Mind maps and other arty stuff

Last week, on a stuffy Wednesday afternoon, I went to check out the opening of the Map Games: Dynamics of Change exhibition at the Today Art Museum. Featuring the works of more than 20 big-name artists and architects, including the likes of Ai Weiwei and Ma Yansong, the show revolves around the topic of maps.

After entering the exhibition hall, it became obvious that the exhibition was divided into two types of artworks – ones inspired by maps and ones that actually were maps. Examples included Russian artist Varvara Shavrova's Beijing Map and Ai Weiwei's Map of China – an installation shaped like the map of China made from wood sourced from a relic of the Qing dynasty (see image above), were also examples of the creative interpretation of maps.

Surprisingly, the most interesting works in the show were probably those with the most tenuous connection to maps, for example Chinese artist Guan Shi's installation piece, 1000 km. The artist began by cutting a beam from an old house in two, one of the pieces is now placed in the museum and the other half - measuring 3.5m and weighing in at 300kg -, after being filmed for an hour simply laying on the river bank, was set afloat on the Yellow River in Inner Mongolia. I was impressed by how the artist managed to connect two geographical locations (Beijing and Inner Mongolia) by juxtaposing the slab laying in the museum with the video of the other half floating down the Yellow river. British artist Hugo Tillman's Maplab Concept was one of the most appealing works. After entering a futuristic "lab", the viewer is sat down on a comfy sofa and as a masseuse begins to give them a massage, they begin to navigate a touch-screen attached to the seat. On the screen there are photos of Film Still of the Mind – Tillman's photos that he sourced collected from an earlier work involving interviews with some of China's most renowned artists, including Zhang Xiaogang and Ai Weiwei. As viewers touch the screen, they can listen (in either English or Chinese) to the various artists talking about themselves. It was only later that I discovered that there were four hidden cameras inside the "lab", and yes, I had become another little white rat in Tillman's mind-mapping experiment.

Overall, the exhibition contained some beautiful and impressive works, but, it did get slightly tedious, with over half of the exhibits not really going beyond simply being yet another map. As the power of an object is weakened by repetition, perhaps the curators could have offered more variety and have been even more playful in their interpretations of maps.

June 18-28
Group Exhibition: Map Games: Dynamics of Change

A joint collaboration from Officina, Today Art Museum and 798 Art District, this show brings together the works of more than 30 artists and architects including Ai Weiwei, Ma Yansong, Marcella Campa and Andrea Gotti. Circling around the concept of a map, the artists and architects indulge in re-imagining urban culture – both present and future – with multimedia works. Until June 28.
Daily 10am-5pm. Today Art Museum (5862 1100)

If you're planning on heading over to Baiziwan to check out the exhibition, make sure to leave enough time to peruse the two other great exhibitions that are being held at the same time. With the eyes of the world on Beijing yet again in the run up to the Olympics, the Beijing City in Western Prints exhibition makes for interesting viewing, offering as it does a glimpse of how foreigners, and particularly foreign journalists, viewed Beijing from the mid-19th Century through to the Boxer Uprising at the turn of the 20th Century. The images are a selection of the 700-plus prints that Taiwan-based collector Qin Feng has been collating over the past couple of years. Ranging from the 1860's through to 1900, the prints have all been taken from various English and French publications of the time including the Illustrated Times and the Petit Journal. The exhibition runs through until this Sunday, June 29.

Over on the second to fourth floors of building 1, another interesting exhibition entitled World One Minutes is being held. The exhibition features videos of exactly 60 seconds that were filmed in various places around the world. For more info on the films, you can take a look at the official site. You can view the one minute video from China here. Until June 28.

In other art news:

Synthetic Times and Gerhard Richter:

You only have one week to get over to the National Art Museum of China and catch two great exhibitions before they close in early July. The Synthetic Times show is a fun, hands-on kaleidoscope of new media art that allows you to take a ride on the Dutch-made Beijing Accelerator and play around with a lot of other technology. Fans of writer Timothy Leary can also pay respects to a shipping container containing a portion of the psychedelic drug guru＇s ashes　(another portion of the ashes was blasted into orbit in 1997) that are being held as part of "a metaphysical adventure: an arcane network of computers, mortal remains, emotions, cargo containers, scientists, artists and hackers" that's parked out in the carpark, right by the irritating air current acoustic field installation that dominates the entry to the gallery. After playing around with all the fun tech toys on the first floor, head up to level three to admire the works of one of the most influential German artists of the second half of the 20th Century. With more than 50 pieces on display, the exhibition includes both the painters blurry abstracts and more realistic works. Richter is said to have been a major Influence on Chinese artists like Zhang Xiaogang and Chen Bo.

Synthetic Times and Gerhard Richter
RMB 20, students RMB 10.
Daily 9am-4pm (last tickets sold at 4pm). National Art Museum of China (6401 2252/7076)

Liu Xiadong at One Way Street

Best known for smashing the record for a Chinese painting at auction in 2006, when his New Three Gorges Resettlers sold for a cool USD 2.75 million, Liu Xiadong is one of the big names of modern Chinese art. Hear what he has to say for himself when he appears this Saturday evening at the Yuanmingyuan branch of One Way Street Library. Also look out for a talk by Wang Jun on Sunday from 3-5pm and a screening of films to raise money for the earthquake relief effort from 7-9pm.

Liu at One Way Street
Free.
Sat 7-9pm. Yuanmingyuan branch of One Way Street Library (6257 0357)

Zenith Gallery Opening

This Friday at 3pm Zenith Gallery will hold the opening of their impressive new Beijing branch. Located on the leafy Nanchizi Dajie, the new gallery is housed in a large turn of the century building that has just undergone extensive renovation. Their inaugural exhibition will be a solo photography show that runs through until July 20.
Zenith Gallery, 7 Nanchizi Dajie, Dongcheng District.(6525 6932)

Links and Sources
Today Art Museum www.todayartmuseum.com
Aiweiwei.com: Map (image)
artnow.com: Wang Hui
Hugo Tillman
Varvara Shavrova
Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center: Interview with Varvara Shavrova
Youtube: Star architect Ma Yansong - Danwei TV Hard Hat Show
Zenith Gallery Site
Tanghaowu.com: Zenith Gallery Image
The Beijinger: Hugo Tillman profile
The Beijinger: Interview with Chinese Artist Zhang Xiaogang