2008 Hot Land

Hot Land - Works Compilation of Hundred Artists Exhibition in Beijing Yihaodi International Art Zone in 2008

Editor-in-chief: Hong Jinqiao

China International Culture Publishing

PREFACE

The Scenery is Magnificent Over Here

Wang Duanting

When asked what is the most rapidly developing country in the world at present, many people will unanimously say it is China; when asked in which city the artistic creation is the most active, many people in international artistic circle will say it is Beijing. For over 30 years since reform and opening to the outside world , its economic achievements have being world-stunning. In recent years, the unprecedented activeness in the artistic circle of Beijing has won high esteem. China is a hot land, on which an unprecedented economic miracle is being created. Beijing is also a hot land and arts here are demonstrating tremendous activeness stunning the world.

For artists, Beijing is just like a powerful magnetic field attracting them from all directions. Besides artists from various domestic places moving to gather in Beijing and the oversea Chinese collectively putting on show the performance of "Phoenix back to the Nest", many foreign artists, galleries and other artistic institutions have also come here in succession, increasingly heating up the fervent artistic circle in Beijing. While the previous capitals of arts are somewhat tired, the hot-brained prophet has been too impatient to wait and announced that Beijing will become a new world artistic center after Paris and New York.

Currently, accurate quantity of artists in Beijing is hard to account. However, in viewing about the artistic zones that have come out like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, we know that artists in Beijing are absolutely a gigantic group. Yihaodi located in Hegezhuang, Chaoyang District is another extra-large international art zone emerging in Beijing after 798. The huge space for exhibition, superior location and relatively convenient traffic facilities makes Yihaodi international Art Zone has become another highly magnetic artists' cluster zone. To display status quo of creation in Yihaodi Art Zone in 2008 and improve cohesion force among local artists. The company held "Hot Land—Hundred Artists Joint Exhibition in Beijing Yihaodi International Art Zone" in A-SPACE Exhibition Hall. The exhibition seems to have to topic and no standard, the unique common point of the artists participating in the exhibition is that they have the same identity of residents of Yihaodi and the works for exhibition have also been selected by the artists. However, it is such free and open strategy for sponsoring the exhibition that has presented the intrinsic characteristics of contemporary Chinese art. Carefully reading this exhibition, we have tasted the multi-flavors typical of contemporary Chinese art and sensed the ardent pulse of contemporary Chinese art. "Hot Land" art exhibition is a joint exhibition in Yihaodi International Art Zone as well as a small epitome about contemporary Chinese art. This exhibition reveals all information about contemporary Chinese Art.

Diversity is the distinctive feature of this exhibition. Artists for exhibition have com from different areas and backgrounds, and even from different countries and cultures. Works for exhibition are in various forms and techniques, including paintings and sculptures as well as decoration and photography. The styles encompass realism, abstractionism, expressionism, surrealism and New Pop Art, all vying in luster and complementing each other. Themes of the works go in great varieties. There are both rational contemplation and insurgent enthusiasm; there is exploration to the spiritual world and depiction about real life; there is painful venting as well as merry chanting; there is lofty idea as well as corporal desire. Various sentiments of contemporary Chinese and kaleidoscopic scenes of Chinese society can find corresponding visual images here. Diversity is the reflection of artistic freedom and creativity. When different arts can coexist together in diversified forms, we are not far from the democratic and equal society of harmony.

I do not agree that someone derogate both contemporary Chinese art circle and contemporary Chinese society as flippancy. Even it is flippancy, Chinese have kept still for thousands of years with Lao-Zhuang Thought, is it wrong that we change a state of mind and life style and pursue a flippancy for a time?! In my view, behind flippancy, there is energy, and synonym of flippancy is activeness. Without energy, where has present economic achievements in China come from? Without energy, where has the thriving scene of contemporary Chinese art come from? Energy is the guarantee for aged Chinese nation to rejuvenate and revitalize. We just live in this hot land and we are well-founded to believe that all will become better in the future—China will become better, contemporary Chinese art will be better and Yihaodi International Art Zone will be better in the future, we have the endless energy originating from idea emancipation.