The Age, November 19, 2005
Beijing art colony falls to wreckers
By Hamish McDonald, China Correspondent, Beijing

WHEN the local government wreckers came and tore open the front wall of his studio here this week, sculptor Liu Bo expressed his rage in the way he knew best — through art.

Standing in the wreckage in plastic overalls, Liu turned himself into installation art.

Applying acrylic colours, two painters, Luo Sanxi and Zhang Rui, turned him into a human-shaped demolition zone, with broken brick walls, wrecked doors, and collapsed beams.

"I am melting myself into the demolition," Liu said during his day-long act of protest. Dozens of students, internet bloggers and journalists came to take pictures.

The Suojiacun "artists' village" of about 100 semi-detached studios has been in existence less than a year. It has attracted a generation of rising young Chinese artists with its relatively cheap rents of 30,000 yuan ($A5080) a year and handy location on Beijing's north side.

But its developer, the ambitiously named Higher and Higher, had jumped the gun, building without approvals, perhaps in the not unreasonable expectation that officials could be placated later.

Instead, the Cuigezhung District Government obtained a vacation order, and on Tuesday sent in wreckers at 8am, while police cordoned off the area. They smashed in the front of one row of studios and told everyone they had 10 days to leave before total demolition.

"According to the Beijing city plan, this land is designated for open space," an official at the local planning office said.

The ruling strikes Suojiacun's resident artists, many still shaken by the ferocity of Tuesday's assault, as abrupt and harsh, and contrary to Beijing's expressed aim of turning itself into a city of culture and "advanced civilisation" by the time of the 2008 Olympics.

Most of them are still making a name, unlike the better-known and pricier artists occupying a similar village called Feijiacun just down the road, or the trendy Factory 798 art zone in a disused military factory.

"It was a very harmonious place," said painter Zhao Juan, who was stacking her canvases ready to store at her art college while she and her husband look for new working space.

The problem for most is the cost in a booming city. "We can't afford a legal place for our work," said sculptor Xue Tao. "Wherever we go, that place becomes illegal."

In cities around the world, young artists typically find squats or low-rent space in abandoned buildings. In Beijing, such spaces are not left derelict for long before redevelopment catches up.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/beijing-art-colony-falls-to-wreckers/2005/11/18/1132016987747.html

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chinadaily, 11/19/2005
Wreckers put art colony out of the picture
By Wang Shanshan (China Daily)

The 126 Chinese, Asian and Western artists in Beijing's leading art
community Suojiacun are seeing red, after hearing their illegally built
work and living spaces may be torn down in the coming week.

About one tenth of the studios have been dismantled since Tuesday.

"The authorities together with the artists should work to find a way to
legitimize the Suojiacun art village and to preserve its value as a
symbol of international artistic and cultural cross-over, and as a means
to allow Chinese art to grow and become appreciated all over the world,"
Alessandro Rolandi, an Italian artist and resident of the community,
told China Daily.

"At least we want some more time to find another place in Beijing," said
Shang Yang, an artist and professor with the Capital Normal University,
who also lives at the village.

Artists swarmed to Suojiacun, north of the Fifth Ring Road in 2004 as
soon as the "Beijing International Art Camp" was developed, lured by its
low rent of about 800 yuan (US$99) a month for a simple warehouse
covering 150 square metres, according to Shang.

It was reported that the developer had received a land lease from the
village administration, but the latter had no proper authorization from
an upper level of the government.

"We didn't know that," said Laetitia Gauden, a French artist in residence.

The Gaoyougao Trade Co Ltd, which developed the art camp, received a
notice from the urban planning office of Cuigezhuang Township in April,
2004, which said that the construction of the camp was illegal because
it did not get approval from the office, said Huang Zhigao, general
manager of the company. But the company went on with the project.

This May the township's urban administration office told the company
that the finished buildings would be demolished, and the latter appealed
to the Chaoyang District Court.

A month later the court ruled in support of the township government. It
notified the company about its decision twice before the ruling was
executed on Tuesday. But the company informed some artists of the court
decision only on Monday afternoon, while leaving others in the dark.

"I was going to send my son to school when suddenly I saw trucks from
removal companies in the courtyard," said Gauden.

Some artists said they are going to sue the company to reclaim rent and
get compensation.

"Those who chose Suojiacun are not rich. Most travel by bus and on foot
when they have to go to the downtown area, and many have spent their
life savings on furnishings their homes here," said Shang.

But Gauden and the other Western artists said they were not going to sue.

"I pity the company as it loses the most. We hope the decision could be
reversed," she said.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-11/19/content_496202.htm

 

 

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(Art-Eastasia list)

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http://www.fluktor.de

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