GUANJIALIN
                                                                                                                                                                            Gu Zhenqing
   Ever since the financial crisis in 2008, the bubbles of the contemporary art market has been crushed down and crumbled by the cruel reality. Beneath the surface of this chaotic, flippant and uproar art community, the new power of talent young artists with agile mind and great energy is poised and ready to be rolled-out in several cities of China. Same year in 2008, a group of young artists moved in the two 60s style wooden warehouses in Guanjialin, Chongqing. They build up the initial studios there all by themselves. As more   and more “fresh” young artists coming both from and outside the academic system resided here, Guanjialin became a self-developed artist cluster in Western China. During their debate and discussion on issues such as utopia and antiutopia, concept and anti-concept, the art practice and production thrive, making these warehouses an exuberant and diversified art “autonomous” community in the cultural ecology of Chongqing municipality.
   Right now, in the simple space behind the 14 doors are the studios of Guanjialin, 24 artists graduated from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute still work very hard. Their oeuvres depart greatly from traditional painting, ranging from all other mediums can be seen in the contemporary art. The reverent practice and experiments of rationality and conscience has just entered the fifth year. Still, their predicament is an unavoidable topic. Under discourse power of Chinese official art academy system and the pressure of cold economic rules, the creative strength of  the Guanjialin artists is still buried by the frozen earth of the grim winter. However, they encourage and warm  each other by keeping pursuing the universal value and obeying their faith.
  The spring of 2013 is on its way, will the spring of Guanjialin come soon?