798 Art Zone
Dashanzi Art District (Chinese大山子 艺术 区, pinyin Dashanzi Yìshùqū ) is the informal name of a part of the inhabitants of Community Dashanzi (大山子 社区) in road district Jiuxianqiao (酒仙桥 街道) of the Beijing Chaoyang District, where since 1995 a thriving artist community in the midst of has an old factory building in the Bauhaus style established. The former military area has thus become a colorful trendy neighborhood with many artists' studios and galleries, the tendency of which is now considered the commercialization of some pages as problematic.
Frequently, the district is also referred to District 798 or 798 factory, basically, this being only one of the buildings of the former factory network 718. The complex is located between the connecting lanes 2 and 4 of Jiǔxiānqiáo Lù (酒仙桥 路), south of the High Street Dàshānziqiáo (大山子 桥).
The Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei lives (2011) in Dashanzi Art District.
The establishment
The factory complex Dashanzi was originally created as an extension of the " Socialist Unification Plan " of military-industrial cooperation between the Soviet Union and the newly founded People's Republic of China. In 1951, as part of the First Five Year Plan of the People's Government, already 156 projects of the factory network implemented based on that agreement. The needs of the People's Liberation Army of modern electronic equipment that was produced in only two of the factories, but was able to not be covered. The Russians were not willing at this time to carry out another project and suggested the Chinese before, to turn to the East, where the Soviet Union imported a great deal of electronic equipment. So in 1951 a delegation of Chinese scientists and engineers went on behalf of the then Prime Minister Zhou Enlai on the way to East Germany and visited several factories. In the spring of 1952 there was a green light for the cooperation and preparation team was sent to East Berlin to work out construction plans. This joint project - the largest between China and the GDR - was then unofficially known as Project No. 157.
The architecture has been left to the Germans, who gave preference to a functional design with influences of the Bauhaus against the Soviet verschnörkelteren style and thus the first triggered by numerous clashes between German and Russian consultants of the project. The plans ( form follows function ) required large interior spaces to allow maximum use of natural light in the workplace. Curved ceiling sections with a slope on one side, gave the roofs of their characteristic Sägezahnoptik. Despite its northerly location in Beijing all the windows are oriented to the north, since the incident light from this direction casts fewer shadows.
The place is a 640,000 m² large area in Dashanzi was selected, then a piece of low-lying farmland northeast of Beijing. 500,000 m² should occupy the complex, of which 370,000 m² for the quarters of the workers. Officially, it was called the factory compound 718, the method of the Chinese government following to begin behalf of military installations with the number 7. The enormous for that time initial budget of 9 million rubles (now about 140 million yuan renminbi or 14 million euros ) has been fully applied by the Chinese side.
In April 1954, the first sod was. The construction phase was marked by disagreements between the Chinese, Soviet and German experts, which one day even led to a six-month delay in the project. The sharpest criticism heard the Germans on the part of Russian technology consultant who (714 and 738 ) was for the two built by the Soviets Beijing electronics factories responsible, who occupied also a post as principal adviser to the Department of Telecommunications Industry of the second Ministry of engineering industry. The conflicts usually revolved around the high but very expensive quality standards of the Germans, who were called " over-engineered " by the Russians as. Among the points of contention was the founded on historical seismic data insistence of the Germans to secure the building against earthquakes of magnitude 8 on the Richter scale, while the Russians and Chinese were satisfied with strength 7. Responsible for the news industry leader in the Chinese Defense Wang Zheng was, however, from the outset on the German side and supported her approach.
At its peak, more than 100 East German experts working on the construction project. More than 22 of its factories controlled the resources at it. At the same time, the enormous pull of the Soviet Red Army caused the East German industrial production shortages. About the Trans-Siberian Railway, the equipment was brought directly to the Main Train Station in Beijing, where she was promoted via a specially built 15 km of railway line to the East Railway Station near the construction site. Trained in the United States scientist Dr. Luo Peilin (罗沛霖), former chairman of the preparatory group from 1951 to 1953 and later chief engineer during the construction phase is described by his former colleagues as a dedicated perfectionist, the use of which a substantial proportion of the success of this by obstacles interspersed project had.
Exhibitions (selection)
- 2005: Beijing Calligraphy Exhibition, Must be in the Art Centre, involved, among others, Liu Bolin.
- 2006: Grey and Red
- 2006 Demolish China, Factory 751
- 2006: Red Star, Red Star, Red star
- 2006: Beijing Exhibition View, Ner Art Project
- 2007: Off Centre Generation - Post- 1970s Group Exhibition, Factory 751
- 2007: Review Exhibition of Chinese Performance Art Pictures, Ying Gallery