Dashanzi Art District

There is a really neat art district in the north east of the city in an old factory area - and some of the factories are still going. This is what part of the area looks like.

Jenny and I checked out some of the 20 odd galleries last week. You can see Jenny's comments here. I've listed my favorite 2 shows below. I've also attached links to some of their work. FYI there are nude images at both of their sites.

At Wei Dong's show we saw many of the images you see at the right side of his page if you click on his name. You can read about the specific exhibition we saw here.

We actually met the Gao Brothers when we were at their studio. Some of my favorite pieces involved a structure that looked like a half completed parking garage. They had this to say about the building from an interview in That's Beijing

thatÂ’s: What was it about the abandoned building and construction project that attracted you?

GB: The building was started some ten years ago, a multi-story concrete frame larger than 10,000 square meters was completed, and it then was abandoned for lack of funding. It is a symbol unique to China, which is also like a forever-unfinished construction site.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures of my favoritepiecess on their site though you can see the structure in "The Passage of Time". Their use of nude figures is particularly surprising considering all of the regulations that China places on viewing naked bodies.


And lastly:
Here is installation we saw in a different exhibit. It felt surprisinglypeacefull when we came across it and at first I had a strong desire to walk over the imported dark sand (with clear footprints from many different shoes) and sit down on the bench. Then Jenny pointed out the sign.


Maybe it was a typo, but suddenly I didn't feel like going in and sitting down on anything.