艺术网> 新闻> ARTINFO

China's Biggest Art Stars Band Together to Raise Money for Japan's Tsunami Victims

2011-05-12 16:34:15 未知

A view of the sale exhibition with works by Fang Lijun in the background

BEIJING— China's art community banded together last week in the 798 Art District of Beijing to raise money for children affected by the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Under the banner "Love and Hope," a roll call of China's leading contemporary artists, joined by others from Japan and Korea, donated work to a charity sale and then turned out in the company of friends and fans to buy it as well.

The event was initiated by artist Huang Rui in collaboration with the photographers and founders of the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, who go by the names RongRong andInri. As Huang explained it to ARTINFO China, the three met together soon after the disaster and resolved "not just to stand by. To do something, however small."

The impact of the tragedy in Japan had extra resonance for these three. Inri is herself Japanese, while Huang Rui chose to live in self-imposed exile in Japan for a number of years in the 80s and early 90s. Huang is one of the pioneers of Chinese contemporary art, a founding member of The Stars group, which in 1979 staged the first-ever contemporary art exhibition in China. In more recent years, he was one of the founders of the 798 Art District, and is widely regarded as a kind of "godfather" of the art scene in China, closely involved in building and protecting Beijing's artistic community.

These three enlisted the help of curator Berenice Angremy and the private museum the Iberia Center for Contemporary Art to help stage the event. They rapidly signed up 80 artists willing to contribute, among them such leading names as Fang Lijun, Xu Bing, Zeng Fanzhi, Song Dong, Yin Xiuzhen, Wang Gongxin,Lin Tianmiao, Shi Jinsong, Qiu Zhijie, and the Gao Brothers. At the event just under 100 works were offered for sale and by the end of the evening 1 million RMB had already been raised.