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TONG ZHOU
A short distance from Beijing's city
center and the complexities of urban life, lies the
Tongzhou district that hosts some of China’s most
intriguing art communes. Formed in 1994, over 300
artists dealing with different medium and diverse
artistic styles chose to settle and build an environment
and life style suitable for their needs. The Tong Zhou
district hosts a number of different peasant villages
such as Xiaopu, Da Xingzhuang, Xindian and the biggest
of them all Songzhuang village. These villages have
attracted artists due to their cheap rental fees and the
relative solitude and detachment many artists seek. This
area is seen by many as the future of Chinese
contemporary art and is the place some of china’s most
famous artist such as Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun, Liu Wei
and Yang Shaobin have established themselves. The story
of Tong Zhou is not a simple one, it goes back to the
days of Yuan Ming Yuan, China's first artists' village,
set up in the late 1980s near Beijing's old Summer
Palace. The Yuan Ming Yuan village reflected the burst
of experimental art sparked by the market reforms of the
late 70’s. Unfortunately this new phenomenon of untamed
self expression came to an end in 1995 when the village,
attracting too many “free spirits” was shut down by the
authorities. This is after China’s experimental art
suffered a big blow when the country’s largest approved
avant-guard art exhibition was forced to close in the
spring of 1989.
After the original artist village
YuanMingYuan was shut down scattering its inhabitants to
different directions, members of the original village
settled in in Xiaopu and Songzhuang and continued
exploring and experimenting with contemporary art.
SongZhuang artist village is probably the biggest art
commune in the world where artists live in traditional
court-yard houses that were found suitable to transform
into studios. The SongZhuang artists come from all over
China and form an extremely diverse artistic community
where members inspire each other with their different
approaches to art and life. This diversity has created a
powerful and ripe environment for artistic
experimentation and creativity. |
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