stepho&crank

One of our other fun excursions while my dad was visiting was to the 798 Art District. The art district is located on the outskirts of the northeastern part of Beijing in what was once a thriving factory community. The district had it’s beginnings in the early 1950s, when China was in need of new electronics manufacturing capabilities. Having already funded Projects 1 through 156, Soviet Russia suggested China turn to another ally in the Eastern Bloc. Planning for Project 157 began in East Berlin which accounts for the factories’ German Bauhaus-style architecture. The factories were all highly productive during the 1960s and 70s, however by the early 1990s factory production had largely ceased.

In the late 90s and early 2000s the area was reborn as a contemporary artists’ community which has thrived in the last several years. Art galleries and cafes have sprung up in the same factories that once supported Mao’s China and evidence of his control over the country are visible in some of the galleries today — huge Maoist slogans continue to adorn many of the gallery walls and ceilings.

My new favorite painting.

We wandered around the shops and galleries for the day, sipping coffee and snapping photos. I also found my new favorite artist, Liu Ye, one of who’s prints is shown above (it is a little girl with a knife in her hand, facing off with a pig). (See more of his art here). We had a really great time — so good, in fact, that we decided to go back the next weekend and camp out there for a day. See below for some of our photos of the awesome art and architecture of 798.