This morning I took a couple of hours out to visit '798' – the 'Art Zone'. The '798' title comes from the original nomenclature of an old Soviet built industrial complex out towards Beijing Airport. Most of the site – based around a Bauhaus factory - has now been colonised by galleries and contemporary art installations. And if anyone assumes that Chinese culture is as regulated as the Soviet manufacturing that used to take place here, think again. An explosion of artistic creativity is on show in just about every genre – sculpture, ceramics and video as well as oils and water colours. The themes are every bit as seditious and shocking as any gallery in Amsterdam, Berlin or London.
On the way to my next meeting I call in to the new National Centre for Performing Arts. If '798' is alternative and edgy, this is the Chinese establishment making a global statement about classical arts and culture. In a city of astonishing buildings, this is off the scale. Its French architects appear to have imagined a giant flying saucer (a half ellipsoid is the technical term) landing in a lake next to The Great Hall of the people. Opened last year, the scale is breath-taking – imagine the Sage Centre in Gateshead but three or four times as large.
Like The Sage, there are independent venues all built under a separate skin-like roof. In this case there's a grand opera house, a traditional Chinese theatre and a Western-style concert hall, plus a library, rehearsal facilities, galleries, bars and restaurants. The lake that surrounds it on all sides reflects the pudding shape of the building perfectly presenting it like a monumental doughnut. The lake also has the effect of a moat and the only public access seems to be via a subterranean chamber with translucent roof covered by lake above. Whilst the inside of the Centre is teeming with world class orchestras, ballet and theatre companies, the entrance hall – ticketed and airport-style security – is more like a fortress. 'Grand' and 'impressive' don't do it justice, but 'welcoming' and 'accessible' are hardly appropriate monikers either.
We'll all be back in three months time – and for our next visit we'll have our cast and crew with us, ready to help the new Mayor of London receive the Olympic and Paralympic flags. We also present our eight minute sequences half way through the Closing Ceremonies that invite the world to re-unite in London in 2012. As we walked away from the stadium later that evening into the humid Beijing night there was lots of animated conversation - ideas and banter flowing readily and then some long pensive pauses...just like the athletes, minds focusing on the challenge of rising to the occasion on 24th of August.
My Olympics
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