No, you are not alone. I love art and would spend days in galleries and museums, but the that's here doesn't really interest me.

you can smoke espressos? cool

If you are thinking that you "don't get it"

Sometimes there is nothing to get.

Art is subjective, the old trash and treasure debate.

I've seen plenty here that doesn't interest me, but no more than I saw back home that didn't interest me. They had an art display in the local park during National Day, out of hundreds of pieces I saw two I liked, the rest were all kind of anime/hello kitty-esque ... didn't do it for me.

I wonder why those stupid laowais waste their time with Michelangelo, Goya and other sub-artists...

Yeah, they do.

But, as in the west, they just forgot how to make good stuff and believe that toilets hanging from a wall are art.

It's Randall, BTW

798 is boring because it is TOO COMMERCIALIZED;it is set up for foreign visitors and rich chinese people.

Agree. Most of them are rubbish, only a few good stuff.

I enjoyed Chen Fei's Visual Desire and Violence in BTAP very much tho.

The worst is that so-called 100 breasts stuff( )....I felt like got seriously ripped off by someone.

Hi,

> I really want to jump on the 798 art gallery bandwagon,

You are at least two years to late...

That bandwagon has departed the station,'E's passed on! This bandwgon is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-BANDWAGON!!

(Apologies to Monty Python for this completely gratuitous use of their most excellent sarcasm.)

When I was there nearly 2 years ago there was still a bit of rawness, edginess and something that I felt could become real art (not just bad imitation of bad modern western at) with enough time and hardship. But friends told me it was already down on maybe a year earlier.

Now I just go to wear a Beret, smoke Menthols and drink Espresso in one of the many expensive caffee's that have replaced the more interesting galeries.

But hey, it's hip and hop and happening and all, the chicks love it, who am I to complain...

The post industrial landscape and industrial achitecture, including the east german designed quite bauhaus inspiered factory buildings (flying yeah olde black, red & gold with hammer, commpass and wreath of con here) are still worth the visit, the espresso no worse than $tarbuck$ or any other ripoff place.

Nowadays too many gwailo's underfoot though.

Oh well. Which reminds me, does anyone happen to know where the actual ART that used to happen at 798 has disappeared to?

There must be some new kind of affordable art space now where they all have disappeared to. Maybe some old decrepit chinese build factory outside Hanoi?

L.V.X. Thor

PS, for anyone who did not get the Monty Python reference, try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vuW6tQ0218

Heisann Odin,

Ingen grunn til bekymring

Wearing body armor and asbestos underwear.

Bullet Proof. Flame Proof.

Ha det bra Thor

Hi V,

Nice Avatar...

I used a similar one for a while elsewhere (UK),

with the tagline:

"It is to Madame Justice that I dedicate this concerto, in honor of the holiday she seems to have taken from these parts, and in recognition of the impostor that stands in her stead."

Not a tagline I'd use in China, but very appropriate in the UK, especially in London, where defending yourself against muderers ends you up in jail, instead on page one as "civic hero".

> Personally, I would enjoy a tour (if they ever offered
> one) detailing the history of the old munitions factory

Not sure if THEY (anyway, has anyone ever met "THEY", answers on a postcard?) ever will.

I know a bit of the early history (mostly from the other side of the connection that build 798) and would not mind arranging a single weekend day "tour" of the parts I find most interesting (other "experts" welcome to chip in on the tourguiding for the rest), with a running commentary if anyone cares to listen (otherwise I go back to wearing Berets, smoking Methols and drinking bad Expresso).

So, if we can arrange a group of Duettes and Dudes, maybe we can get TBJ to help us popularise this one and maybe bring some of their writers in.

Then, the whole history, from east german build military electronics & munitions factory (plus chinese white wine maker I hear) to slum to art zone to gentrified and dumbed down tourist area may be put on record.

L.V.X. Thor

You said it pal