Day 8

Today I met with Sui Jianguo, a leading Chinese contemporary artist who is based in Beijing. He was one of the first artists to set up studio in the art complex 798 which today is home to a many galleries and art studios located inside red brick buildings that were once electronic factories and warehouses built buy the East Germans. Please see Day 2 for more images from 798.

Sui took me on a tour around the area that surrounds the art zone which included other interesting brick buildings and art studios.

In this area there was also a lot of building development taking place and demolishing of buildings to make way for new housing and office space.

We also visited the grey brick building which is the China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA).

Located in the North East of the CAFA campus, the CAFA Art Museum is clad in traditional Chinese slate and designed by Japanese architects Arata Isozaki & Associates.

Sui's studio is no longer located in the 798 art complex, and now lives and works in a small private community which he built himself on the fringes of Beijing.

Image of a great brick video work by Sui Jiango, made in 2009 in which he pulverized a rescued brick from a building being demolished in the areas surrounding 798 (see above).