Beijing Spring - 2009 cont.

  Beijing, China
Friday, May 1, 2009

Two of our Beijing Explorer trips were reserved for art complexes; Caochangdi Village and The Brewery.

Nine years ago, the pre-eminent Chinese artist Ai Weiwei made a bold move to the outskirts of Beijing. In an area called Caochangdi Village, by the Fifth Ring Road in the city's northeast, he designed a compound for himself, some friends and a gallery called China Art Archives and Warehouse. For a while, they were left alone. As the 798 District, the epicenter of Beijing's lively contemporary art scene, became increasingly crowded with boutiques and tourists, some of China's leading gallery owners were bypassing the district altogether, and headed directly to Caochangdi Village.

Or maybe they should call it Ai Weiwei Village (as he designed some of the buildings in the village. Pekin Fine Arts (www.pekinfinearts.com), is housed in a new complex designed by Mr. Ai - a cluster of low, minimalist buildings clad in weathered gray bricks that suggests the hutongs, or traditional alleyways, of old Beijing.
Nearby, Mr. Ai designed similar compounds for the leading Swiss gallery Urs Meile (104 Caochangdi; 86-10-6433-3393; www.galerieursmeile.com) and the Three Shadows Photography Art Center (155 Caochangdi; 86-10-8456-6147), a 14,000-square-foot space founded by the vanguard photographer Rong Rong to showcase Chinese and international works (currently featuring Ai Weiwei New York photos.

"Now there is a nice density here, like a community," said Mr. Ai, who still serves as artistic director of China Art Archives and Warehouse (200 Caochangdi; 86-10-8456-5152; www.archivesandwarehouse.com). If Mr. Ai is the area's star artist, then its social hub is the hip warehouse gallery Universal Studios (A-8 Caochangdi; 86-10-6432-2600; www.universalstudios.org.cn) with its bohemian cafe and bar serving no-nonsense fare like beef noodle soup. Nearby is the spectacular new National Film Museum (9 Nanying Road; 86-10-6431-9548; www.bjrt.gov.cn/museum) and the art space Platform China (319-1 East End Art Zone A, Caochangdi; 86-10-6432-0091; www.platformchina.org), which helped set off the area's gallery boom.
Besides being remote (at least a 30-minute drive from central Beijing), Caochangdi's mazelike warrens make it easy to get lost. And addresses are basically useless. It might sound like a hassle, but you'll be rewarded with an early look at more than a dozen galleries that represent the Chinese art world's next frontier. Other noteworthy spots include F2 Gallery (319 Caochangdi; 86-10-6432-8831; www.f2gallery.com) and the gargantuan PKM Gallery (46-C Caochangdi; 86-10-8456-6245; www.pkmgallery.com). ShanghART, the trailblazing Shanghai-based gallery, is currently showing 'Halfway House: Shi Qing Solo Exhibition'.

Jiu Chang Art Complex

Jiuchang - group photo

A fairly newly developed collection of art galleries can be found at Jiu Chang Art Complex on An Wai Bei Yuan Lu, Chao Yang District Beijing. This area using factory buildings from a recently demolished hutong makes for a fascinating wander among many different galleries displaying photography, pencil sketches, oil paintings and sculpture.
Restaurants and coffee shops can be found amongst the galleries to make this a delightful addition to visiting many of Beijing's well known art areas and galleries. However, the financial crisis has left some scars on Beijings art scene as many galleries have been closed or have been sold over the past few months. Jiu Chang has kind of an eerie feel to it at the moment. The good part about it though is that there are no throngs of people juggling for space and attention. For a different kind of entertainment, there a few artists living there who have a variety of dogs, from small Peking dogs to hugs St. Bernards.

Visit the Shi Tang Art Complex or International Art Garden displayed at Segmentspace.com (C 9001) galleries. Oil paintings can be found at Idea Zone and C1005 - 2 Room Gallery where a range of art is on display from a number of different artists. C1005 - 2 Room features the work of Gelong. Gelong also presents a range of ink pen drawings in his exhibition.
For something totally different from the above wander on down to PYO Gallery Beijing at the back of the art gallery complex, just by the large red 'lego' David sculpture. During our visit, we went to see David Choe's first solo exhibition in China. David Choe (Los Angeles, CA) is a muralist and graphic artist. His murals ornament walls from Los Angeles to Vietnam, as does his graffiti. He is known as much for his exaggerated vulgarity as for his aesthetic sense.

Keep your eyes open for some rather interesting outdoor sculpture displays as you wander from gallery to gallery (look up, look down, look all around to discover some of the not so obvious pieces of interest). And take a look at the pics, you'll know what I mean.

With regard to performing arts, I watched some impressive modern dance performances by a variety of Chinese dance companies including Tao Dance Theater founded by Tao Ye a Chongqing native who began dancing at 12, after his grandmother noticed how well he copied the movements he saw on television. His family paid over 50,000RMB in dance school tuition, which turned out to be a wise investment; Tao danced with both the world-famous Jin Xing Dance Theatre and Beijing Modern Dance Company before forming the Tao Dance Theatre in 2008.

'I like to be free, to do my own works,' he explains. 'There are no limits that way.' Tao's pieces border on the extreme: Zhong is a duet where a man and woman repeat a single combination of steps ad infinitum, while Chong has the dancing couple holding hands the entire time. 'Sometimes something simple can make the whole piece,' he says. 'It's difficult, but I need to challenge myself.' For his latest work, due in Beijing in August, Tao has his dancers remain on the floor 'like animals'. Love it or hate it, choreography needs courage and experimentation. Tao is taking Chinese dance where it really needs to go.

Another terrific performonce took place at the Penghao theater today where I watched 'Empty City, Yuan Ming Yuan, Memory-Time- Fragment' an experimental dance drama featuring a dialogue between contemporary dance and experimental music produced by XIN-ACT-LAB.

In April, I went to see In-I, a collaboration between Juliette Binoche and Akram Khan. In her debut ballet performance, French actress Juliette Binoche dances alongside renowned dancer and choreographer Akram Khan. The unlikely pair co-produced this dance drama performance about love and pushing the boundaries of art.

Ever since I discovered the little peaceful gem called Penghao Theater, I seem to spend a lot of time there. I did watch an excellent theater performance delivered by the Beijing International Theater Experience (BITE). Orphans, a play by Lyle Kessler is loaded with guns, knives and expletives and children were prohibited from attending.
The two-act play centers on two orphaned brothers from North Philadelphia who've slipped through the cracks of American society.