In beijing. We have come here from Istanbul – exhibiting with ISEA.http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/.gonsalves.
I am here with my husband, Matt, and my son, Pablo who is three years old. We are here as part of an asialink residency, based at Platform China http://www.platformchina.org/. The gallery is based Caochangdi Village, Chaoyang District in Beijing.
When we first got here, a bit jetlagged, and still with our hearts in Istanbul, the shock was palpable. When I thought of Caochangdi Village i thought we may be in some sort of compound, as we sort of are, but the village, is a ‘real’ village, and based on the fifth ring road of beijing, which means the center of Beijing is about 50 minutes away I am told. This has been great. Caochangdi is wonderful.
Pablo is loving it. He has gone from lots of cheek grabbing, kissing and hugging of Turkey to feeling like the paparazi has arrived. Yesterday, as we walked through the 798 art district, nearby to Caochangdi Village, he got his photo taken as much as 300 times and thats a low estimate. With his curly blonde hair, he draws crowds. He is used to the attention, we have been traveling with him since he was 10 weeks old. He turns 4 in two weeks.
Beijing has zoned art areas – and we are in the second one. So this little town, with its dusty dirt streets is actually filled full of art galleries. The other zoned area is 798 District, about ten minutes away where we spent the day yesterday – it has so many galleries it makes Chelsea in NYC look dull. Its national holiday week here, so all were out enjoying themselves.
We find the people friendly, and the food has been an adventure. – so far great – but its just point and hope for the best – nothing is in english and no one speaks english. Yesterday my dish arrived full of chicken feet.
Our apartment is a warehouse loft that has the warmth of a communist schoolroom. We know this will be hard living ahead. When we arrived, it was pretty dirty, with a sort of impoverished artist feel which drives me crazy. We have given it a good scrub now. Viki, who seems to be our main contact point has been fantastic. We asked for a couch which will also be utilized for pablo’s bed, a DVD player to keep pablo occupied occasionally, and another quilt as its getting cold, and three more chairs so we can sit down at a table. They have been great with it, but I guess I still get annoyed when artists are presented with accomodation that doesn’t have a great standard. The galleries here are sparkling and clean, and I think the accomodation needs to be too.
We have tried to go the supermarket a few times, but we find ourselves walking out with little – as the diet, and the packaging is so different, its hard to know what to buy and what to eat.I worry a bit about keeping pablo fed with foods he likes, but I guess he will adapt. Milk is harder to come by, there is no bread anywhere, I found something that could be yoghurt. I guess we will work it out over time and find different places to shop.
Pablo has been making friends fast. When we sit to eat, he befriends everyone and the next minute they are all running wild – in and out of shops, into homes, down alley ways – with matt chasing them all. Pablo running about with the kids draws more attention and more photos from everyone.
We have a norwegian curator next door, so tonight we are heading to the fodder factory for dinner. http://www.thebeijinger.com/directory/Fodder-Factory. We have been here twice, and the food has been excellent.
