|
Artist
Chen Guangwu (left) and his wife A Lan
at their home and studio in the Tongzhou
Artists' Community.
Photographer: Xu Jingxing. |
|
He
does live like a farmer, though, in the northern China
village with his wife and their 20-month-old son.
His home and studio, a big compound with two yards,
was built in 1995 on land he bought. And, for him,
making art is exactly like ploughing in the field:
he carves countless dots out of painted planks, which
create interesting images in his artwork.
Even today, Ren is apparently satisfied with his decision
and enjoys his peaceful life far away from his hometown.
Since 1995, Ren has held several solo shows in China
and Germany.
According to Li Xianting, a renowned Beijing art curator
and critic, the village was found by artist Zhang
Huiping who knew one of the local villagers.
|
REN
HUI,
Dance, 1992,
paper-cut,
size unavailable. |
|
"Then,
Zhang Huiping, Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun, Liu Wei, Yang Shaobin
and I became the first group of emigrants to buy houses
in Xiaopu Village. We were just looking for a quiet place
out of town that was good for work. That was in late 1993,"
recalled Li, who also has a home in downtown Beijing.
"Later, more artists followed and the village had to
stop selling houses. So some artists went to other places,"
Li said.
Today, besides Xiaopu, many other artists have made their
homes in nearby villages such as Songzhuang, Daxingzhuang
and Xindian as well as in urban Tongzhou.
Artist
Cui Xiuwen shows visitors a work at her
home. Cui is one of the few active female
artists in the Tongzhou Artists' Community.
Photographer: Xu Jingxing. |
|
The
community reconciles the desire of Chinese artists
to lead a free, independent spiritual life and the
need to develop their careers in the dynamic international
art centre of Beijing.
It,
in a way, reminds people of Beijing's well-known "Old
Summer Palace (Yuanming Yuan) Artists' Village,"
a controversial base of new Chinese art active from
July 1990 to October 1995. The village adjacent to
the famous historic site of the Old Summer Palace
in western Beijing was dismantled during an urban
renovation campaign in 1995.
Li accepted that the Tong-zhou Artists' Community
is to some extent related to Artists' Village. The
early few emigrant artists to Tongzhou were primarily
artists who were fed up with the frenetic and crowded
lifestyle there and eager for "a normal life
of normal people," as Li put it.
|
|
