ZENG XIN AND Lao Dan are unlikely candidates for the role of cultural mavens. The couple rarely dress in black, and there's not a trace of hauteur about them. Zeng, a former tech executive, might be best described as motherly, while Lao Dan, a painter, is variously depicted as 'enthusiastic' and 'impish'.
And yet, between them, the husband and wife team know almost every artist in the Beijing area. It's a rare Chinese filmmaker who hasn't shown his works at the Hart Salon, the haunt in the trendy 798 Art District that they set up to facilitate cultural discussion, and to help ordinary Chinese get in touch with the art of their own country. Cultural organisations from around the world call on a daily basis, wanting to hook up with the Beijing art scene. 'Sometimes, I think I'm in the business of giving out phone numbers,' Zeng says with a sigh.
The couple, both 36, first got the idea for the salon, known formally as the Hart Centre of Arts, in 2001. Zeng had just come back from France, where she helped organise an art show. Lao Dan, whose official name is Ren Jie, decided to quit their joint design firm and concentrate on painting. As the pair got to know more artists in Beijing, they noticed that it lacked a venue for open cultural discourse, both among artists and with the public.
The pair rented a space in the Sanlitun district, and Hart Salon opened in early 2003, just days before the Sars epidemic hit. The centre began with small seminars on, say, aspects of art history and discussions on how to appreciate coffee, but 'it was a quiet first few months', says Zeng.
But as Sars came under control, things progressed quickly. They began showing independent DV works and hosting art shows, and more people began to drop in. Now, two years and two relocations later, the salon is one of Beijing's most lively nodes of cultural traffic. In a country where the pressures of commercialism and government censorship tend to strangle public debate on art and culture, Hart Salon provides not only a space for performance and exhibition, but also a vital venue for discussion.
Comprising an anteroom, whose walls are lined with art, and a hall that serves as theatre and screening room, the venue has a rough-and-ready feel. Yet its plays and film screenings are almost always overflowing, packing in a mixed audience of 150 expats and Chinese. Its art exhibitions attract mostly well-educated locals, some from artistic fields, others professionals or the newly wealthy who want to get a handle on the arts.