Just when you think that you have seen a lot of art, a lot of studios and have met a lot of interesting artists you bring a visit to SongZhuang and you get the feeling that you can start it all over again.

But may be it’s better to start this story with a right beginning. In The Netherlands we had already made e-mail contact with Nanfei Wang, a professional female artist in Beijing (see photos). A couple of days ago she came to view my exhibition and we made the appointment to visit her studio. When she told we had to go to SongZhuang for that a bell started to ring. Because when you know your way in the literature of modern art in Beijing you also know that this is the name of the first art village near Beijing. In 1995 some young artists from Beijing settled in this farmer village about 30 kilometres from the city. There they were driven out by the authorities to find shelter and studios in SongZhuang where they were left in peace. As often happens in places where artists find a place to work, just think about Soho in New York a long time ago, things start to happen. In combination with the less stricter politic system that was introduced somewhat later this new atmosphere in the village has lead now to a flourishing art community of about 1500 registered artist, not counting for the many unregistered ones.
Do not think it’s a cosy place, this SongZhuang, because there are no such places around Beijing. Just imagine clusters of houses and some bigger buildings intersected by farmland, small factories and roads, to far away from each other to walk. But the farmland is getting less and less because the farmers have discovered that they can earn more money by building complexes of artist studios and rent them. Because a new rule says it’s not possible anymore for non citizens to by property as was the case in the past. This place, so important in the history of modern Chinese art, we visited today.

Our guide Nanfei, who has struck root here in the community and speaks English very well, took her time to give us a tour in our cab with driver we had hired for the whole day. In this way we visited a lot of studios of art friends of hers, we had overwhelming welcomes everywhere, our lunch was secretly paid for by a friend of hers who sat on a table nearby, one of my visits was even filmed, my signature can now be found on a big canvas and saw of course a lot of galleries in old but renovated factories. The art itself showed again its variety in images and techniques, in authentic or stolen styles. But the last is here no problem at all.
This day went by too fast and we have only seen a very small part of what SongZhuang has to offer. But we saw again enough to conclude that the art in and around Beijing fizzes in an unbelievable way.