Yesterday CET took us to an emerging artist community in Caochangdi (草场地). We started off in the The Three Shadows Photagraphy Art Centre (三影堂摄影艺术中心）Our tour guide described it as a centre "by artists for artists" and said that it differs in this way from the more well known and nearby artist community of 798, which she describes as becoming more commercial as of late. I was afraid to take pictures of any of their exhibits, because their space is essentially a non-profit and as I think that the work the are doing there is really inspiring as well as important, I thought it best to let people go and experience it themselves. Here is a link to their web site (mostly in Chinese):
http://www.threeshadows.cn/beta/ts3.htmlHere is a direct link the current exibit showing there, "Moving Rainbow" (流动的彩虹):
http://www.threeshadows.cn/beta/zh/exhb_moving%20rainbow.htmHere are some images of the property and its unique building designed (inspired by Ai Wei Wei's belly) as well as their library, which along with all their deveolpic and computer editing/design equipment is open daily to the public. Their library offers what I'm told is the largest collection of photography books in China, as well as a super modern state of the art digital photography lab and traditional darkroom. They even give classes on how to use both! As always you can click on any of these pictures to be directed to the rest of my photos on my Flickr page,
www.flickr.com/photos/mustard
After a tour of their property we went on to walk around the rest of the village. It has an interesting contrast of modern (and often expensive) art galleries strewn among decades old stores and restaurants that cater to the people who live their (mostly taxi drivers, as noted by the dozens of them parked around the town as their operaters enjoy some well earned time off)
We had lunch at a delicious Szechuan (四川) style restaurant。 My roommate, Liang Ke (良科) is from there, so he ordered everything, and it was outstanding. The best part was 9 people ate for like 108 kuai, which is about $14.50. After lunch people were getting restless and wanted to also see 798, so we left sooner than I'd have liked. If you look at my pictures, they are posted in reverse chronological order so the 798 photos are earlier, and everything after this:
is Three Shadows and the surrounding neighborhood. 798 was also beautiful, but it had way more tourists (earlier we were the only ones) and also a strong Disney-like atmosphere, since everything was so new and expensive. I think both places are very exciting, however, and would love to go back.
