Marc Abélès Examines Beijing's 798 Art Zone

Anthropologist Marc Abélès investigates Beijing's 798 Art Zone, a former state-owned factory complex built in the early 1950s for military electronics, now transformed into a hub for art and leisure. In his book, he explores the tensions between revolutionary utopia and capitalist utopia, framing the site as a microcosm of China's contradictions. Through interviews with artists, curators, dealers, and officials, Abélès captures diverse perspectives on the evolution of Chinese contemporary art over three decades. Key figures include market star Zhang Xiaogang, activist artist Huang Rui, overlooked Zhao Shaoruo, official Xing Junqin, and entrepreneurs Cang Xin and Mao Lizi, all sharing an obsessive relation to revolutionary memory. The book weaves individual and collective histories, though the author's critical stance on artworks and power relations remains limited. 798 mirrors contemporary China as a matrix of contradictions.