I joined the Aranya Art Center in Qinhuangdao, China, as director in November 2021. At that time, I made the decision not to define the institution prematurely nor to outline the programme directions. Manifestos or slogans often confine and simplify prospective endeavours. Once exhibitions and projects are staged, the public will form their perceptions of the “positioning” of the Aranya Art Center. I am delighted with the feedback we have received, and engagement with the programming continues to grow and become more and more diverse and porous. Among many working approaches we develop at the Aranya Art Center, I would like to share five of them in this text.

First, latency.

While some institutions in China have to adopt a more flexible and commercial approach when it comes to operation and programming, I insist that sticking to a more traditional working structure with in-house production of all projects, as conservative as it may seem, can be a different kind of contribution to the industry. I therefore hold immense gratitude towards the Aranya Group, the real estate business, which is our main supporter. At the Aranya Art Center, we strive to present genuine and complex contemporary practices that manifest honest concerns around the practitioners themselves and the world they live in, and which are not manipulated by social or identity topics, nor hijacked by theories, but continue to reflect upon and explore the fundamental subjects in art and its forms.

Secondly, locality.

We invite artists whose practices generate deep relationships with Aranya. For example, Gabriel Kuri's exhibition presented in March 2023 expands on subjects related to consumerism and real estate, which resonates with Aranya, a seaside destination for leisure and consumption. At the same time, we are also compelled to explore the relationship between the region Beidaihe and Chinese art history, which will be the starting point for a group exhibition I am organising this year. In 1975, during the Cultural Revolution, artists from the No Name Group (Wuming Huahui) visited Beidaihe twice for outdoor sketching. Taking this specific historical event as a starting point, this exhibition strives to reawaken the sensibility and creativity associated with ‘painting from life’ as an artistic method. This exhibition engages with this action's revolutionary and rebellious historical significance, which has largely been forgotten as it has gradually become an ossified academic coursework for fine art students in China. In recent years, amidst a global public health crisis, the concept of the 'outdoor' has been progressively appropriated as a stress response system, awaiting reflection and reconsideration. This exhibition looks at ‘painting from life’ as both an artistic practice and a survival strategy, with a view to manifest its potential to stimulate individual self-awareness and to respond to the dramatic changes of our time.

Third, resilience.

At a time of dramatic changes and uncertainties in Chinese society, institutions must be resilient to stay sustainable. Cultivating institutional resilience lies in the building of self-consciousness and personal growth of each of our team members. I encourage and ask them to engage in extensive reading and thinking, to ask questions and more importantly, to gradually cultivate a historical perspective and vision as an individual living in the present. At the same time, we pay great attention to long-term team building and academic research.

Fourth, tangibility.

Aranya Art Center is still a very young art institution with much room for improvement in areas such as public programmes, sponsorship systems, communications, etc. Since we are a tiny team, we have to make choices. Our public projects are small and targeted. There are many apartment owners living in the community whom we engage with. For example, for Apostolos Georgiou’s exhibition in the summer of 2023, we organised several training sessions for property owners to learn about the exhibition, so that we could invite them to do the guided tours for our general audience. We are now more interested in and focused on achieving in-depth and meaningful dialogues with each participant with tangible impacts.

Finally, Aranya Art Center is open to young Chinese contemporary art practitioners and grows together with them.

Art institutions must have the courage to take risks, invest resources, and make commitments to artists whom we trust. In March 2023, we presented the first solo exhibitions of two young Chinese artists, Michelle Wang Yiyi and Han Qian. The group exhibition How Far, How Close, organised by guest curators Leo Li Chen and Mijoo Park, who are both independent, is currently on view at the Aranya Art Center until Feb 25, 2024.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position of STIR or its Editors.)