2009 Calendars, the winner

This has got to be the best 2009 calendar so far. You can review all 12 months here.

Photo of China’s first contemporary (post revolution) art exhibition

Here’s a series of photos of late 1970s Beijing. Above is reportedly a photo of an exhibition by the Stars group. The Stars had a well known exhibition series, held as historically the founding of Chinese contemporary art. They were disbanded more or less after the (in)famous shooting incident, where a female artist shot at her work in the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC). In a recent conversation with NAMOC director Fan Di’an, he told me that the lady artist was from a military family, and she went to get the gun to ‘improve the piece.’ She didn’t realize it would cause such a fuss. Here’s a link to a great article on the Stars movement.

Seeing in the New Year

For those in Shanghai who can’t attend the Hans Ulbricht event in Beijing, Mianmian will be doing the first reading of her work in mainland China (her work was ‘banned’ for a long time). She also promises some sound art and other things. The reading will be from around 9pm through until past midnight. Location: Shanghai book city, Fuzhou lu. Probably will go round after visiting the Artlab event Flake 2 at Moca.

Last work in progress report of 2008

Last WIP shots for the year…

Press release: art event in Beijing

Press release: Battery City:
A Post-Olympic Beijing
Mini-Marathon
Statement from Hans Ulrich Obrist

Time: 31st December 2008 2:00pm - 1st January 2009 2:00am
Location: the shop, Beijing
B1-1503, Building 15, Jianwai SOHO
39 East 3rd-Ring Rd.,Chaoyang District
Beijing, 100022, China
Contact: Tel/Fax:0086-10-59004374
mail@vitamincreativespace.com
(Publications are available for order)

http://www.vitamincreativespace.com

1) The Don’t Stop Principle: We never stop.
2) NBO (New Beijing Optimism) : In the lull of Post-Olympic flagging pep, and in the spirit of our declaration of NLO (New London Optimism) at last October’s Manifesto Marathon at the Serpentine Gallery in London, it is imperative to identify this moment as a force for optimism; we are here to proclaim NBO.
3) Anti-Cyclicality: Having purposely abstained from the rush to concert activities around the Beijing Olympics, we are anti-cyclical; This is it, now: The dawn of the New Year is no incentive for pause.
4) Polyphony of Marathons: This Beijing Mini-Marathon is not the first, but one in a chain of mini-marathons taking place in the city, the first being Beijing Pavilion: this event is urgent.
5) Trans-Disciplinarity: We direct our scope to a plurality of scenes; Chinese art cannot accept boundaries – those of disciplines, of generations, of geographies: Chinese art must have an open mind.
6) Book Machine: the Beijing Mini-Marathon event is a real-time complex dynamic feedback loop; the event will produce a publication, a document, a battery: a machine that generates energy for future development in the Chinese context.

Hans Ulrich Obrist will interview:
Ai Weiwei, Cao Fei, Zhang Anding, Xiao He, Zhang Da, Kang He, Wang Jianwei, Jia Zhangke, Jiang Jun, Ma Yansong, YangJiang Group, and Zak Kyes.

Special Sound Performance by Yan Jun

Inserted group discussion conducted by Jiang Jun (chief editor of Urban China) with participants: Hong Huang, Liu Zhizhi, Shi Jian, Shu Kexin, and Zhou Rong.

Power- art of south west China

Click the link for a selection of about 150 images from the show “Power, contemporary art of south west China”
To be frank, I tried very hard to find anything better than O level (GCSE for the young folk) standard. But I did like this one above.

This I didn’t like- flying foot penis chases woman

Content aggregation agreement between shanghai eye and art intern

It seems the esteemed website Art Intern will be aggregating Shanghai Eye content in future.
Chief Editor of Art Intern said: “I have seen some good articles on your site, can I repost them?”

Shanghai Eye CEO and Chief said: “OK”

Obviously not enough art news for drunks on the site then….cool.

Facebooking on facebook clone Kaixin Net

shanghai Eye has established a presence (beach head?) on the Chinese facebook clone Kaixin Wang (happy net?). It is extremely popular with my art and media friends. Check out my ‘room,’ suitably low rent:

“Everyone Chinese is on Kainxin Net” apparently…yeah…

The invisible man rescues art

here’s a BBC text on a lone crime fighter rescuing stolen art

a stolen rembrandt

J Lennon advertises made in Shanghai laptops

John Lennon has been roped in to promote the made in Shanghai ‘one laptop per child.’
TBH feels a bit odd this vid. The one laptop per child project is obviously a good one, just couldn’t they have roped in a living celeb? J Lennon wouldn’t even have seen a laptop.