Battery City:
A Post-Olympic Beijing
Mini-Marathon
Statement from Hans Ulrich Obrist
Time: 31st December 2008 2:00pm – 1st January 2009 2:00am
Location: the shop, Beijing
B1-1503, Building 15, Jianwai SOHO
39 East 3rd-Ring Rd.,Chaoyang District
Beijing, 100022, China
Contact: Tel/Fax:0086-10-59004374
mail@vitamincreativespace.com
(Publications are available for order)
http://www.vitamincreativespace.com
1) The Don’t Stop Principle: We never stop.
2) NBO (New Beijing Optimism) : In the lull of Post-Olympic flagging pep, and in the spirit of our declaration of NLO (New London Optimism) at last October’s Manifesto Marathon at the Serpentine Gallery in London, it is imperative to identify this moment as a force for optimism; we are here to proclaim NBO.
3) Anti-Cyclicality: Having purposely abstained from the rush to concert activities around the Beijing Olympics, we are anti-cyclical; This is it, now: The dawn of the New Year is no incentive for pause.
4) Polyphony of Marathons: This Beijing Mini-Marathon is not the first, but one in a chain of mini-marathons taking place in the city, the first being Beijing Pavilion: this event is urgent.
5) Trans-Disciplinarity: We direct our scope to a plurality of scenes; Chinese art cannot accept boundaries – those of disciplines, of generations, of geographies: Chinese art must have an open mind.
6) Book Machine: the Beijing Mini-Marathon event is a real-time complex dynamic feedback loop; the event will produce a publication, a document, a battery: a machine that generates energy for future development in the Chinese context.
Hans Ulrich Obrist will interview:
Ai Weiwei, Cao Fei, Zhang Anding, Xiao He, Zhang Da, Kang He, Wang Jianwei, Jia Zhangke, Jiang Jun, Ma Yansong, YangJiang Group, and Zak Kyes.
Special Sound Performance by Yan Jun
Inserted group discussion conducted by Jiang Jun (chief editor of Urban China) with participants: Hong Huang, Liu Zhizhi, Shi Jian, Shu Kexin, and Zhou Rong.
