AT FIRST, THE loud bangs and crashes coming from the ceiling seem to be a sound art piece. Then, Xu Shuxian, project manager of Vitamin Creative Space, explains. 'Upstairs is under construction ... but it seems right for this show,' she says with a laugh.
Running at this alternative art space in Guangzhou until the end of this year is Zero Interface: Brave New World, a collection of videos, installations and photo montages by local artist Lin Yilin. The retrospective reflects not only the rapid urbanisation of the construction-crazy city, but also the growing social relevance of this progressive venue.
Vitamin Creative Space has come a long way since it was set up in 2002 by writers/curators Zhang Wei and Hu Fang. At the time, Guangzhou's alternative art scene was slowly emerging from the Pearl River Delta's smog and scaffolding. Although independent artists and collectives such as the Big Tail Elephant Group existed (of which Lin was a founding member), there were few official venues for the city's overflowing creative energy.
Describing itself as 'the first alternative art space in the Pearl River Delta', Vitamin supports and shapes the local arts scene, and exposes Guangzhou art to the world.
Valerie Portefaix - who, with partner Laurent Gutierrez, comprises Hong Kong's experimental architecture studio Map Office - calls Vitamin Space 'a kind of Utopian niche where cultural exchange can happen'.
Landscape of Sur-Consuming, the first exhibition at Vitamin's Chigang district gallery space, featured seven young artists (primarily from the Pearl River Delta) dealing with the theme of consumption in urban China, including some who would become Vitamin mainstays such as Zheng Guogu and Big Tail Elephant's Chen Shaoxiong.