I became attached to the 798 Art Zone. I don't want to exaggerate, but it is really nice and has a similar atmosphere as the former Tuzraktar in Budapest, an independent cultural center I was involved in.
There is much to see and 798 is pretty big, so I decided to focus on one part of the district and visit the other parts the following days.
The first surprise was the presence of graffiti. I was already used to the thought that there is no subculture in Beijing, but I was not absolutely right. It's true: there is almost no graffiti in the city, the only mural paintings are sayings of Mao. 798 seems to be an exterritorial place in the city full of tags and throw-ups.
The second surprise was how much the government supports the art district. Of course I don't know the details and I heard a rumour about the close-down of 798, but you can see a lot of construction there, the government is building streets in the district, obviously for visitors during the Olympics next year. The Tuzraktar was not supported by our government at all. The fact that 798 exists for several years means a lot.
Partly I have to revise my opinion on Chinese art life. Still, I stand by my opinion that there is no living subculture in Beijing. There is no artistic self-expression of the people threw the methods of urban art. Alternative contemporary art is in a ghetto situation, as the 798 art district shows.
But: This ghetto situation is definitely better than the average situation in Western countries. In my experience a “Forbidden City of Arts”, an island in the city without the aesthetic control of advertisers and politics, with galleries, restaurants, tea houses, cafés, book stores and alternative fashion boutiques on one place is great. The advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
Especially in such a big country as China it is important to have a center of art, where the different art scenes of the country are able to present their works.
In the meantime, I read some articles about the the art district in Western media. Often the authors criticize the fact that art life in China is so much supported by the government. Now that I have seen the place I can surely tell you that I admire this solution. If I would have to decide between the government and the private economy as a sponsor for my project, I would choose the government. If the government sponsors something, you can see where your tax money goes and you don't have to put ugly adverts anywhere.
In my last entry about Chinese art life I proclaimed quite radical statements about art life in China. Now that I have seen many galleries and spoke to many artists I have to admit: I was partly wrong. There are indeed great contemporary artists in China. I heard that there are several good academies and art schools stressing quality, technique, but also creativity.
Of course cultural exchange is missing, everybody wants to go abroad, but only a very few can, and so on... After all I took a look at the homepage of the Beijing Tokyo Art Projects, one of the most important galleries at 798. It says: "Having closely followed the development of Chinese contemporary art since the late 1980s, Yukihito Tabata set up the gallery with the intention of bringing artists from China, Japan and Korea together and introducing them to a wider audience."
I am happy to read this and I know how important this is, but I still think somebody could do more, and not only on the basis of private business.
My former radical statements are understandable when you look at all the crap we get to see in Europe. The Chinese contemporary art presented for example at this year's Art Basel was just... it is difficult to explain it without using four-letter words.
Anyway, here you have some more pictures from 798 – just to give you an impression:
On Sunday, I attended the vernissage of an exhibition at the 798 Art Zone featuring works by Su Jin Yuan (his blog can be found here), a fresh graduate from China's Central Academy of Fine Arts.
