It's midnight on December 31 and the amplified sound of human heartbeats reverberate throughout Beijing's Vitamin Creative Space, ushering in the new year. Among the packed crowd at this live performance by composer Yan Jun are prominent mainland artists and, at the centre, Hans Ulrich Obrist.
'We don't stop,' the Swiss curator says, referring to those attending the event. 'When the world goes on holiday, we don't.'
Yan's piece, The Stethoscope, involves 15 audience members taking turns listening to the heartbeat of a stranger. The intimate experiment is intended to foster a personal relationship between participants quickly.
But Obrist is not among strangers tonight. Since the 1990s, he has curated some of the most important international shows on Chinese contemporary art. That may also explain why the man is able to command a rock star-like lineup for his latest project, including artists Ai Weiwei, Cao Fei and Wang Jianwei, as well as filmmaker Jia Zhangke and architect Ma Yansong.
'Battery City: A Post-Olympic Beijing Mini-Marathon' is a 14-hour series of interviews and group discussions that attempt 'to map the most pressing concerns of the minds of Chinese artists, architects, writers and intellectuals at this moment, and to regenerate energy for future development within the Chinese context'.
A book based on the 'conversation' as well as a previous series of dialogues between the curators and Chinese artists will be published by Vitamin Creative Space later this year.