Take-Aways

Factory 798 is a superb idea both mine for going there on Sunday and Beijing’s for having it. It’s a kind of artist’s ghetto in the North Eastern side of town. A creative community living in an old factory complex that has been remodelled to contain galleries, art houses, coffee shops and restaurants. It’s a very attractive space. Even more so for having preserved its rough and industrial façade. Rows of brick houses succeed each other linked with a vast aerial tube system that every now and then spurts clouds of steam. Lofts and studios containing China’s established avant garde vie with each other to attract the admittedly not too numerous visitors and construction still goes on to remodel all the buildings in an already expansive area. Like everything else in China, this project does not lack in either optimism or ambition. Entering it I get the funny feeling that it cuts both ways. On the one hand it can be a great ground for fusion, community and expression and on the other it also feels king of handy to have the art folk all in one space. The guards, stationed at each entrance, enhance the feeling. Of course they are no more than glorified doormen such as those in any luxurious complex. Really this is what Factory 798 seems to be nowadays. Originally it was a massive model factory of Soviet and German ilk that was abandoned in the 80s and put to good use by waves of artists looking for a workspace. It has that in abundance. Fantastic medieval looking domes, glass studios, high ceilinged tunnels and cavernous vaults all set in very communist looking rows of alleys. The factory mirrors the Beijing Hutongs or neighbourhoods introversion. The exterior does not prepare you for the vastness, abundance and excitement of the interior. It felt like New York’s Soho and Greenwich village. The galleries are heavily influenced by Japanese design and indeed one of the biggest projects there is a Tokyo-Beijing art project that took my breath away. Not so much because of the exhibits but because of the space itself. It was like being inside a huge fluorescent white whale. The art is not too obscure and ranges from stylized paintings commenting on China’s past and current alienation, figurative and pop artish, photos showing Bejing’s urbanisation, sculptures questioning the role of religion and Buddhism in modern society and the occasional low key Mao bashing kitsch. Nothing too subversive, just a sculpture of a headless Mao suits here and there, no worse than what one would see in any downtown tourist market. There was variety and there was also quality, even to my unknowledgeable self and more importantly, the coffee was damn good also.