Art, Pleasure, Additiction as Symbiotic Environments

It is unsurprising to notice that Beijing's upscale art districts developments become reported in the mainstream art reviews in the same breath as do those of London. The latter's business district's woes seem to stand for the soundness of the British economy as a whole. The intense interest of global public opinion to the Chinese economy, that in contrast has only to count with a cooling down of a more buoyant than average economic growth, carries over to Chinese art scene as a heir apparent to the historical procession of urban centers that used to define what it meant to be modern. Generally it looks we have to count with a global modernity that is envisioned, made and broadcast in China. The hip crown flocks in its droves to the art events in the arts compound in Beijing with the same enthusiasm it arrived to celebrate the parties thrown on the occasion of the market successes of Young British Artists in London and New York. Young Chinese artists have recently hit the top ten of the highest yielding art market hot items that bring at auctions prices even a decade ago deemed unreachable for the artists from the country in the process of an unprecedented image overhaul. The financial ups and downs will temper the excesses of the betting classes on the rising stars of Chinese art. However, the cultural ferment, the intellectual outburst, and the social power that this present period may well be going through can be laying down the very framework of images, words and networks that will be key to how the history of the present period will be told.

From Massive Change to its Urban Focal Points

Historically I wonder if other moments of possibly massive changed have been greeted with anything like sagacity of its contemporaries. Interesting times seem to be upon us. However, our interest in the international and national goings-on seems to swing from obsessive-compulsive attention to a listlessly passive browsing and watching of news. Was it also as ennuieux as it feels to be when reports on industry, policy and society read as forgone conclusions? The condition is more emotional than intellectual though. Learned articles go over the movements of defense and repudiation, running commentary solemnly repeats tried and true formula, private response remains in an undecided state of mind welcoming things to come. Rather than for a community to come, the expectation is for a symbolic event to come. Like a Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. It had a force of a carnival, a play and a ceremony all rolled into one event. A massively symbolic representation of a place the urban dymensions of its change only dimly register on collective imagination of its observers. If all previous periods of massive change had their urban focal points, than one may surmise that the present wave of transition towards a yet to be explored situation will have as one of its more visible bases in China.