Bola Sociology Design

China: Art In The City

August 21st, 2008

As we said back in  this post, contemporary art in China has been growing through its clever combination of innovation with traditional elements. And this new Chinese creativity has been taking over the streets, as our highlights of the day are sure to illustrate: 798, the Chinese SoHo, and the city of Chongqing, which gathered artists, students and workers to cover over 40,000 meters of the city in graffiti. Check it out, after the jump.

Located in the city of Beijing, 798 used to be an industrial district of the Chinese government, back in the 1950s. In the 1990s, the area was abandoned, and it remained forgotten til its rebirth in the early years of this millenium. As it happened in SoHo back in the 1960, cheap rent and spacious lofts caught the eye of artists, who quickly occupied the area, turning it into an artistic community and attracting galleries, bookshops, cafes and restaurants. The whole district breathes art, with a landscape filled with sculptures, urban interventions, and an atmosphere of charm, as you can see in the images below.

The city of Chongqing, one of the most populous in China, has promoted a true celebration of street art, gathering over 300 people from the local community to turn an area of 40,000 square meters into the largest residential area in the world to be covered in graffiti. Students, artists, and workers worked hard for a whole year, and the result was the unique landscape you can see in the pictures below: an environment filled with creativity and inspiration, most definitely worth a visit for those who are travelling to the gigantic China.

We’ll be back tomorrow with some highlights from the world of Chinese design.