A still from video project Early heaven by Lieve D'hondt, Almut Rink, Christof Schlegel.

By Matthew Jukes

The Austrians are back. They whipped up an artistic feast last year with the Mifan exhibition, hoping to feed into the Chinese arts scene a little taste of what Vienna had to offer. This year they're returning and offering an experience that you can wrap up and take away.

Starting this Saturday, the second exhibition by the Austro Sino Arts Program (ASAP) dubbed Da Bao is set to take over Anni Art in 798 art district. In grandiose fashion, they've invited 21 Austrian artists who have each had experience of China from a different viewpoint. Many were part of a residency program over the last year, but ASAP have also included the works of Joseph Francis Rock who took photographs in the country between 1922 and 1949.

Returning from last year to curate is Karel Dudesek, head of the arts program, and organizing is Lukas Birk, who exhibited his photography at the previous show. They were only too happy to tell us why 798 is garish, and just what an abundance of Austrian artists are flocking to China.

Limited expression

"I think it's fashionable to go to 798 at the weekend. But if you go to visit the galleries and what they have on display, the range of topics is limited and the expression is narrow," said Birk. "Being a poor artist in China is not as novel as in the West. There's art and there's art on a different level; the business especially has a different aspect here."

Part of the problem, they suggest, is the high rental prices in 798, which push gallery owners toward more traditional artworks, ink paintings and folk art that just wouldn't sell back home.

"In the Chinese art community from what they are doing, there's very little experimental from what we understand that to mean," added Dudesek. "It makes sense they can't survive, there's no art market in China. About 90 percent of what they do is something to be commercial, to have a chance to sell and make money."

The pair believes that although the European way is not necessarily better, it can open up a dialogue between different artists and patrons of the art. For the upcoming exhibition, they've been working carefully to make sure that all the works have explanations in Chinese, so that whether you're a veteran of the scene or a weekend tourist to 798 you'll be able to interact with the work and get a new perspective on their country. But even without the translations, each of the artists have their own unique experience and perception that they're willing to share.

"There are a lot of Austrian artists coming to China and working here for periods of three months or longer. They are producing big art pieces; this so far has not been shown," adds Dudesek. "We thought that it would be really interesting to show what they are producing, getting inspired and affected by and how they understand things with the environment they are living in. That's what we did when we started with our first show last year; this is a follow-up for the constant swarm of Austrian artists coming here."

One of the photo series Geh?use (enclosure) by Anna Hofbauer.

Out of the bubble

Already around China, there are several residency programs for artists from Austria, which house about 12 artists at a time. Far from sending each artist into a nice sanctioned bubble, they're offered the chance to stay in different areas far from the maddening crowds.

"I'm quite impressed. I was in China for the first time five years ago; I was impressed by the combination of modernism and the third world lifestyle," said Florian Schmeiser who has spent time in Chengdu and other cities. His multimedia installation deals with the development of the country, digitization, and themes of love and control using sound, and music to influence the visitor. "The other thing I was really fascinated by was the psychology of Chinese people. Many people seem to be happier, even in circumstances that Western people wouldn't be," he added, hoping to investigate this further with a little more time.

Alongside the multitude of artists working on canvas, print and sculpture, they're also hosting a visual arts project with video screenings. Each artist is seeking their own different expression of what they've experienced in China, what it means and represents to them, and using their own language to show it. Over the last year that Dudesek and his team have been working to set this up, he wanted to know what it felt like for young independent people living in what he dubbed "China's anonymous megacities."

"I'm curious to see how people respond to our work," said Bianca Regl, whose soft pink paintings dealing with aspects of women are bound to cause a stir. She's not sure how the audience here will deal with it, but has faith in Chinese art. "From the friends I've spoken with…for them it's hard to understand that I had an art education that wasn't just learning how to paint. I'm interested in what it means to make art; I feel even the different provinces have a very different way of dealing with art."

Subjective view

Each artist has undoubtedly taken from the experiences they've had and the people they've met. But each seems to reach a consensus when it comes to the topic of China's development; it's such a permeating aspect of society that they've gone out of their way to tackle. Rather than critiquing the social and political implications, it's more of a subjective view of what's happening.

"I'm not normally a studio artist; this is my first time," said performance artist Anna Hofbauer. Her series of nine stills, in an almost old post-war style setting depict the artist forming different shapes with her arms against a rustic brickwork background. "It's influenced by the surroundings, the process of building and destroying of changing shapes. The human body is the center measurement of all the proportions in that work. I just use the studio artist as a material, as a shape to discuss this moving architecture in China," she added.

Breaking the mold of white space and galleries, three video screenings by Austrian directors are the welcome addition to the exhibition. New Hefei, by Hannes Boeck, explores one individual's journey across the city in Anhui Province, a silent testimonial to the nature of identity and the relationship with the city in black and white. Another more eccentric showing is Thomas Lehner's Los refrigeradores - Hot night's cold fridges, which was filmed on location in Cuba, seeking to explore the politics and economy of the country via the abundance of subsidized Chinese refrigerators in the country.

Objects and paintings by Gerlinde Zeiler.

The exhibition kicks off at 4pm on Saturday and runs until November 30. In addition to the group exhibition at Anni Art, they've also worked with UCCA to provide the screenings and lectures.

Check out http://www.austrosinoartsprogram.org for more information.

matthewjukes@globaltimes.com.cn

The promise of illusion by Katrin Plavcak

Of Conceptual Photography and Sculpture. Thoughts on the Studio Series by Elisabeth Grübl. Photos: Courtesy of the Austro Sino Arts Program