Ever increasing circles

In an art center in Beijing, several actors and actresses read extracts from French essayist Roland Barthes' Travels in China. They move their bodies under the guidance of a professional dancer while reading. The performance, presented in early April, attracted lots of young people when the city's cultural activities were not so largely influenced by the pandemic.

This was the third cultural activity Macalline Art Center, situated in Beijing's popular 798 Art Zone, has held that is related to its inaugural show, which opened on Jan 15.

In the past two months, the center has invited novelist Lu Nei to share his latest release with readers and has presented a performance involving scholars studying different Chinese dialects. The theme for each event was based on the works of young artists that are displayed at the center.

"We aim to establish a platform that not only gathers artists, but also assembles as many professionals from different fields as possible," says Che Xuanqiao, founder of Macalline Art Center.

The two-story venue is the only art museum that has opened this year in Beijing, when most of the city's museums and art institutions have either closed or postponed their exhibition plans.

"When our lives are hindered by the pandemic, art should shoulder the responsibility of offering some spiritual consolation, with a mission to arouse people's passion for life," says Che.

The 29-year-old explains that they had been working toward the inauguration of the art center since 2019, but the opening was delayed a number of times due to the pandemic. Finally, she made the decision to open it to the public earlier this year, although the art center still had to deal with difficulties brought about by the pandemic.

"We struggled, but we made it," she says. "We hope to foster a close and deep interaction with artists, scholars and professionals from different areas."

As well as her role as the founder of the art center, Che works for her family's furniture business and owns her own furniture brands. The young woman is also an art collector. She first began collecting art at the age of 24, after she graduated from college.

Che loves to meet and chat with artists, a group she considers to be "very interesting and charming". She also dabbled in producing her own oil paintings and sculptures several years ago.

With a great passion for art, Che decided in 2019 to establish an art museum that would be different from other such institutions and offer a distinct mission. She discussed this approach with her art team and decided that the center would be "a community of creative connections" to gather as many artists from as many different fields as possible.

The museum's opening show The Elephant Escaped commissioned five young artists to make video works based on novelist Lu's Wuxingzhe (Mistwalkers). The novel published in 2020 tells a story that stretches from a flood in 1998 to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, documenting the lives of several characters amid a fast-changing society.

All the films for the opening show range in run time, from 10 to 21 minutes, and echo Lu's novel in an attempt to explore how people will live in the post-pandemic era.

Yang Beichen, director of Maccaline Art Center, says that artists chose to present all of their works in the medium of video because it's synonymous with the younger generation. Books and still images don't provide enough attraction to the young compared with dynamic visual presentations.

"Films can better express emotions and the thoughts of the inner mind," says Yang, who is also a scholar in video art.

Artist Tao Hui's video work Stay Wild records a young woman skating through a college town, a factory, an urban setting and a city center while singing a folk song. Tao says the skating in the film is a metaphor for the passing of time and individuals can use their bodies to measure changes of a city.

Other artists also made films based on their own experiences to show the changing of society and passing of time. For instance, artist Fang Di, who works for a State-owned company and has been sent to work at various overseas ports, focuses his lens on stories of migrants from different times and regions.

Yang, the director, says that all the artists were asked to read Lu's novel and draw inspiration from it and their own life experience. The art center invited the novelist and artists to share their stories with audiences following the opening of the show.

"Just like our mission statement, we hope to jump out of established art circles to bring people together," says Yang.

This summer, the art center plans to support "a walking project" that gathers scientists, novelists, artists and people interested in big data. The group will visit big data companies as well as other related sites in Guizhou province.

"We want people from various areas to brainstorm and deliver creative results," he adds.

The art center is scheduled to stage four shows a year. However, due to the pandemic, that program is subject to change.

Besides the Macalline Art Center, there are three other related art programs and another complementary art center already running in Shanghai, all supported by Che.

In May last year, the center also launched a digital magazine to publish bilingual articles in Chinese and English about the arts. In 2020, it set up an online video platform to help young artists release their works.

"The pandemic has changed many things in the art world. Despite the availability of physical spaces, we have to follow the trend of doing shows online, but I see no difference between online and physical shows. Both can be appreciated in their own way," says Yang.