The Beijing Arts Scene (798)
A Damien Hirst skull, I think
First things first, I randomly can’t see photos on Flickr. So the image above could be a Damien Hirst skull, or it could be something else. Please let me know.
Beijing is a hip town. There’s this district called 798 (Qi Jiu Ba) which used to be, I think, an arms factory, supplying the Viet Cong among others. Now it’s a large space devoted to art. There’s galleries, shops, restaurants, it’s really a fascinating place.
A piece by Song Kun. Again, I can’t see it.
Above is a piece by Song Kun (I think) from her exhibition A Thousand Kisses Deep. Here’s a quote from the brochure:
Control itself, as a state apparatus, or law, for example, functions as a convenient form of management. But these convenient management standards aim to efficiently maximize benefits to the state. Whose desires are satisfied by working at this speed? Who sets the standards? The issue is interesting, and in my opinion, we should all be thinking about it.
This doesn’t necessarily reflect the piece above, I just thought her stuff was pretty. But’s the amount of politically challenging work and ideas in 798 was pretty striking. There was a piece on displacement a la Three Gorges Dam next door.
Anyways, I gotta bounce to meet some people. Will write more later. There’s some photos on Flickr, check the latest.
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Try to get some pictures of the country sides and the skylines (possibly at night time). Visiting China is high on my list of places to go to. :)
[...] vegetables, fish, tofu and this hideous Baijiu alcohol) and this girl told me about some art in 798. She said she was an image of this giant toad surrounded by little toads. Apparently the story was [...]