The headquarters of HVIAF Photo: Sun Shuangjie/GT

 

When the people of Xucun village in Heshun county, Shanxi Province, say the name Qu Yan, you can sense a kind of respectfulness in their voices. An unlikely hero for these village people, Qu is a contemporary artist notable for his series of photos taken, almost literally, in their backyard.

In 2007, at the invitation of Fan Naiwen, the then local CPPCC chairman of Heshun county who was born in Xucun, Qu went to the village, intending to help change the decaying situation there. As has happened in rural villages all over China, young people have left to pursue better economic opportunities in the cities.

Now, six years after Qu's visit, the village, located at the foothills of the highest peak of the central Taihang Mountain, is no longer what it used to be.

This time, it was Qu's turn to do the inviting: Over 20 artists from around the world have come to Xucun to make their artworks here during the second biennial Heshun Village International Art Festival (HVIAF) that lasts from July 20 to August 4.

Among the artists are Luke Sciberras, Sophie Cape and Josh Rubenstone from Australia, Laurent Lettree and Nathalie Delpech from France, Dagmara Genda from Poland, Dan Gajdosova from Czech Republic, as well as Li Yifan and Cui Jinzhe from China.

798 in the countryside

Over the years, Xucun has been called "798 in the countryside" as it is marching forward to becoming an art commune as important as Beijing's 798 Art Zone.

Every HVIAF will invite some 20 contemporary artists, roughly half from China and half from abroad, to take up residence in the village for a half a month. During that time, they hold lectures about worldwide contemporary art scene and they find inspiration.

By the end of the festival, each artist will leave two artworks at Xucun, which go on display at a former granary in the village. Every year following the art festival, the village holds the Xucun Forum, a biennial event that focuses on countryside development with talks given by sociologists and art critics.

The village has retained a number of buildings that date back to Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Usually the bases of the buildings are piled up with stones, on which the villagers build the walls with mud and the ceilings with wood. Many of the buildings feature a niche at the entrance to honor the god of the earth.

Luke Sciberras was admiring a deserted house when met by the Global Times.

Pointing at the auspicious paintings on a mud wall of a house in which wild grass had covered the whole yard, the landscape painter said, "Look at the patterns, which are so beautiful. The scenery is very different from where I live in Australia, so interesting." Sciberras lives in an old church in New South Wales.

The village has also become a regular practice base for art students from Shanxi University and Guangdong University of Technology. Meanwhile, the Australia China Art Foundation has chosen Xucun as a creation base for its cooperative artists.

Practice what you preach

At his studio, which is a retro-style building constructed during the shooting of a 2008 TV series, Qu said, "It's really a surprise for me to achieve so much in two or three years, although the process was not easy." The founding father and artistic director of HVIAF told the Global Times, "If you want to convince the villagers, you have to do what you tell them to do."

Since coming in 2007, Qu's priority has been to get the villagers to protect the old buildings and not to build new ones in their place.

Thus Qu started his work by renovating the buildings from the TV series. The exterior remains authentic while modern facilities have been installed inside. The decor is a mix of modern and vintage, a suitable blend that is not only Qu's studio, but also a bar and a restaurant with rooftop dining.

One well-known story in the village is about how Qu went along the roads to pick up garbage and got the locals to be more aware of public sanitation.

A new countryside culture

"What I want to do is not simply to protect a historical site or stuff, but to cultivate a new countryside civilization that can combine traditional culture with modern civilization," Qu told the Global Times in a firm tone.

In Qu's opinion, Westerners self-discipline comes through religious practice and belief in God, while Chinese self-discipline comes through family bonds as they believe in the continuity of life. But, over the past decades, Chinese people have become so materialistic that as villagers go to cities, they can lose the discipline from their families.

Qu's thoughts were echoed by Li Renqing, secretary general and associate professor of Rural Social Issue Research Center of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who holds that the traditional culture in the countryside has been devastated as the education of the good traditional value systems have been lost over the years.

"Nowadays we don't lack people who participate in the construction of villages, but seldom would they do the work with such a profound thought process as Qu," said Li, who participated in the Xucun Forum last year.

As a result of that forum, this year's HVIAF has launched new programs to promote three-way interaction among villagers, artists and scholars.

Free courses in art, English and piano presented by participating artists and university student volunteers are held in Xucun's primary school. Meanwhile, teachers and students from the Graduate Institute of Building and Planning of National Taiwan University will help villagers develop proper plans to protect old buildings and redesign newly-built ones.

Fan, currently director of Xucun International Art Commune founded in 2011, told the Global Times that the changes of the villagers are "evident" as villagers are now more willing to protect the old buildings rather than to pull them down, and those who run catering services are making much more money than before.