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08/02/2004: "Beijing Boom"
The art scene in Beijing has been injected with adrenalin as alternative spaces and more galleries open up, artists and curators implement their own agendas and the government meddles from the top down to cement Beijing's disputed eminence as the centre of contemporary art scene in China. If this was not enough to keep up with, there is a surge in high quality international exchanges through exhibitions, art fairs, residency programs, arts festivals and symposiums.
Until the mid nineties, those interested in viewing contemporary art in Beijing relied on a handful of galleries which represented 50 - 60 artists between them or made the sometimes difficult pilgrimage to various artist communities scattered around Beijing. Then a few auction houses were established and they dabbled in the contemporary; government - sponsored art fairs of declining quality were introduced and then in a competitive push Shanghai, Guangzhou and even Chengdu introduced biennales and triennials with impressive results. This regional activity only highlighted the dismal state of artist representation in the capital of some 17 million people.
But that was back in the nineties!
Artists from all over the country are continuing to move to Beijing and without any great master plan have taken up the challenge of a poor infrastructure and established communities of studios and exhibition spaces. These spaces also include access to foundry, printmaking and photo lab facilities making them attractive to local and international artists wanting to work in Beijing.
And then, in duplicitous revolutionary fashion, the party secretary at No. 798 Electronics Factory decided that military electronics was out and rental of the factory floor was much more lucrative as part of a larger real estate development strategy. Artists were the first tenants of one of the most 'Long Live Chairman Mao' industrial-chic locations you could dream of, followed by event and exhibition venues, galleries, bars, shops and restaurants. In an instant Beijing had an arts centre of international calibre and great local support including interest from Beijing City authorities - causing constipation to the developers!
A Japanese gallery opened its project space in late 2002 and this has been followed by a specialist photography gallery and then by galleries from Singapore, Berlin and soon London. Outside 798 there has also seen another German gallery open and there are galleries from New York and HK in the process of 'establishing a presence', as it has become known, with one thing linking them all - they all are active on the international art scene representing Chinese artists.
Artist-in-residence programs have also been put into place by Australia, Ireland, Great Britain and New Zealand with great interest coming from Taiwan, HK, Singapore, Germany and Canada. Facilities range from loft-style studio living spaces to apartments. Programs for local artists to participate in residencies are also being implemented.
In a very grudging acknowledgement of the interest in contemporary Chinese art, the money involved and the agressiveness of other cities, Beijing rushed in its inaugural biennale in 2003 and then the International Gallery Art Fair in 2004 - a world class production, though they forgot to advertise it!
There has been the Da Shan Zi Arts Festival celebrating the first (and possibly only) anniversary of the 798 complex, Shu Yang curated the outstanding and relatively hassle free International Performance Arts Festival and later in the year ' Consciousness Reframed: Qi and Complexity' will be be presented by the Planetary Collegium with a symposium and exhibition. Anna Bella Geiger from Brazil will present a major retrospective.
All of this activity is a treat for the art crowd in residence in Beijing and an incredible surprise to the visitors, artists and art lovers from abroad who can be directed to the art spaces at 798, Shangri-la, Pickled art Centre and the Fire Studios as well as all the galleries.
By: Brian Wallace, Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, China.
