2017.06.02 Fri, by Translated by: Yell Space
Why Yell Space?

A long while ago—around five or six, or even seven or eight years ago—Yuan Gong came over by himself to talk with me about the idea of setting up an art space. So the idea we already had back then, but we didn’t go into the details. Only when Yuan Gong invited me for dinner with another artist, Wu Ye, on November 4, 2016, did I reconsider the idea. I was moving studios then, and I was mulling over whether this space in m50 (Shanghai) could be turned into an art space; I thought, the rent wasn’t that high.

And so it happened Yuan Gong asked me out for dinner, and I remembered he had once mentioned doing an art space so many years ago. When I got to his studio in Qingpu district, I put forward the idea of taking my studio and making an art space out of it.

The moment Yuan Gong heard of it, we saw eye to eye on the idea. It can be said that Yell Space germinated like this. After that, we talked it over many times, including on December 4, 2016, at WE Gallery in Yangpu district, where I took part in the exhibition “Work My Own Way”, curated by Yuan Gong. While we chit-chatted about the exhibition, we also chewed over how we would run Yell Space. We still didn’t have the name “Yell Space” then. But we did ponder many ways and possibilities.

Artists who took part in “Work My Own Way” also included Jin Feng (b. 1962) and Jin Feng (b. 1967)(no relation). The four of us have been good friends for years; we have worked with each other in various art projects, spaces, and websites as well. We fully understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Yuan Gong and I told the two Jin Fengs about how we were about to build an art space. They, too, were keen and told us they wanted to join in. By this point, the four founders were there. The four of us made up our minds to put all our efforts into making an art space, with my studio as the space. Over time, the four of us hashed out the details.

Our discussions had reached a certain point. Once, while talking about some other business, I brought up the idea of starting an art space with Lorenz (Helbling) at ShanghART Gallery. After hearing me out, he became really eager and said he would support us—and it was timely, too, offering us the ShanghART Warehouse at m50. In other words, Lorenz supported us with the “B Space” of Yell Space.

By this point, the embryonic form of our space was becoming clearer. Once the founders and the spaces were there, we started considering the name. By the end of 2016, when I was in Shenzhen, Yuan Gong was in UK, both Jin Fengs were in Shanghai, the younger Jin Feng came up with the English word “Yell”, and then I suggested the Chinese word “yao” [要] as the Chinese name. We all thought the name was fitting. That day was December 31, 2016, the last day of the year, and so the name was decided: “要空间”/”Yell Space”. Thereafter the four of us discussed the details about the space endlessly and kicked around different ideas.

In 2017, after Chinese New Year, on March 24, the four founders had our first official meeting, during which we elaborated on basic principles in detail. From then on, our meetings were recorded (and backed up) in order to leave a clear account of how Yell Space would develop.

And so Yell Space was officially established. The reason why Yell Space was to be a comprehensive non-profit art space can be considered under the context of other non-profit art organizations in Shanghai as well as the background of the four founders.

要空间外景

要空间外景
Yell Spacce

“要空间方案展——局部档案”展览现场

“要空间方案展——局部档案”展览现场
“Yell Space Programme Exhibition, Partial Archive”, installation view

“要空间方案展——局部档案”展览现场

“要空间方案展——局部档案”展览现场
“Yell Space Programme Exhibition, Partial Archive”, installation view

Tracing the history of non-profits in Shanghai (Bizart and Art-ba-ba)

In 1998, Davide Quadrio and Huang Yuanqing founded the first non-profit organization Bizart. Shortly after that, Quadrio invited Xu Zhen to serve as Bizart’s artistic director. Xu Zhen fully contributed to building up the space and its working system. Subsequently, Vigy (Jin Liping) also joined and together they operated BizArt with Quadrio’s financial support. From 2000 onwards, Bizart Shanghai interacted more and more frequently with artists and promoted the idea of a “non-profit art space” in Shanghai and indeed right across the country.

In 2004, I was invited by Vigy and Xu Zhen to work as Bizart’s design director. Bizart was then the best-run non-profit art space in Shanghai—and a space much liked by artists. I was of course very honored to have worked there. We started to discuss what I was responsible for once I joined. Though I was in charge of design, together with Xu Zhen I was also working on exhibitions, and so I was able to take part in building Bizart’s organization.

It was around 2004 or 2005 that the younger Jin Feng (b. 1967) also came to Bizart. The three of us began taking care of the institutional side of Bizart and exhibition-making. In 2006, He Bing, one of the older Jin Feng’s students who created a website called Asian Vision, looked for us to work on a forum together. We thought it would be a great idea; such art forums were pretty terrible in China then, with lots of problems, and we also had lots of ideas. That night, Xu Zhen, the younger Jin Feng, and I, along with Yang Zhenzhong, the older Jin Feng, Zhang Ding, were all there, pondering what name to give to the forum. Zhang Ding came up with the name “Heyshehui” (“Hey Society” 嘿社会 , a pun on the “underworld”). Once we had a name, we began building the website for this local art forum on He Bing’s platform. Xu Zhen, the younger Jin Feng, Li Xuehui (a colleague from Bizart) and I took over the responsibility for daily maintenance and operations. Almost all the staff from Bizart joined the project at this point.

“Heyshuihui” (“Hey Society”) got going really quickly. Within a month or two, the forum had become the most open and active forum on the Chinese art scene. By 2007, we ran into a problem we never resolved: there were two “Heyshehui” sites, since Asian Vision’s relationship with the forum was never sorted out properly. “Heyshehui” got more and more popular, and its ownership was claimed by both sides. This was the first challenge we faced, but we didn’t give up hope. We rebuilt the forum from scratch, bought a new server and domain name. Little by little, we made it popular again. By 2008, when confronted with two “Heyshehui”, we felt it had to be clearer and more independent; plus we thought it was time for an update. Xu Zhen, the younger Jin Feng, Yang Zhenzhong, and I met up, and I suggested renaming the forum as “Art-ba-ba”. It wasn’t bad as a name, we all thought, and so we started to build Art-ba-ba—registering the domain name, designing the website, setting up the structure, which I attended to myself. We continue to work collaboratively on Art-ba-ba, in just the same way we did with Heyshehui.

Then in December 2009, I had an injury and was forced to lie in bed for a few months. Another unexpected thing happened during this time: Bizart closed. For a lot of artists, including me, it was sad to see. Meanwhile, when I came back to Art-ba-ba, I found that the passion was gone. I left Art-ba-ba and shifted the ownership to Madein Company.

Between 1998 and 2009, the appearance of Bizart made the art scene in Shanghai quite active and interesting. In the period after 2010, however, there seems to have been a blank as far as this kind of general non-profit art space was concerned. Though there are some other non-profit art organizations, even some interesting and successful ones—like Dinghai Qiao (Dinghai Bridge), and Shi Qing’s Radical Space—they are more project-based. Radical Space focuses on social engagement projects, while Dinghai Qiao is a non-profit project dealing with community research. They are not really like Bizart, which is a general non-profit art space.

We, the four founders of Yell Space, along with other artists, have felt that at a time of increasing commercialization of art, a general non-profit art space is needed more than ever in order to provide a non-commercial artistic platform for artists. Such is the historical task of Yell Space and our primary intent.

By Huang Kui, May 24, 2017

“要空间方案展——局部档案”展览现场

“要空间方案展——局部档案”展览现场
“Yell Space Programme Exhibition, Partial Archive”, installation view

“要空间方案展——局部档案”展览现场

“要空间方案展——局部档案”展览现场
“Yell Space Programme Exhibition, Partial Archive”, installation view

“要空间方案展——局部档案”展览现场

“要空间方案展——局部档案”展览现场
“Yell Space Programme Exhibition, Partial Archive”, installation view