798 Art District

Trip Start Jun 10, 2008
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Trip End Jan 25, 2009


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Flag of China  ,
Monday, August 11, 2008

Today, Max, Jeronimo, and I payed a visit to 798 Art District.  Formerly a factory, this complex now houses the homes, studios, workshops, and galleries of China's cutting edge artists.  Some was almost indistinguishable from similar western avant-garde art.  Some was beautiful.  Some was ugly.  And a few galleries aimed at revealing something truly beatiful and distinct about the culture, atmosphere, and turbulence in the modern era, and I ate it up.  I guess, overall it was like any day spent perusing modern art.  First we visited the 798 museum, a very well-done retrospective on the development of the post-Open Door Chinese art scene. The space, having once been a warehouse, was perfect for housing some VERY large installations.  Most memorable was the entrance, a 30 m long windy wunnel filled with a few hundreds TVs playing a wide variety of TV channels.  Of course when I was there, they were mostly Olympics.

One other gallery I'll mention specifically is the 798 photo gallery.  Apparently one the oldest galleries there, they have a long tradition of presenting both beautiful and thought-provoking photography of China.  And in th back room were the stacks - containing most of the photos they've ever showcased there.  The current exhbit while we there was a series of mash-ups of giant Chinese construction sights and traditional Chinese painting subjects, temples, trees, people, etc. looking small against a beautiful green and blue background.  The effect was spectacular.  You really had to look to notice what the elements actually were, froma distance of more than a few feet the scenes really looked like traditional Chinese brush paintings, but from a short distance these shockingly large piles of earth, polluted rivers, and black skies revealed themsevles. Really impressive stuff.  The previous exhibit, of which they still had a few pictures hanging, was all on Tibet.  Capturing the dramatic landscape with very romantic representations of the people of Tibet and their hardships.

Worth a visit if in Beijing.
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