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Artist
Li Tianyuan in his studio at Daxingzhuang Village
in the Tongzhou Artists' Community. Li is a teacher
at the art school of Qinghua University in Beiijing.
Photographer: Xu Jingxing. |
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Chen
Guangwu, 33, from Liuzhou of South China's Guangxi Zhuang
Autonomous Region, used to live in the Old Summer Palace
Artists' Village after he moved to Beijing as an independent
artist in 1993.
"Soon I got tired of the chaotic life in the Old Summer
Palace where people are more interested in group activities
than art. I looked forward to a peaceful place away from
the crowds so I could create my art, so I moved here in
1994," Chen said in his newly built home and studio
where he lives with his wife A Lan.
For years, Chen and his wife had lived in a shabby house
in the village. Not until recently has Chen's abstract artwork
based on Chinese calligraphy started to sell and their material
life has turned for better.
"I'm not the sociable type and seldom step out of the
village. I prefer to stay at home, doing what I like. And
I don't care much what other people are doing," the
hermit-like Chen said. "Art, for me, is a highly personal
experience and everyone should have his own interpretation."
WANG
QINGSONG,
Thinker, 1998,
performance & photograph,
180 x 90 cm. |
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Besides
the pastoral settings of Tongzhou that stimulate their
inspirations, most artists agree that the spacious
houses available here, which are highly desirable
for studio artists, and the cheap housing and living
costs are concrete attractions as well.
The monthly rent for a rural compound in Tongzhou
is about 200-300 yuan (US$24-36) and that of a non-furniture
apartment with three bedrooms is approximately 800
yuan (US$96).
"I can hardly imagine the days when I was painting
in a dark, small bungalow room in downtown Beijing
when I started my career as an independent oil painter,"
said Cui Xiuwen, 33, a native of Harbin in Northeast
China's Heilongjiang Province. She is one of the few
women artists in the Tongzhou Artists' Community.
In 1998, Cui moved to a comfortable three-bedroom
apartment, with a big hall in the middle as her studio,
she rents at a very reasonable rate in Tongzhou.
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