[Reader-list] [Fwd: NYTimes.com Article: Amid Ghosts of the Red Guard, the Avant-Garde Now Blooms]

[Vivek Narayanan]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	NYTimes.com Article: Amid Ghosts of the Red Guard, the 
Avant-Garde Now Blooms
Date: 	Thu, 2 Sep 2004 03:37:45 -0400 (EDT)
From: 	narayananv at mtb.und.ac.za
Reply-To: 	narayananv at mtb.und.ac.za
To: 	vivek at sarai.net



The article below from NYTimes.com 
has been sent to you by narayananv at mtb.und.ac.za.



Amid Ghosts of the Red Guard, the Avant-Garde Now Blooms

September 1, 2004
 By CRAIG SIMONS 



 

BEIJING, Aug. 31 - In his gray fleece jacket and pressed
khaki pants, Xu Yong looks more like a department store
manager than a maverick who is one of the most successful
promoters of avant-garde art in China and a protector of
its historic architecture. Standing in 798 Space, his
contemporary art gallery in northeastern Beijing, next to a
row of faded photographs of a woman firing a handgun, Mr.
Xu carefully thanks the city government for supporting the
Dashanzi International Art Festival, a collaboration among
74 galleries and private art studios in a refurbished
1950's-era weapons factory. 

It is perhaps his mild demeanor, coupled with his fondness
for making art and old architecture profitable cultural
enterprises, that has helped push the Communist leadership
here toward aiding the arts and protecting the past. Two
years ago Factory 798 was largely abandoned and physically
crumbling, a forlorn complex of warehouses and workshops
built by East German architects using World War II
reparations money. It was given a number rather than a
name, in the old-fashioned Communist manner. 

Like many of China's state-owned enterprises, it was
seemingly doomed, with only a few of its structures still
in use. And, as with most of the oldest buildings here,
there were demolition plans; in this case the mammoth work
areas would be knocked down to make room for a
business-development park. 

Then artists began to move in, attracted by cheap rents and
stunning spaces. By the time a friend took Mr. Xu to see
the factory, a handful of musicians and painters had
renovated studios. He was immediately attracted to the
architecture. "It was obvious that the place had great
cultural and historic value," he said. 

That realization prompted him to lease a workshop of about
13,000 square feet, clean away a decade of disrepair and
open his gallery, 798 Space, the complex's largest. In
April 2003 the gallery attracted about 5,000 visitors and
international news media attention with a show of
avant-garde art appropriately titled "798 Reconstruction."
This was followed by an influx to the area of artists, as
well as the opening of galleries from Germany, Britain, the
United States, Singapore and Japan. 

For Mr. Xu, 50, part of the factory's value is intrinsic.
The compound was active in the 1960's and 70's and many
Maoist slogans (like "Chairman Mao is the red sun in our
hearts") painted on the walls during the Cultural
Revolution remain visible. Such propaganda, once
ubiquitous, is now rare, and the building is a powerful
reminder. "The Cultural Revolution was terrible, so most
people would rather simply forget it," Mr. Xu said in an
interview, "but we need to take stock of the past." 

In October 798 Space sponsored a show of works by 48
Chinese and German artists that included haunting
references to the Mao years: the video artist Wang Wei
filmed children eerily repeating Maoist slogans; the
installation artist Gu Dexin presented two containers of
frozen animal brains and hearts; a mammoth Mao Zedong arm
(obvious to anyone who has seen the statues of Mao that
still stand all over China) rose out of a doorway. 

Other artists showed more incendiary works. The
photographer and installation artist Chen Guang exhibited
an erotic video on a large screen on the factory grounds.
"He showed the work at 2 in the afternoon," recalled Robert
Bernell, the owner of an art publishing house and bookstore
in the factory. "It created a big stir." 

Such exhibits (one artist ripped up a Communist Party flag
during a performance piece) have upset some Chinese leaders
and, Mr. Xu said, there has been debate about whether to
allow such a free art space in the capital. Another issue
has been property rights. The city granted Seven Stars, the
company that owns the land, the right to create an
industrial park, but the artists, including Mr. Xu, want
the buildings protected as an arts center similar to the
Tate Modern in London, which is in a renovated power
station. 

The artists were supported by officials who said that a
flourishing art scene would help Beijing become a vibrant
city. Long Xingmin, the assistant party secretary of
development and planning ministry for Beijing, visited the
galleries in April, and the vice mayor of Beijing has
weighed in to support the artists. Visiting dignitaries,
including the president of Switzerland, have also stopped
by the complex to offer support. 

For now, the scales seem tipped in favor of the art. When
the developer moved to shut down the Dashanzi International
Art Festival in late April, citing violations of parking
and fire regulations, the government rejected the
complaints and sent word that the show should proceed.
"Even a year ago that would not have happened," Mr. Xu
said, adding that he was told by "a reliable source" that
the government planned to protect the area so it could
establish an art district similar to SoHo in New York in
time for the 2008 Olympics. 

Such a center might become a major tourist draw. In the
last decade Chinese contemporary art has found an overseas
market, with recent shows of Chinese avant-garde art at the
Pompidou Center in Paris and the Venice Biennale as well as
a show titled "Between Past and Present: New Photography
and Video From China," which opened at International Center
of Photography in New York on June 11 and will run through
Sept. 5. "The 798 Factory could become the top location for
cutting-edge avant-garde art, not only in Beijing and
China, but in all of Asia," Mr. Xu said. 

He has been equally successful at protecting China's
ancient architecture after an early interest in
photography. He said that after the Cultural Revolution
ended in 1976 and the artistic climate began to loosen, he
became interested in photographing hutongs, the twisting
residential alleyways clustered around the Forbidden City
in Beijing and once home to the emperor's relatives and
courtiers. 

"Too much valuable architecture has been destroyed," he
said. "Largely the destruction grew from a common
perception that the hutongs were reminders of China's
economic stagnation as the rest of the world surged ahead.
When foreigners wandered into the lanes, locals were
embarrassed. They thought the buildings were backward." 

In 1990 he published "Beijing's Hutong: 101 Images," a
collection of black-and-white photographs. Two years later
he opened Hutong Tours, a travel agency that in 2002 took
140,000 tourists through the lanes. Foreigners willing to
pay $12 for guided glimpses of the alleys proved to city
officials that history has more than just sentimental
value. "In China, if you're going to protect historic
architecture, you have to show that it has practical use,"
he said. 

The Beijing architect Du Dong said, "Had it not been for
the attention of tourists, the destruction of the hutongs
would have been more thorough." The government has now set
aside several hundred lanes for preservation. 

Mr. Xu said that he hoped to help China find value where
most Chinese see only decay, and to prove that culture is
not, as Mao believed, merely an instrument of the state but
a vital part of the nation's life. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/01/arts/design/01beij.html?ex=1095110665&ei=1&en=8e5bdebfdeea0236


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