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Published: December 11th 2009
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While I was in Beijing, I was lucky enough to catch a small art festival in an area outside the city-center called 798 Art District. It was difficult to get there, because the subway didn't run so far, and the taxi driver didn't know where it was. It turned out that he was not able to read my map as well because of bad eyes. So I looked at the map and pointed when to turn.
798 is an area with a lot of old factories that are now being used to exhibit in. Some artists also have studio there. As far as I understand, it is old East German factories from the 50s, which was built in cooperation between China and East Germany through the Soviet Union. Production stopped in the early '80s, and later artists began to move into the abandoned area.
After watching different exhibitions, I came to a place I had heard mentioned in a text on Chinese contemporary art. It is called The Long March, a rather large gallery named after the Communist Party's long retreat in 1934, which took many lives and but also strengthened Mao's power within the party. Today it is
a story of great significance for the Chinese self-perception.
Inside was a fine exhibition of Chinese contemporary art. About halfway through the gallery I came to an artwork, which I would think a lot about the following days. It was by a Chinese male artist, whose name was something I couldn't really pronounce. It consisted of a video, a series of photos and some geological maps or drawings (see photos).
At the entrance to the room there was a text explaining the project. It said that the goal was to create the world's highest mountain. In collaboration with a team of geologists and engineers the artist believed that he had found a way to adjust the forces within the ground surrounding the world's 14th highest mountain, Shisha Pangma (8,013 m) and make the mountain grow more that it already does.
It would only be possible in the Himalayas, where a powerful collision between the Indian plate and Eurasian plate is taking place - a clash that will continue for many millions of years more. The area is one of the most active in the world and as a result of this, Himalaya is rising approximately 5 mm every year
Shisha Pangma
The fast growing mountain. - and Mt. Everest about 1 cm. By working in the area around Shisha Pangma, it would be possible to concentrate growth in the area around the mountain. In this way it should be possible to achieve increase the mountains growth with a few centimetres a year. In that way it would in some thousand years be possible to create a new highest mountain of the world – and this mountian would be fully within the Chinese borders (the world's highest mountain, Mt. Everest (8,848 m) lies on the border between China and Nepal).
The video, which was shown, described a working process over a longer period of time:
First we followed the team develop theories by which it would be possible to make the mountain higher. After a long research they got permission to make a number of tests in the area near Mt. Everest (see photo). Next they had to wait for a year before observing if the tests were successful. The team found that they had managed to raise a small area with 14 cm, which was a major success.
The next step was more difficult. Not only did they have to get
Mt. Everest
Test at Everest. permission to proceed in the area around Shisha Pangma, they also needed The Communist Party of China to support the project with money and heavy machinery. Another aspect was that it should not only be build once, but also maintained over the years as well.
Again it was a process that stretched over a long period of time.
At this point the project changed character in my opinion. Initially it had been an artist's dream of creating a new highest mountain of the world. Now it had become a political game. In the video we see a meeting with an important politician. The project is no longer described as an inspiring artwork, but instead as a sign of China’s superiority, by showing that the most unimaginable is possible in China. Increasing tourist industry by having the highest mountain just in China was even mentioned.
After many meetings the team was able to get the Party to support the project for one year. Future maintenance would be decided at a later point when there would be results that look at.
At the end of the video we see the artist at a press conference explaining how the work around
Mt. Everest
Close-up af proevestoebningen. Shisha Pangma has begun and what will happen in the future (see photo).
I left the exhibition strongly affected by the work and thought about the mountain I Himalaya that grew faster than all the others and eventually would be the highest. It was both a fantastic and a disturbing thought.
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