Antony Gormley, British artist. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Gormley's current exhibition includes Critical Mass II, a seminal body of works created in 1995 that are making their Asian debut.

It includes 60 life-size cast iron human bodies: Some of them are installed in a line in the poses from the foetal positions to stargazing, reminding one of the ascent of humans, and others are suspended in midair or scattered around on the ground.

Through these works, Gormley hopes to touch upon the audience's hopes and fears.

"For me this isn't about occupying a room, or colonizing a space," he says. "But I am activating it, making the space somehow come alive."

He says whether people like it or not, they are there at the exhibition as part of an experiment: "We are to see what art can do."

He says art by its nature is transformative, and wants to empower every person who engages in it and to give them a possibility of having their unique individual experiences.

"I really don't know what will happen.

"But I'm really excited about it. And I'm also excited about what the creative potential of China will be."

Gormley says the exhibition is also an experiment about what a museum can be, how it works, how it can engage people.

And he also expresses his hope for transformative art forces in China like the Long Museum.

He says that as a young museum, a bigger job for Long, besides exhibiting international artists of note, is "what kind of institution it will be, what kind of value it will have in terms of involving people in culture, and what will be the role of art in the emergence of China as a world power."

If you go

10 am-6 pm, Mondays closed, through Nov 26. 3398 Longteng Avenue, Xuhui district, Shanghai. 021-6422-7636.