The international spotlight that is now trained on Beijing may dim when the Olympics end, but not by much. Beijing is now one of the most important cities in the world, especially the art world.
Last week New York’s prestigious Pace Wildenstein gallery opened Pace-Beijing in the trendy 798 district. For the piece below I speak with the Chinese artists Xu Bing , who recently moved back to Beijing after 16 years in New York City, and O Zhang, who is set on staying put here in Williamsburg, about Beijing’s contest with New York over art market glory.
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O Zhang has photos from some of the work we discuss in the piece including the photo we had to censor for Radio (link)
Here is one we can share freely:
Image - O Zhang
August 11th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
China is competing with - and in many cases beating - the U.S. in many areas besides “art.”
Check it out: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008083311/ten-things-you-should-know-about-china
August 11th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
the so-called expansion there is impressive thanks for this piece!
check out this piece about the Beijing “Vanishing Act” — http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2008/08/10/vanishing_act/
August 12th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Beijing has always had artists and art.
Now it has art speculators and a stake in the international art trade. Unfortunately, that’s only a small part of what it takes to have a healthy atmosphere for art, artists, and the people who appreciate them.
I wonder - how much tolerance does Beijing have for artists doing work that touches on topics like hegemony, the panopticon, techno/ecological dystopia and surveillance? You know, some of old faves of art students here in NYC.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
@ Caleb, Art Students in NYC have some antisocial pessimistic faves, is that a symptom of all artists or just the ones in NY I wonder