It rained last night, meaning we woke up and saw blue sky for the first time this morning. It felt great, as the smog was getting so thick, the light so dull, it was starting to feel suffocating.
We made our way into the suburbs of Beijing – to find a directional mic for my new camera. Took a day to track down, then we hired a driver to find the ‘shop’ which turned out to be a car park. After some confusion, I realised the man was asking us to come up to his apartment. Five floors later, he lets us into his tiny apartment, where he had a lot of sound equipment. I got my mic, but who knows if it will work. 700 RBM later. I had no idea what it was worth, and now I don’t really want to know. But know i needed it. I hope it works.
We headed into the Sunlitan Area, to the Markets to buy some clothes – its getting colder here, and I don’t have warm clothes – the markets are over five floors – but everything requires bargaining – exhausting process – basically most things tend to come down to one fifth to one tenth of the original price. We walked away with little in the end, as the bargaining was taking its toll. We found our way back to the 418 bus stop. Took some time to work out what side of the street we needed to be on. Somehow, with no chinese, we manage to find our way home. I think we will buy all our clothes in Cao Changdi, where we are based. There doesn’t seem to be bargaining here – just realistic pricing.
I have come to love this little village. So far, it has been my highlight of Beijing. The Caochangdi area is just off Beijing’s 5th Ring Road. Many of Beijing contemporary art galleries have relocated here from 798 and the city centre, as these districes are being “tidied up” and therefore the rents go up, so the artists move on, move out. Cao Chang Di has a great gritty feel – its a dusty (sometime very muddy) little village, sort of chaotic compared 798. Many of galleries in Cao Changdi were designed by Ai Weiwei – who apparently is also based here.
We went out to Laurens warehouse yesterday – talked about the dinner we would like to make. he has a great space about a twenty minute taxi ride from here – another sort of art zone. We then went out to dinner with Gordon from the Where Where space. Talked a little bit about the work I want to undertake. It will be hard to get things done here – but now I have most of my equipment together, so I think next week things will begin to take shape.
I met with Platform China to discuss the work. – Viki should be free next week to help out with a bit of researching. So far, Viki has been great. Her english is fantastic, and I think she understands what I want to achieve. She is busy getting ready for an opening on Saturday.
