Speaking of the history of Beijing 798 Art District, we should start with the industrialization of new China. The place where Beijing 798 Art Zone is located is the "Beijing North China Radio Joint Equipment Factory" built during the first five-year plan period of New China, that is, the 7 18 joint factory. The 7 18 joint factory was approved by Premier Zhou Enlai personally, planned by Minister Wang Zheng, and established with the assistance of the former Soviet Union and the GDR. 1952, the joint factory is located in Jiuxianqiao, and there is no industrial base in the suburbs of Beijing.
Regional planning, 1954 starts civil construction, 1957+00 national leaders attend the groundbreaking ceremony and announce the commissioning. Its speed was rare in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, which condensed the efforts of the older generation of leaders and builders. There are 774 factories and 738 factories jointly built by 7 18 in Jiuxianqiao area. The completion of these three factories not only changed the face of Jiuxianqiao area, but also formed the beginning of the great development in the history of China's electronic industry, and this pioneering role will always be recorded in the history of China's electronic industry. After the completion of the 7 18 joint factory, it has made outstanding contributions to the national economic construction, especially to the construction of electronic industry, national defense construction and the development of communication industry. 1in April 1964, the No.4 Machinery Department cancelled the establishment of the 7 18 joint factory and established the 706, 707, 7 18, 797, 798 and 75 1 factory directly under the Ministry.
Architectural Design of 7 18 Joint Factory
7 18 joint factory is one of the key projects of 156 during the First Five-Year Plan period, and it is also one of the aid projects of Dongfang Group to China. Due to the leading position of the electronics industry in this camp, East Germany was given the heavy responsibility of building a joint factory. Oelssner, then Deputy Prime Minister of East Germany, personally took the lead and completed this project by using the entire East Germany technology, experts and equipment production line. Since there are no factories of the same scale in East Germany, Oelssner organized authoritative experts from 44 research institutes and factories in East Germany to set up a 7 18 joint factory project support team, and finally gathered the strength of the entire East German electronics industry, including technology, experts and equipment production lines, and completed this grand project with utopian ideals. Li Rui, the first director of the 7 18 joint factory, said in his recollection article: "I have seen more than 20 factories in Germany, and none of them has such a scale. As far as I know, factories of this size are rare in the Soviet Union and other countries in eastern bloc. " An architectural organization in Dessau is responsible for the huge architectural design of the joint factory, which is in the same city as the Bauhaus school in that year, and the two are interlinked in architectural spirit. 19 19, Gropius established Bauhaus School in Weimar. Under the influence of abstract art, a new style of arts and crafts and architecture has been formed, whose main characteristics are: paying attention to meeting practical requirements; Give full play to the technical and aesthetic properties of new materials and structures; Simple modeling and flexible composition. On this basis, a new modernist architectural style was formed, which advocated adapting to the needs of modern large-scale industrial production and life, and was characterized by emphasizing architectural functions, technology and economic benefits, and was later called Bauhaus School. The joint factory has a typical Bauhaus style and is a model of perfect combination of practicality and simplicity. Germans pursue high standards in building quality. For example, the seismic strength design is more than 8, while the standards of China and the Soviet Union were only 6 to 7; For another example, in order to ensure the firmness, 500 building blocks were used; In addition, the windows of the factory building face north, while the windows of ordinary buildings face south at that time. This design can make full use of the skylight and reflected light to keep the light uniform and stable, and from the visual experience, constant light can produce an indescribable aesthetic feeling.
The formation of idle factories and art areas
From June, 5438 to February, 2000, the original six companies, namely 700, 706, 707, 7 18, 797 and 798, were integrated and reorganized into Beijing Qixing Huadian Technology Group Co., Ltd., which was the first batch of high-tech enterprises recognized in Beijing and Electronic City Park. Due to the reorganization of the original six factories, some properties are idle. In order to make full use of this part of the property, Qixing Group rented out these factories one after another. In February, 2002, Robert, an American, rented a 120 square meter Huimin canteen here and transformed it into a company with a front shop and a back office. Robert works as an art website in China. Some people who often associate with him take a fancy to the spacious space and low rent here, and rent some factories as studios or exhibition venues. The "snowball" of the "798" artists group rolled up like this. Because some factories belong to the typical modernist Bauhaus style, the whole factory has good planning and unique architectural style, which has attracted many artists to work and settle down, and gradually formed today's 798 art district.
be born
798 is also called North China Radio Parts Factory, where many key components of China's first atomic bomb were produced. 1998 was born in the eastern suburb of Beijing. It was designed and built by 55 experts from the former GDR in 1950s with the most advanced building technology and design concept in the world at that time. At present, only a few factories in China, Germany, the United States and other countries have this architectural style. It is the only workshop design group with Bauhaus architectural concept in the world, and it can be called a cultural relic in the history of industrial development. Factories use numerical codes as factory names because they are military secret factories. The tall factories, sophisticated machines and tree-lined factory roads here became the symbols of China's socialist modernization at that time, because they could produce military electronic equipment that made China powerful. The workers in these factories had the best jobs and unparalleled sense of superiority at that time. At that time, cinematographers often came here to record the production, construction and revolutionary movement of the factory, so it was also a symbol of China's socialist culture. After the 1990s, the products of these factories gradually lost their market because of backwardness. Factories declined rapidly, the labor force collapsed and many people were fired. Factories and workers have become the representatives of the decline of the new era.
artist
At this time, a new culture began to appear. Many artists influenced by western culture began to pay attention to 798 and gradually merged with it. Fifty years later, the designers and builders at that time could never see what 798 looks like today. The growing contemporary art center is pushing 798 as a factory to the edge. 798 is no longer a factory number, but a cultural code, which is repeated repeatedly in the communication chain of the media and becomes a brand-new and unique cultural landscape. For today's young people, 798 is a contemporary art district, which is synonymous with "cool" and avant-garde. Interestingly, some factories and workshops are still under construction to produce military products that have been kept secret so far. Opposite the rumbling workshop are some bars or art studios. These workshops are dilapidated, but they remain ancient mysteries. No snooping. The five-episode documentary "798" touches and feels two kinds of juxtaposed cultures in the space of 798, representing different times in China, and the resulting two kinds of mentality and concepts. Their confrontation and wrestling in their respective development always influence each other and try to change each other, which is a typical epitome of China's cultural development.