CONTROL AND OCCUPATION OF ART SPACE IN CHONGQING
Only now is the full story emerging of the problem with exhibition spaces which I faced when I first arrived. Yanyan offered me an exhibition space in a bar next to 501 Contemporary Art Centre. When I turned my nose up and asked about the spacious columned space in 501 I was promised when invited on the residency he muttered something about local government. I was left confused and alone, without explanation. Now I’ve witnessed this local politics escalate into possible confrontation next week as the artists plan to make their problems public.
Until yesterday the Huang Jueping Contemporary Art Museum, an impressive looking municipal building which sits opposite my studio block appeared abandoned and shunned. A vast air hanger style space, according to Yanyan and others it is under government control and suffers from a bad reputation for sparse and conventional programming. The day before yesterday I witnessed a flurry of activity; workers moving in and students with sketchbooks in hand. Yesterday it became clear what activity was taking place, a technical art training summer school.* 108 Gallery which belongs to the Sichuan Fine Art Institute suffers from a similar problem of government control and when I looked at it as a possible venue for my exhibition people warned me that it’s perceived as boring and no one would turn up if it had that venue’s name attached to it.
The local government, in a push of cultural regeneration following the opening of high speed rail links from Shanghai and Beijing have committed to ploughing 3 million RMB into restructuring the Huang Jueping Contemporary Art Museum. Yanyan and other artists who rent studios in my building are cynical about plans which follow from this policy. Money is always given to one person for each project, and these are not people who know anything much about contemporary art the local artists say. Yanyan used to rent the space for exhibitions every now and then but he has stopped bothering in recent years as his relationship with local government officials has deteriorated: they ask for more money and try to control programming. The same thing has happened 501, a block of studios through which he built the name ‘501 Contemporary Art Centre’ when he and other artists moved in, in 2006. Two years ago the owners of the 501 building from whom Yanyan rented, in cahoots with local government officials hiked up rents and attempted to control programming. Despite protests and long meetings no resolution has been found, more commercial artist such as designers have begun to occupy 501 and Yanyan et all have moved onto new pastures such as 102 where I’m staying. The recent activity of the temporary training school set up in the former Museum opposite 102 has really got up the noses of 102 artists. Yesterday they held a meeting. They have an enormous purpose built Museum space sitting on their doorstep which is wilfully mismanaged. I’m sorry for them but it’s quite exciting to be here at a time when everything is coming to a head. They seem to be plotting something dramatic and public.
*These training schools have proliferated in Chongqing in the last 10 years. As Sichuan Fine Art Institute has a very tough entrance exam the training schools enable students to build their portfolio of skills. Applications to the Institute are in excess of 60,000 every year, competing for only 1,500 places. For at the least 18,000 RMB (£1,713) and at the top end 30,000 RMB (£2855) you can undertake the crash course and get in with an increased (but far from guaranteed chance) of entry. These costs are only teaching, they do not include dormitories etc. Putting figures into context, you can live on 21000 RMB a year in Chongqing. This is a real money spinner. As well as these training schools being big business for the investors behind them they are also an importance source of employment for graduates from the Sichuan Fine Art Institute who become teachers at these training schools, and many teachers at the Institute earn supplementary wages acting as assessors.
