Archive for 9 月, 2006

跨越时空的“对话”,北京798艺术区


北京798全貌

艺术区的标志
我在北京的公寓里798很近,我这几年亲眼看见798从一个废弃的工厂转变成为一个现代艺术气息的艺术区。每到夏天,一车一车的游客来到798,他们的到 来也迅速地提高了798里面的厂房的租金,导致798已经从一个艺术家聚集的地方变为艺术交易市场,穷一点的艺术家都搬去北京东面的通州宋庄了,就像下岗 的工人都聚集在798马路对面的大山子花家地,前几年有几个房地产公司要来开发花家地,一看里面的巨大量的城市贫民,只好作罢。

遍布的艺术书店

到处充满着艺术气息

798艺术区所在地,是聚集在七星华电集团下的797、718、798、707、706等几个工厂的厂区,这个厂区是新中国成立初期由前苏联援 建、原民主德国负责设计施工的包豪斯建筑风格的轻工业厂房。上世纪90年代以后,由于产品不能适销对路,这里的工人大批下岗,各厂均出租部分闲置厂房以度 难关。 2002年2月,一个名叫罗伯特的美国人,租下了这里的一个回民食堂,改造成前店后公司的模样。以后一些艺术家也先后看中了这里宽敞的空间和低廉的租金, 纷纷租下一些厂房作为工作室或展示空间。“

艺术展览

朝阳50年艺术展览一角

又一个书店

798是一个历史与现代的结合体,这里每天早上八点,上班的工人鱼贯而入,九点以后,行行色色的艺术家来到,下午三点以后,大批的游客坐着大巴来 游览,夜幕降临,还不断的游人进入,参加各种聚会,新闻发布会。有些车间仍在生产,而另一些厂房已经改装成功能各异的艺术场所甚至酒吧和餐馆。厂房里,另 类的当代艺术作品、舒适的现代家私与班驳的标语、过时的机械等历史痕迹相映成趣,仿佛展开一场跨越时空的“对话”。


展示橱窗

现代艺术

798内现在比较知名的有:时态空间、风和日丽家居廊、仁俱乐部、北京东京艺术工程、百年印象摄影画廊、二万五千里文化传播中心、八十座、左岸公社、NOW设计俱乐部等等,其中最有代表性的是1000多平方米几乎没有任何装饰、保持了工厂原生态的“
”,拱形的屋顶上刷着朱红旧日标语,空间一侧保留着机床,后部用玻璃门隔出来的一小块区域,专卖艺术类书籍。这个地方门口写着“不许照相“,但是肯定是798里面上镜最多的一个地方,由于就在798入口处,每个到798的人都会拿起照相机拍下这个地方。

领袖服饰

夕阳西下的798

美国《新闻周刊》评选出“世界城市TOP12”,北京由于798的空间重塑入选。更有外国游客把“故宫、长城、798”作为北京旅游的三大景观。 这大批游客带来的旅游收入肯定会给798的发展注入生命力。但是798的未来并不明朗。


798里面的餐吧

展厅和办公室

经过一番艺术与商业的博弈,上海苏州河畔的艺术家仓库得以暂时保留,广州的小谷围艺术村已消失在隆隆的推土机声中,深圳的大芬油画村继续发展。北京的“798”将面临怎样的命运?


时态空间

美女于798

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东经115度,北纬40度是啥样子呀?英文版

 

这是我们两年多前去的,这个地方在河北,大家有兴趣可以用googlemap看看地形。我们一行4个人,这篇文章是Frank写的,Frank是Harvard的毕业生,美国人,来中国几年了,他的博客在:http://blogs.msdn.com/acid49/

这是Degree of Confluence Project.

The goal of the project is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location. The pictures, along with a narrative describing the adventures it took to get there are then posted on this web site. This creates an organized sampling of the world.http://www.confluence.org/index.php


文章开始:
May 15, 2004

We set out from Beijing at about 9:00 am after reading how the first incomplete attempt ran out of time. We awoke in the morning to pouring rain and dark skies. Since the confluence was about 114 KM away, perhaps its clearer there or the rain would just dissipate away.

Having read the first attempt, we decided to take the less scenic but much faster modern expressway where you can run at about 80 mph if you’re not afraid of large trucks around you. The road towards the confluence was like a backwards trip into time and geology. As we left the huge congested sprawl of Beijing, we took the Badaling expressway into Hebei and passed through one of the points of the Great Wall of China in the mountains. From this point, things looked really bleak as fog and more rain seemed to indicate that things were getting worse for the weather.

However, after clearing the mountains that ring Beijing and getting back to the flat terrain of Hebei, the skies not only cleared up but the terrain turned flat and arid. It takes about 2 hours to get to within km of the confluence so it was a long drive still. On the way to the site we passed, military tanks, coal towers that looked like nuclear reactors and generally saw the landscape and the villages get more primitive as we went further away from Beijing.

After leaving the expressway, we needed to turn south on local roads to get to the confluence which took us through some cities and villages along the way. We passed a few weddings complete with outdoor rock and roll bands as well as some really old dilapidated buildings.

When SBD made the first attempt, he wrote that the scenery was amazing. I will have to concur with that observation as well. We noted that this part of China looks less like typical China and more like Utah and Southern Arizona. Complete with adobe-like huts beautiful mountain ranges and striking vistas and valleys, this could have been the American west.

When we got highway G109, after having to take a detour due to construction on a terrible local dusty road, we were met with a modern, wide, flat and uncluttered highway. Although there were many trucks, this highway was great with views on both the left and right side.

It was probably the riverbed of an ancient wide river and you can still see some of the little islands jutting upwards. Houses and huts were made of mud or clay and they built storage holes into the hills and cliffs themselves. After seeing the visual noise and clutter of Beijing, this was quite a contrast.

We turned off G109 about 6km from the confluence just like the previous attempt. However, we saw some local dirt roads or paths leading closer to the confluence. The terrain was more like a desert and during the rainy season, this whole area would have been impassable as it is interlaced with lots and lots of dry streambeds. We took our jeep to within 3 km of the confluence and parked to begin our hike.

Since there is a general lack of people or anything for that matter this whole area was very very quiet. It was not wild since there were some crops and other manmade plants that were grown wherever a level field could be found but there was no one around to be found. The hike to the confluence was generally on dry level ground but there were many rocks having been washed down from the neighboring mountains. It was generally a great hike with amazing views and terrain not too difficult to navigate or maneuver.

Although we had 2 GPS units, we still manage to meander around to the confluence since some of the brush and embankments were quite steep. After about an hour or so of walking, we managed to come really close to the confluence. As we, approached we had to go down a depression which was a bit of a downer since it was more like a big pit.

However, the GPS units said that the confluence was actually a few more meters away on higher ground and we lept at the chance to see what it looked like.

When we got to the plateau, we wandered around to zero the GPS units down to integers. It was a great location. To our North West was a beautiful majestic mountain range. To our South East was a vast and panoramic valley with another mountain range across. We had found the confluence and owe some gratitude to SBD for including some words on the scenery of how beautiful it is. Its hard to believe this was not a tourist trap since most of the temples and other things in China already are. However, this confluence has brought us to a place in China where medieval villagers still live in mud huts and the open skies and mountain ranges of China’s west can be sampled only 2 hours away from Beijing.

On the way, back we stopped to take pictures of the mud huts and even ran into some sheep herders on the mountains. We recommend this confluence during the dry season to anyone who wants to see some natural sites of China that will sadly probably disappear underneath a highrise or KTV in the future.


路上

路上

快到了

下了车还要走很远 ,我们从大桥那里走过来

没有美女谁去呀?

到了

北面

南面

东面

西面

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