QI MU SPACE is to present on Nov. 3 “Let’s Go to the ‘Dachang’ Together?!”. This exhibition, specially curated by Feng Xi’s, will last until Feb. 2, 2020.
As I remember when we were young, the whole country seemed to be made up of people from only three places: Beijing, the capital, Shanghai, and the rest. People in Shanghai were said to go to work with lard oil on their lips, enough to show their superiority in food and life. Over a cup of coffee, they looked at anyone who was not a Shanghainese and blurted out, “Gangboning”, something like bumpkins. Beijing is another story. Maybe because of laziness that was typical of the northerners, jobs related to basic necessities of life were left to “non-local fellows”. Rich or poor, Beijingers were often seen, with a clove of garlic in hand, a must for their favorite Zhajiangmian, noodles with soybean paste, in proud but good manner, calling these non-locals “waidiren”, outcomers. Like masters, Beijingers enjoyed the city to which “waidiren”, in order to make a living, sweated their guts out to bring changes. It did not last long before they found it was these “waidiren” who built these buildings and bought them. The native Beijinger had to move out beyond the Fourth Ring and the Fifth Ring in large numbers, catapulting Tongzhou District to the rank of “centers of Beijing”. Their inborn inferiority complex has been reduced to local delicacies they relish, like deep fried tripe, stewed liver, fermented bean drink, boiled pork giblets with baked wheaten paste.
Destiny repeats. Art zones disappeared day by day following the so-called “Expelling the Low-end”. The remodeled workshops they rented, the studios they built themselves without “necessary formalities”, as well as their unstable collective “liberal” state of life mean they would be labeled any moment concentrated occupants of “unauthorized buildings” and have their buildings torn down and cleared. In 2019 the artists in Rome Lake International Art Zone and in Huantie were notified to vacate in short order despite their rental contracts in effect.The sweeping demolition forced those artists to finish, in a short time, a hard series of physical labor of finding a new place, packing, transport and relocation, which indeed cultivated the indomitable spirit in these people who were force to move. Back in 2010, when art zones in Dongying, 008, Beigao, Suojiacun got the order to move out, the helpless artists managed to defend their rights and spend a “mild winter” in terms of response. As the demolition movement spread further to Jiangfu in 2014 and Heiqiao and Feijiacun in 2017, these artists had to swarm toward Songzhuang and Liqiao in Shunyi，and some move to the villages near Shangyuan, even to places that was much closer to Zhangjiakou than to 798 Art Zone. What is the future of these artist in search of better opportunities in Beijing? Where can they find the shelter if they choose to stay, and which is the way if they decide to leave?
Such is the backdrop for the proposal of “Let’s Go to the ‘Dachang’ Together?!”. Why Dachang instead of Yanjiao that is “an arrow away” from the art zone in Songzhuang, far more convenient geographically. With easy access to transport, universities around and fundamental facilities for life, it is not much different from the urbanized Beijing. Indeed it has become a backyard for Beijingers and those who work in Beijing. Advantages are often followed by disadvantages. Manufacturing workshops, for example, are not allowed in Beijing. When Yanjiao faces the same situation, our artists have to move their workshops southward to cross the Chaobai River and settle down in Dachang. Shifting to Dachang means choosing to convene in the Muslim community that is nearest to the center of Beijing, a natural metaphor in terms of belief and politics. Since the end of the Qing dynasty, beef and mutton from Dachang have been a metonymy of honesty, so these artists have a good chance of living there in no fear of being driven away.
Well, please delete what we have talked about Dachang. “Let’s Go to the ‘Dachang’ Together?!” is a hypothesized future. It can be our hometown, its landscape or some places with the fragrance of rice, somewhere poetic or somewhere mundane, or even anywhere in the world or in our dream. Casting our eyes ahead, the hypothesis is always something beautiful and it can probably become a lucky option amidst all the mishaps. Who are we? Where is Dachang? When “we” are linked with “Dachang”, “together” and “go” become central to the action in the exhibition, an imaginable journey in real life. “Dachang” serves as the locale for a fictional “Utopia”, a town over 20 km away, where there is a pasture without grass, and cattle and sheep dominate their conversation. Before starting the new dream, let’s visualize it over the aroma of a Jingdong meat pie.
Last year, the workshop I built myself with a rental contract that still had ten years to run, I was notified, was to be torn down, reducing all I’d got from scratch to an IOU of demolition, the time I would spend seeking redress, together with worn legs. Only then did I realize that Beijing did not belong to me, though I was born in Beijing.Then where is “Dachang”? It may never get out of the hands destiny wherever it goes, just like “the beautiful” floating in all directions.
Participating artists:
Cai Dongdong, Chen Xiaoyun, Dong Dawei, He Xun, Jiang Bo, Liu Gangshun, Liu Guangguang, Xu Zhuoer, Yang Maoyuan, Yan Bing, Yao Peng, Zheng Jiang
