Our Face

My friend Jill works at a great art gallery (that shall remain nameless in this space, just to be careful) in one of the major art districts here in Beijing, called Caochangdi. Well, it's kind of THE major art district--as the other is much more developed and tourist-a-fied. Caochangdi lies at the outskirts of Beijing and is actually a communist-era village, with artists' studios and galleries interspersed into a working-class community. The area used to be agricultural but has since been absorbed into the ever-expanding giant that is the capital city.

Recently, Caochangdi put on a major photography festival, Caochangdi PhotoSpring, in conjunction with Arles photo festival. The festival gathered artists from Asia, America, and Europe, and is showing their work through June. Some of the work, particularly that by Chinese artists, can be quite inflammatory and politically sensitive, definitely pushing the envelope culturally. The government always worries about subversive types and activists, who are especially dangerous when they congregate in GROUPS. Thus something like a FESTIVAL which allows many subversives to GATHER TOGETHER and to FORM NETWORKS, not to mention DISCUSS SENSITIVE TOPICS and DISPLAY SENSITIVE IMAGES as a way to DISSEMINATE REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS, is quite threatening.

Therefore, the government had a few things to say about the festival, and did a number of not-so-subtle things to attempt to delay or mar the exhibition, including sending police to threaten some of the gallery owners, delaying or denying the necessary permits and paperwork, refusing to allow overseas artwork (particularly from Japan--mortal enemy No. 1) to enter the country for the festival, and threatening to demolish sections (or even all) of the village of Caochangdi after the festival concludes.

This last is particularly worrisome as many of these artists and galleries have invested a lifetime's worth of savings into the spaces that they have developed in this wonderful, creative village of Caochangdi. If the village is ripped down as a political statement/warning to those who are outspoken, or to make way for new development as part of the government's urban planning efforts, Beijing will lose a vital piece of its contemporary culture and social voice, at least temporarily.*

Anyway, overall, the photo festival was really neat. If you are in Beijing, check it out! One particularly interesting artist who has work on exhibit there is Ken Kitano, a Japanese photographer who is exhibiting a project called Our Face. He's traveled around the world taking pictures of individuals who all belong to a similar group (race, class, profession, etc). Then, he layers the negatives one on top of another, until dozens, even hundreds, of peoples' faces lie one over the other. The effect is remarkably cohesive and striking, while also ghostlike and ethereal. I never would have guessed that we all look so much the same! It's cool-check it out!



*If you are interested in helping to protect Caochangdi by signing a petition against demolition, email me.