The Dashanzi International Art Festival (hereafter referred to as DIAF) is a large-scale event held in the Dashanzi Art District and a combined effort of the DIAF organizing committee and the various artistic initiatives around the district. Every year in spring, the DIAF stages a lively dialogue between citizens and contemporary culture through a wide range of events, all taking place in the Dashanzi Art District during one month. The festival integrates sound and visual, movement and stativity of both image and body by using multiple forms of contemporary art: visual art, live music, dance, theater, performance art along with design presentations and film projections. To serve this objective, DIAF invites artists with different backgrounds and nationalities.

　　In 2004, the first edition of DIAF titled “Radiance and Resonance /Signals of Time” (Guangyin/Guangyin) focused on the possible relations between the audible and the visible and explored the ongoing dialogue between past, present and future. With “Language/ Fable” (Yuyan /Yuyan) as title, the second edition of DIAF main objective will be to explore the richness of language(s): how are they used, tricked, imagined, magnified by artists or simply by body of art works? In the periphery of this thematic, we will pay special attention to the French contemporary art scene -– as 2005 is the French year in China.

　　Conceived as a long-term project, it is the ambition of DIAF to become a major independent annual event in Beijing (and consequently in China). An event that not only reflects the most contemporary trends but also accommodates exchange and interaction between different art forms, and this in an international context.


　　2. DIAF and the contemporary art scene in Beijing

　　In order to further enhance Beijing as a center of contemporary cultural production, and in accordance with evolutions in other cultural capitals around the world, it is our conviction that it is very important to host an international annual art festival. A festival that functions as a platform, covering all fields in arts production and stimulating exchange and interaction between those fields. A festival with special attention to events that combine different media and incorporate new technologies. Which place can serve better for this purpose than the Dashanzi Art District?

　　The Dashanzi Art District is since two years without any doubt the place to be when it comes to laying your hands on new trends in Beijing. The district -- known as the 798 factory -- is located in an old Bauhaus-style complex, a stunning industrial site that hosts a growing number of galleries, workshops, bookstores and cafes. The district has become a “So-ho-esque” area that both inspires and reflects a new lifestyle in China. It has not only attracted a huge amount of national and international media reports, but the area has also actively contributed to the social awareness that art is more than just an underground expression. In Dashanzi, contemporary art has become accessible for a large and diverse public.

　　DIAF brings about a new step in the development process of the Dashanzi Art District: the festival upgrades it to a multidisciplinary platform. It accommodates artistic collaboration between artists from different backgrounds and nationalities, offers artists an unrestricted environment to work in and provides the audience with a full program of diverse events in one and the same place.


　　3. DIAF 2004 : Radiance and Resonance/Signals of Time

　　DIAF organized and/or co-produced more than 30 small and big- scale events, with 15 premieres created specially for DIAF 2004. Major autonomous cultural spaces of the area joined the festival with their own productions: they organized manifestations as well as exhibitions and live concerts. Next to this, numerous artists and small autonomous spaces opened their doors for the public and/or organized special events.

　　In total, more than 40 events featured within one month:

　　● Four film festivals with a retrospective exhibition of the prominent French filmmaker Chris Marker, a presentation of Japanese films by independent filmmakers from Japan, an Asian-French video festival, and the hosting of a series of documentary films from Australia.

　　● Nine visual art exhibitions including an open air light installation by Wang Shugang, and also photography, painting, multi-media and sound art exhibitions as the Transborder Language 2004 – Volume Control exhibition, a premiere in China. It presented the exploitation and the meaning of sound in a visual manner.

　　● Two exhibitions on architecture and design were specially organized for the festival: the Modern Style in East Asia exhibition that gathered designers and artists from Japan and China, and the Imagination and Reality exhibition that deemed the issue of the future developments of the Dashanzi Art District by inviting architectural projects from China and the United States.

　　● Numerous of national and international music festivals (experimental concerts featuring Wang Lei, open air sound art installations, DJ sets and live concerts of international musicians such as Venicio Capossela). Many of them were hosted by Yan Jun, a prolific composer, critic and organizer of live music manifestations.

　　● Three dance and multimedia-media performances?for the first time organized in the Dashanzi Art District?attracted a large audience, as did the workshop and the live theatre performance Time and Space created by Wu Wenguang, Wen Hui and guests invited from the UK.

　　All exhibitions and events featured the work of more than one hundred artists from eleven countries, including China. Fourty foreign participants were invited: some of them had already participated in major events such as the Venice Biennale (like Fujimoto Yukio, Marco Nereo Rotelli), some of them?well known all over the world?showed their work for the first time in China (for example the legendary filmmaker Chris Marker).


　　DIAF 2004: Facts and figures

Audience
　　
　　80 000 visitors, a big achievement for the first edition of an independent contemporary art event, with the inherent capacity to go to 200 000 visitors

　　a broad and diverse public: from art lovers over university students to young professionals

　　symbol of the contemporary lifestyle of a new chinese generation: curious, open-minded and in to contemporary culture

　　about 60 percent of the public was native Chinese

　　other foreign residents from all over China and beyond attended the events during the festival

　　many deleguates from contemporary art festivals and centres in Paris, New York, Amsterdam, Brussels and Shanghai

Press

　　3 pressconferences with around 120 media outlets present

　　National and international presscoverage: from daily outlets over television and radio to specialized art magazines.

　　Reports were published during the whole period of the festival
. CCTV . BTV . China.org.cn . Culture of China . New Beijing Paper . Beijing Chenbao . That’s Beijing . Time Out Beijing . Radio Virgin Beijing . Art in America . Beijing Weekend . Morning Post . Beijing Today . Beijing Youth Daily . Beijing Beat . Corrispondenze e Incotri . Beijing Portal . Journal de l’Humanite . Beijing Observer China Daily . Journal of Chinese Contemporary Art . Beijing Review . and numerous other reports on the internet

　　“ The opening of the festival caused a buzz among the art and media communities of Beijing “ (Beijing Observer)

Team

　　Huang Rui . Bérénice Angremy . Thomas Berghuis . Yan Jun . Sun Ning . Anni Ma . Changchang . Feng Chong . Xu Yong . Feng Boyi . Dai Guangyu . Shu Yang . Wu Wenguang . Asako Murayama . Kaori Tsuji . Chen Guangjun . Zhao Lei . Zhu Yan . Zhao Sihai

　　Sponsors: UHN People Party . Virgin Radio China . French Embassy in China . Taikang Life Insurance . The Japan Foundation Beijing Office . Italian Institute of Culture in Beijing . Australian Cultural Office of Beijing . Artists Links . Japandesign.jp . Sumiya . At café

　　Media partners: Colorfulness . That’s Beijing . Art Asia Pacific


　　4. DIAF 2005: Language/Fable (Yuyan/Yuyan)

　　Timing: April 30th to May 29th 2005
　　Venues: major spaces of the Dashanzi Art District, Beijing, China

　　The second edition of the Dashanzi International Art Festival will stage an exploration of the nature of language and the language of fables: a research on the boundaries set by language communities, on the different kind of languages, on the different contexts in which languages function.

　　2005 is the French year in China. As a concretization of the festival’s thematic, DIAF 2005 will zoom in on two sharply demarcated language communities: the Chinese on the one, and the French on the other side.

　　“Language” and “fable” are ponywords in Chinese: they share the same pronounciation but have a different meaning. “Language” on the one hand, materializes the spoken word. Through vocabulary, grammar and punctuation, it serves as an essential commodity for the regulation of all interpersonal communication. “Fable” on the other hand, refers to a fictional story. Fables give us input about these subtilities that are only present in the periphery of everyday life: about a trancendental world, about fears and wishes of men, about the darker side of life.

　　Different artists will counter this thematic in their own artistic language. Not only in a static way -- photography, video, visual art -- but also by performing it. By bringing it out on the streets, as work-in-motion. The festival will therefore concentrate on live performances, from videoperformance over dance to circus and everything in between.


　　5. Partners of the Dashanzi Art Festival

　　Just as any other broad-scope cultural event across the world, a good initiative in the art scene can not survive without good partners. DIAF can only be realized with sponsorship of partners, from private enterprises to official institutions.

　　DIAF 2005 is in need for partners who want to share the glamour of the Dashanzi Art District’s style and who want to be part of a young and energetic contemporary culture as one of the important future directions of Beijing. As an annual event?becoming a major independent cultural event in China?the organizing committee of DIAF hopes to attract long-term partners.


　　Visibility of our partners

　　Visibility of our festival ensures visibility of our partners.
As for DIAF 2004, we grant our partners a premium position in our public and live interventions as well as in all our printed outlets.
They will be mentionned during several press conferences, and at the Opening and Closure Parties.

　　The printed material initiated by DIAF includes program and catalogue both bilingual Chinese and English, a DIAF 2005 Guide Map that directs visitors around the Dashanzi Art District, posters, flyers and logos in all our outlets. Next to this, logos are displayed throughout the whole district.

Collaborators of the Festival

　　Festival Director: Huang Rui

　　Festival program curated by: Huang Rui & Berenice Angremy in collaboration with the galleries of the district

　　Interns: Feng Chong, Els Silvrants & Liu Jing

　　Design: Jeremie Julien & Meimei

　　Office address:

　　Dashanzi International Art Festival
　　
　　P.O. Box 8503

　　No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Road

　　Beijing, 100015

　　China

　　Phone: +86 10 6438 2797

　　Fax: +86 10 6437 9737

　　E-mail: diaf@vip.sina.com

　　Web-site: http://www.diaf.org

　　Flyer designed by Jeremie Julien
　　Thinking Hands