Bishan Crafts Cooperative (碧山工销社) by curator Zuo Jing and his team, opened in Bishan Village in late 2016. BCC collaborates with the Japanese design company D&Department and sells luxury design goods in the village. It has space to accommodate an artist-in-residency program and a ceramics workshop, though non of these programs or workshops are up and running just yet, and it is uncertain when that is possible. I met with He Qiuping, the manager of BCC, who recently moved to the village and will stay for one year, living in Zuo Jing's compound Bishan Academy (碧山书院).
The BCC sprung out of Zuo Jing's research project "Hundred Crafts of Yi County" (黟县百工), where he along with a group of students researched traditional handicrafts in Yi County such as wood carvings, food production, bamboo weaving and so forth. The idea is to take these old handicrafts and artifacts and revitalize them by renewing their design and placing them within a contemporary context and use.
Besides Bishan Bookstore (碧山书局) opened by Ou Ning's long-term friend Qian Xiaohua in 2014, BCC is the only part of the Bishan Project that was allowed to continue after the closure in early 2016, provided that they only continued their commercial activities and avoided any public, cultural events. Though it has been more than three years since the closure of the Bishan Project, even mentioning the Bishan Project name is still considered politically sensitive.
While the local authorities in Yi County and Bishan Village won't allow for public, cultural events taking place in their village, rural county governments across China gladly hire Zuo Jing and his team to do exactly that. Zuo Jing has taken the Bishan project model, refined it and implemented it in villages around China, in what is called "rural reconstruction through art" (艺术乡建). What characterises "rural reconstruction through art" and most other larger-scale art projects in rural China is their close association with the local authorities, whether they are on good or bad terms.
In Bishan, the presence of Bishan Crafts Cooperative and Bishan Bookstore provide the village with entry points for tourists and other visitors to further explore aspects of life in Bishan. Hopefully, the situation concerning the organization of public, cultural events in the village will change in the coming years.
Read more about Zuo Jing's other rural projects in Wang Meiqin's enlightening book on socially engaged art in contemporary China.
The store, situated in the old Mao-era department store, has been gently renovated to preserve as many of the characteristics as possible.
D&Department map of Bishan and places to go in the village.
The café at Bishan Crafts Cooperative
Meeting at Zuo Jing's Bishan Academy with Bishan Crafts Cooperative manager He Qiuping (left), Zhang Xin (right) from Zuo Jing's team and Dong Qingqing (middle), a master student writing her MA thesis on Zuo Jing's art rural reconstruction praxis.
From left: Dong Qingqing, me and He Qiuping
Zuo Jing's Bishan Academy, an old, renovated Hui-house in Bishan Village
More fieldwork notes from Bishan:
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