Location: Songzhuang, Beijing
Completion: 2006.08
Ever since the early 1990s, Chinese avant-garde artists started to move from the old Summer Palace commune to Songzhuang, a village on the east skirt of central Beijing City. Now Songzhuang has become the largest and most famous art community home to thousands of artists from all over the country of all media, from photography and sculpture to painting and beyond.
Songzhuang Art Center is the first public facility built to provide an art platform and communication space for artists and villagers. The ground floor is open to create a welcoming and transparent space from inside out, for multiple functions like exhibitions or casual events. The second level is a cluster of enclosed exhibition boxes and auditorium wrapped by red brick, a common building material in the village. These boxes are rather introversive academic spaces with art as their view. Since the opening in Oct. 2007, this building has engaged actively with local artists and villagers.