Da Shanzi:the legend of art and spaces

CCTV.COM (09.09 2003 10:55)

    In today's Rediscovering China, we are going to tell you a story about art and spaces.

    The State-owned factories housed in the massive Bauhaus style buildings, including Factory 798, have a history tinged with glory. Walking around, it is quite possible you will bump into model laborers , whose stories are often retold by proud fellow workers. But like many of its contemporaries, this electronics factory is suffering from a shrinking number of contracts and soaring unemployment. The machines are still running, but not like before.

    This path winds past the earsplitting noises coming from this workshop and takes us to several factories that are nearly identical-but much quieter.

    The colorful decorations and posters, the newly constructed glass and steel betray the owners. Who lives behind the closed doors and windows? Why do they come here?

    It's ten o'clock in the morning, now-time for some of these galleries to open their doors, time for some of the artists to get out of bed and show their presence here. Starting at about this time everyday, this walled area will begin to fill up with different colors, creations and emotions.

    The reason is the Bauhaus architectural style, blended with the power of China's Cultural Revolution.

    'Made-in-China' is actually made in this factory where Mr. Sui's students and apprentices are still working hard on various projects. All dream to follow in his footsteps. Fifty years after its construction, the factory is producing not only electronics, but also hope and a legend of arts.

    On a bright summer day, Xiong Wenyun, an artist hired by five colleges, four in China and one in Japan, comes to the construction site of her new studio. According to her blueprints, the place will be turned into an art complex that includes a 50 meters long gallery, studios and separate homes for three artists.

    Her works include 'Moving Rainbow' to Tibet, 'kong kong', and perhaps there is more to come when this studio is finished.

    Ms Xiong's ideal is already reality for some of early comer here at Da Shanzi. Among these is Huang Rui, the owner of this cool place.

    Huang Rui has fitted his home with decorations made from everything imaginable: a deserted machine, a millstone, even the sun and moonlight鈥攚hich he refuses to block out with curtains.

    Huang Rui uses this place to the fullest. Transformed by his design, the tree trunk becomes a perfect bench, the 100 square meter room is divided into a tea house, a spacious studio and a kitchen, a comfortable bedroom and a living room. Isn't it magic?

    Not only humans are enjoying this place. Take for example, the three birds living Chen Lingyang's apartment. Does their chirping inspire her? Is their freedom to fly as they please echoed in her work, which expresses a longing for release? The artists' mind is unfathomable.

    I have to admit I don't understand what these artist do, but clearly these huge rooms give them plenty of space for their imagination-and enough privacy to indulge in it.

    Painters, photographers, performance artists, critics, curators, all together 30 people and several organizations all housed by the factory for the last year. It's their private space, the space cut out for their lives, their work, their imagination and their art. Some of them are well known, some are not, but all are working hard here. Maybe their efforts will be enough to make history for the neighboring studios.

    Modern art is not hard to understand, if you are willing to approach it gradually.

    First of all, people have to be interested in art, otherwise they won't try to understand it.

    Ordinary people enjoy some kinds of art, but the modern art we are doing is not for an audience of ordinary people.

    Artists are ahead of their time. They must be ahead, so there is some distance between them and ordinary people. This distance has to be covered by art institutions, organizations, media and more.

    Across from the 798 Space is a photo gallery, and at the end of this channel we have the Beijing Tokyo Art Projects and the 25,000 cultural transmission center, to name just a few of the exhibition centers scattered around this place. All of these are open to the public and free of charge.

    Factories can be found everywhere, so what makes 798 so special?

    Visitors are always struck by the huge red characters inscribed on the wall: 'Long live Chairman Mao and Long Long life', 'Chairman Mao is the red sun in our hearts'. Slogans and quotes bring you back 30 years.

    Another evident feature is the green machines, preserved by the artists, who haven't moved them an inch. The factory was built with the former Soviet Unions' help, and designed by German architects.

    Besides the red slogans and green machines, there are still workers scattered across the complex.

    They are the former owners of the place and the first visitors to the galleries.

    However, the public the art area hopes to attract is not only workers, but also people from all over the city, the nation, and even the world.

    Many exhibitions were shut down by the outbreak of SARS. When the epidemic came to an end, media coverage started bringing in more visitors. Foreigners and local Chinese, not all of them art experts, but all willing to have a look and to try to understand.

    This is not a piece of art, it's an art experience. Everything you see, you hear, you touch are carefully placed by the artist.

    This exhibition is named 'Black Taboo', by the artist Shi Qing. Wearing the cloak of new media, he hopes to put forward a theory: the body always evolves through aberrance into alien forms. Pretty hard to understand, but it's pretty impressive anyway.

Editor:Guan