798 Art Zone
[1] The Dashanzi factory complex began as an extension of the "Socialist Unification Plan" of military-industrial cooperation between the Soviet Union and the newly formed People's Republic of China.
The Russians were unwilling to undertake an additional project at the time and suggested that the Chinese turn to East Germany where much of the Soviet Union's electronics equipment was imported.
So at the request of then-Premier Zhou Enlai, scientists and engineers joined the first Chinese trade delegation to East Germany in 1951, visiting a dozen factories.
Arch-supported sections of the ceiling would curve upwards then fall diagonally along the high slanted banks or windows; this pattern would be repeated several times in the larger rooms, giving the roof its characteristic sawtooth-like appearance.
Among such points of contention was the Germans' insistence, historical seismic data in hand, that the buildings be built to withstand earthquakes of magnitude 8 on the Richter scale, whereas the Chinese and Russians wanted to settle for 7.
Luo, now retired in Beijing, is remembered by his former colleagues as a dedicated perfectionist whose commitment to the obstacle-strewn project was a major factor of its eventual success.
Joint Factory 718 began production in 1957, amid a grandiose opening ceremony and display of Communist brotherhood between China and East Germany, attended by high officials of both countries.
Through its several danwei or "work units", it offered considerable social benefits to its 10,000-20,000 workers, especially considering the relative poverty of the country during such periods as the Great Leap Forward.
During the Cultural revolution, propaganda slogans for Mao Zedong Thought were painted on the ceiling arches in bright red characters (where they remain today at the latter tenants' request).
Civilian production included acoustic equipment for Beijing's Workers' Stadium and Great Hall of the People, as well as all the loudspeakers on Tiananmen Square and Chang'an Avenue.
The first Head of sub-Factory 798 (the largest) was Branch Party Secretary Fu Ke (傅克),[2] who played a major role in recruiting skilled workers from southern China and returned overseas Chinese.
By the late 1980s and early 1990s, most sub-factories had ceased production, 60% of the workers had been laid off, and the remains of the management were reconstituted as part of a real-estate operation called "Seven-Star Huadian Science and Technology Group", charged with overseeing the industrial park and finding tenants for the abandoned buildings.
BTAP's 2002 opening exhibition "Beijing Afloat" (curator: Feng Boyi), drew a crowd of over 1,000 people and marked the beginning of the popular infatuation with the area.
American Robert Bernell was the first foreigner to move in and brought his Timezone 8 Art Books bookshop, gallery and publishing office to a former factory canteen.
Despite the lack of any conscious aesthetic in the Bauhaus-inspired style, which grounded architectural beauty in practical, industrial function, the swooping arcs and soaring chimneys had an uplifting effect on modern eyes, a sort of post-industrial chic.
At the artists' requests, workers renovating the spaces preserved the prominent Maoist slogans on the arches, adding a touch of ironic "Mao kitsch" to the place.
Among the works was Sui Jianguo's enormous concrete sculpture "Mao's Right Hand", which is just what the name suggests, and an example of modern Chinese art's ironic reflections on history.
Their works notably featured their own naked bodies in various strange locales, and were generally well-received despite being criticized by some as typical of the self-centered nature of much art in the area.
This first edition, named Radiance and Resonance/Signals of Time (光•音 / 光阴), was beset by logistical problems arising from landowner Seven-Star Group's increasing irritation with the art community.
[6] One of the most (in)famous displays at the Festival was performance artist He Yunchang having himself cemented shut in a wooden box with only two pipes for ventilation, and staying there for 24 hours before being chiseled out, prompting the proverbial "Is it art?"
The district's popularity has exploded since the opening of BTAP and 798 Space in 2002, with scores of galleries, lofts, publishing firms, design companies, high-end tailor shops, and cafés and fancy restaurants setting up.
Another sign of creeping gentrification is the increasing number of luxury cars parked near the galleries; local artist Zhao Bandi purchased the first Alfa Romeo convertible in Beijing.
There are all the current government projects which call for the expansion of the neighboring industrial park to turn all of Dashanzi into a high-tech development zone similar to Zhongguancun.
Influential members of the artist community and architects are lobbying various government instances to persuade them to allow the old buildings to remain, to help grow organically a cultural center that Beijing otherwise lacks.
)A crucial participant in the lobbying effort is resident sculptor Li Xiangqun, professor at the Academy of Arts and Design[11] of Tsinghua University, who was elected deputy of the 12th National People's Congress in 2004.
Li presented the municipal government with a formal bill in February, requesting the suspension of the destruction plans and preservation of the buildings as part of an Olympic-caliber cultural center.
Meanwhile, attempts have been made to appeal to the developers' sense of economics by pointing out similarities with New York's Greenwich Village and SoHo, where the high profitability of real estate is due partly to the presence of former post-industrial artists' dwellings.
An unlikely duo including SevenStar, a government-led consortium acting as stewards of a pension fund for former factory workers, and Guy Ullens, a Belgian philanthropist who had amassed the world's largest collection of contemporary Chinese art, commissioned Boston-based design firm Sasaki Associates to produce a vision plan which sought to re-purpose the district into a stable source of revenue while providing a much-needed destination for China's burgeoning arts scene.
To address the city's concerns, connections from nearby transit stations were strengthened, historic buildings were cataloged, and guidelines for their preservation and adaptive reuse were outlined.
A proposed arts school, artist-in-residence program, and requirements that tenants are involved in a creative industry provided cultural institutions with a sense that 798 would attract new talent and ideas.
