Beijing Art Scene

Contemporary Chinese art has been making a splash recently, garnering a lot of international attention. There have been some high-profile auctions that have pulled in record amounts for Chinese art. 798 is one of the main art districts (sort of like New York’s Soho before it got gentrified and outrageously expensive), where dozens of galleries are housed in warehouses. I was here a few weeks ago for a theater festival called “Shifen Theater” (10 minute theater – a collection of 10 minute acts organized by an expat for expats). It was held in one of the galleries. A lot of the performances were a bit too “avant-garde” for me to say I actually enjoyed it, but the space was awesome. I had a chance to come back over the weekend with friends to participate in an interactive exhibit called “De-Face,” where graffiti artists and the public could paint the whitewashed walls of a gallery slated for demolition. 798 has gotten to trendy for its own good, and the warehouse was being demolished in the name of development – to make way for a car park. It was an interesting “final attempt at an artistic statement” against the destruction of 1/6th of 798, which is supposed to be a protected art district.

Hundreds of visitors came to participate, painting and spray-painting the walls. The graffiti artists were amazing. I watched the evolution of a big green man taking off his mask, from a rather amorphous green blob to an impressive, detailed image. The graffiti artist worked with a bottle of beer in one hand (and a random fact – local Chinese beer is in fact CHEAPER than bottled water in China! – how crazy?!) and a bottle of spray paint in the other. After he finished, he took a few steps back, admiring his work through the cloud of cigarette smoke he exhaled. It was my first time watching an artist at work in person – definitely an interesting experience. A bunch of expats took part in this event, spraying the work “chai” or demolish in Chinese over the walls and scribbling whatever it was they wished. It was definitely a fun and interesting experience.

Before we went to De-Face, Chia-Li and I had the opportunity to walk around 798, taking pictures of some of the outdoor sculptures and popping into some of the galleries. One of my favorite was a gallery filled with lacquer paintings. The artist(s) had taken a very tradition Chinese form of handicraft, using the technique to paint interesting images that looked like cracked, glazed ceramic, but on a painting. The melding of traditional techniques into modern paintings was really cool. Definitely want to come back and explore more of this place, before more of it disappears.