So it's been a while and after a while life goes on and you forget that it's a series of events but instead you think of it as a soupy time conspiracy that blends traffic with sleep, dinners with getting dressed and friends visiting with remembering little work details.
Either way I was in Beijing a while ago and visited the construction site of The 3 Shadows Photography Center which was beautifully designed by the super-prolific Ai Weiwei (artist/architect/god father who has designed almost 1/2 of all the buildings in the encircling 100km) and is run by the Zen duo of Photographer Rong Rong (famous for both his early East Village performance photos of people like Zhang Huan and Ma Liuming, and then his luscious demolition site surveys, and also his later collaborations with wife Inri, where the two long haired hermaphrodites frolic, sometimes in the nude, across a range of dramatic land and city-scapes) and Zhang Li (a super sweet, soft spoken curator and critic who has been around since I was around way back when and who continues, somehow, to avoid being tinged by market frenzy ... or does he?).
Anyway The Center's $ comes almost 100% from Rong Rong who hasn't done so badly with them black and whites, and who is one altruistically minded mofo... or maybe there's moolah to be made? But somehow the dilemma of the China art market today is epitomized in the issues that the Center faces. The Center has many diverse and wonderful functions that will benefit the international shutterbug and photography admirer alike: exhibition spaces, lab/studio equipped with both digital and traditional capabilities, residency program and/or just residence for exhibiting out of towners, library, cafe, and project space for events such as concerts, lectures, etc.
It is a marvelously conceptualized Center along the lines of, but possible surpassing, NY's ICP.
So how does one fund it? Rong's pocket is only so deep... aha! They have an idea sell the work on the walls! Well why not everyone else is doing it... a big photo shop...
But doesn't this compromise the nature and choice of the works shown and the vibe of the place in general? Doesn't the neutrality of a Center- a place to educate, exchange ideas, practice, methodologies, become murky with money grubbing and financial priorities?
Can't the Chinese neauvou-riche just take some of that disposable income and be benefactors to such a marvelous place without getting a print off the wall? Can't a system of membership, ticket sales, museum shops and corporate sponsorship float this ark? For Christ's sake this is China and people are making BANK... they want a high culture of connoisseurship why not let them pay for it . Give them parties, studio visits, trips to Venice, whatever it takes... It is time China enters the era of cultural philanthropy...
yeah I know it's not that easy but to anyone listening I have one word - Development - There are so many institutions hurting because no one has figured that right way to tap into the shitload of dough that is wasted out there..
No comments:
Post a Comment