Jesse Auersalo and JPECH, who will be projecting visuals.

And what's the deal with Art Lab? It's the new venue that's taken over MoCA's third floor from the Italian resto that previously squandered probably the sweetest terrace in Shanghai. Curator Diana Freundl hopes Art Lab will become a community center for Shanghai's culturally active urbanites.

"We wanted to make a space for creative encounters," says Freundl, "where like-minded people from creative industries can meet and talk about what they see. It's a space for arts-related events, not just some generic restaurant."

The opening party runs from 9pm until 2am. Check out the performing artists at their MySpace pages: Hugo CapablancaEero JohannesCloudsOp:L BastardsSamuli KosminenMoby Dictator.

Opening party

Date: 9pm until 2am, May 16

Venue: MoCA

"Spatial Construction and Time-Based Collisions"

Date: May 17 to June 14

Venue: MoCA

(smartshanghai.com May 22,2008)