Beijing art show excludes earthquake pieces
Last Updated: Monday, August 17, 2009 | 5:57 PM ET
CBC News
A Chinese woman looks at a video art installation during the 798 Biennale in Beijing, China. The massive art exhibit has excluded several pieces dealing with the 2008
Sichuan earthquake. (Elizabeth Dalziel/Associated Press)Several works about the earthquake in China's Sichuan province and the deaths that resulted from it have been withdrawn from a massive art show in Beijing.
The Beijing 798 Biennale showcases the work of more than 200 Chinese and international artists in the city's 798 art district.
Painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, performance and sound pieces are all part of the exhibit, which opened Aug. 15 and runs until Sept. 12.
The show is the brainchild of the:artist:network, a New York-based nonprofit organization.
Under the joint artistic direction of Zhu Qi and Marc Hungerbühler, the giant show focuses on emerging and mid-career artists.
Zhu Qi revealed on Monday that some controversial works had been removed from the program over the weekend.
Those works include performance pieces which used some contentious figures such as Runner Fan — about a teacher who posted an article on the internet admitting he fled the crumbling school during the quake ahead of his students — and another one concerning popular blogger and lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan.
Other exhibits including a documentary about the May 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, in which 90,000 people were killed, and memorial to a 12-year-old who died in the catastrophe have disappeared from the official show.
More than 5,000 children died in their schools
The earthquake is a touchy issue for Chinese authorities. Critics have said thousands died because poorly constructed buildings were allowed to be built after bribes to local officials.
According to official figures, more than 5,000 children died in their schools.
"I had not approved [these things] because I thought it was too sensitive," Zhu told The Guardian newspaper.
He indicated he had clashed with the exhibit's "deputy director" over the inclusion of the contentious pieces.
Local district officials notified the show's organizers that they wanted to ban a few works. Some artists had also decided to withdraw their works.
Yuan Tingxuan, who speaks for the excluded artists, said performances had been held in other parts of the district, outside the official exhibit.
