7days

For seven days, starting November first, six people imaged Song Zhuang, China, an area known as the "Artist Village." The team was made up of three local young adults, one Art Historian from China, and two photographers--one Chinese and one American. Each morning they met at the Artists Group Reception Center of Song Zhuang to look at images and discuss both formal considerations and content, and to pick up to ten images for this web site.

Song Zhuang is located approximately sixty kilometers East of the Chinese capital of Beijing. The village became a center for contemporary art in 1994 when six artists from Yuanmingyuan, the "Painters Village" was shut down. Artists from all over China come to the village each year. Noting the freedom and comradery of a community devoted to art production, people have come to see Song Zhuang as the center of China's growing contemporary art scene. It is now home to over 1000 artists.

Until recently, Song Zhuang was mainly a farming community. Artists came to the area for economic reasons, and for the quality of life it afforded them. In the beginning, as artists's numbers grew, there was some tension between the local community and the newcomers. But today, as economic development has improved the area, that tension has greatly dissipated.

The following pages display the work of these six photographers as they explore the village during the week leading up to the third annual Song Zhuang Arts Festival. You can follow their growth through time either by artist or by day.

宋庄艺术群落的七天

这个七天的作品，开始于11月1日，有六人参加拍摄中国宋庄，这个著名的“艺术村落”。参加者中有三个本地人，一个艺术史学者，还有两个摄影家，一个中国的，一个美国的。每天上午他们在宋庄艺术促进会碰头，传看各自拍下的形象， 讨论构图和内容，并选出十来张放在网站上。

宋庄距北京60公里，1994年圆明圆艺术村撤除后，几个艺术家搬进村来开始，便渐渐成为一个当代艺术中心。每年有大量艺术家从全国各地搬迁过来。这里自由的气氛，声气相和的群体产生的艺术产品，让人们开始把宋庄看成是中国当代艺术的策源地。如今这里是上千个艺术家的家园。

前不久，宋庄还主要是一个村落，艺术家来落脚为的是生活便宜，居住宜人。在艺术家数量增加之时，本地人和外来户关系还有些紧张。而现在，经济的急速发展让这样的紧张得到了舒解。

接下来展现的是这六个摄影者的作品，拍摄的是宋庄第三届艺术节即将开幕的那一周，你可以感受到他们在这一周的拍摄中逐日的成长，同时还有生活的逐日改变。