Rieneke de Vries at Beijing Studio Center
For 6 weeks I was in the big, strange but nice, sexy and sweet city Beijing. I worked in a studio, in the quite new art-district HuanTie, part of the Chaoyangdistrict. I found my place on Trans Artists. The 798, most famous art-district of Beijing was very near my place. My district was in the middle of a circle railway, a railway where they are testing new high-tech trains. Every day I saw dusty workers with wagons and horses and the white new super train. In Huantie art-district live and work about 100 artists.
I’m back in Holland now, and I still don’t understand exactly what’s going on in the Chinese art-scene, but there is something very interesting going on there, especially for European artists. Ok, maybe there are some borders you can’t cross, because of the Chinese government. The most important information about Chinese politics my family and friends in Holland send me by email during the period I was in Beijing. I was a guest in a dictatorial and very material state, not in a communistic state. Of course, Chinese people are proud of their wonderful kitchens, but talking about politics, no way. Borders in the art-scene are not very clear. Almost everything is possible, but sometimes there is a story about an artist who can't make a show of his works because it’s forbidden by the government. The strange thing a few days later was that I found two articles of this artist in famous magazines that can be read by everybody. So I don't know what it means now, in China: 'forbidden by the government'.
Chinese art is booming! There are a lot of painters and sculpture makers. Because the Chinese contemporary art has been developing for just 15 years, Chinese artists are not familiar yet with new media and installation art. Now there are too many Chinese oil-painters, making big colourful paintings of panda-bears because they are easy to sell so you can drive a bigger car. Chinese artists are a little bit crazy about making money. Of course America is the big daddy of China. Being an artist is a good career in China.
A lot of Chinese artists don't know what subtlety is. A lot of the contemporary art is a little bit screaming. I think that’s very logical. For centuries and centuries the only art was the traditional art. Making in very concentrated way calligraphy or a traditional landscape with pink flowers. Everything was about quietness en poetry. Now, the country is developing faster and faster, the city's are growing bigger, this has its influence on the art. One artist said to me: "Being avant-garde is not possible for an artist in China, the country is to fast". That’s why the entire Chinese artist is running very fast. For me, as a Dutch artist, full of Western cynics, everything was feeling fresh in China. There is freedom and, sorry for the word, hope for the artists in China. Art is a necessity for the country. Being open about eroticism, mineworkers, lower-class people, politics and aids, art has to tell the stories. I was amazed by the big studios and the knowledge of materials. If you want to make something, there is always a possibility to do it and to make it bigger and more beautiful! For a careful, a little bit theoretic and conceptual artist like me it’s good to experience this kind of environment. And of course, the Chinese food is delicious! I had a great time, and I'm planning to go back.
Rieneke de Vries