ART SPACE PROFILE :: PLATESPACE in Beijing

China Residencies: Hello! It's so nice to catch up. To start, PLATESPACE was established in 2018 in Beijing, if I am correct? Can you tell us a bit about how the idea for establishing an art space in Beijing came about?

PLATESPACE: Likewise, it is a pleasure talking to you! PLATESPACE was officially set up in October 2018, as a project space for personal projects. In the last three years, we have done shows in three different kinds of independent spaces in the city, and have collaborated with museums, galleries or commercial enterprises. We have programmed around 100 projects, which range vastly in their forms and setups - from talks, performances, small-scale exhibitions to activities with school kids. It's really hard to define PLATESPACE by limiting it to its physical space, or exactly what or who is behind it: for us, PLATESPACE is better described as a nomadic project.

Running PLATESPACE entails a natural growth process. As I have mentioned before, it started out as an experiment for my personal projects, which grew into what exists today: an invitation for fellow artists and creatives to collaborate. A lot was unplanned in the beginning  - all the ideas and projects came about through mutual agreements and discussions. Of course, the way us two founders both traveled and lived abroad definitively impacted our work. We visited over a dozen countries and regions and we brought back a lot of inspiration and ideas from our travels.

CR: You mentioned two people behind PLATESPACE. Could you introduce yourselves, as well as what your backgrounds are? 

PS: PLATESPACE was founded by me, Pan Guanqun (潘冠群), and my co-founder Liu Chang (刘畅). However, since we operate in a nomadic manner, this means that people might join and co-host from time to time, depending on the project. I was born in Beijing, and graduated from CAFA's oil painting department. I have been working as an artist ever since. Chang was also born in Beijing and graduated with a major in communications from the Beijing University of Technology. 

《自我驯化》方政个人项目海报，2018

Poster for " Self domestication", Fang Zheng solo exhibition, 2018

CR: Thank you for the introduction. Now, how did you come up with the name PLATESPACE?

PS: We first came up with PLATESPACE in English, drawing on the many different interpretations a plate could have. For instance, a plate could mean something made out of metal. Sheets or plates (板) made out of hard materials could be used to build up structures. At the same time, a plate is a perfect carrier for things, which can be yet again translated into the practice and physical space which PLATESPACE bears: it should be experimental, open, and shall have enough capacities to withhold or bear enough weight, in that sense.

The Chinese version 盘子空间, which quite literally translates to plate and space, was just what many of our friends used after hearing the English name. We thought it might fit, as plates are a common household object with a wide range of applications, so this is how we decided on the names in both English and Chinese. But in the end, PLATESPACE is just the name of the project. Our mission lives in the input and content, as well as through the impact those projects might have on our community. To us, the actual name's meaning becomes less important compared to all that. 

CR: You have held quite a fair amount of exhibitions in Beijing. What makes them so interesting are the differing locations they were held in: the first performances, talks and activities started out in an apartment in Beijing {note: the apartment is located inside the historical Duan Qirui courtyard, a now governmental-protected site which has housed the synonymous warlord and premier in the 1920s and has since been transformed into a site for the Renmin University. It was also the where a large part of Jiang Wen’s film “In the Heat of the Sun” was filmed.} Could you tell me about a few of the first projects you did there - such as the clothing exchange by Shao Fengtian? How did PLATESPACE start in this apartment?

PS: The courtyard is a historic compound that is said to have existed since the Yuan Dynasty. We returned to Beijing from abroad in 2017, and settled temporarily in one of the other apartments in the courtyard. At that time, that was a 4-bedroom Soviet-style apartment from the 1950s across the whole top floor of a building. It was really unpractical to carry things up the stairs for shows, and the building had high ceilings. So we decided on a common apartment opposite of the first place on a lower floor for PLATESPACE to make things easier. 

The clothing exchange “Six Pieces of Clothing” by Shao Fengtian was one of the first projects in that space. The artist had taught in Sichuan and based their project on a real-life experience: while teaching, they discovered that students would receive donated clothing from folks outside the school. The students would get very excited before each swap, so we decided to invite visitors to swap clothes so that everybody could experience the joy in wearing somebody else’s items.

In total, we planned around ten to fifteen shows back-to-back inside that apartment. Some projects included a chicken coop with a live chicken built inside that apartment, one on multi-dimensional space (宇宙多维空间), and a personal project on an artist’s self-domestication. 

《六件衣服》邵丰田个人项目，2018

"Six pieces of clothing", Shao Fengtian solo exhibition, 2018

CR: Another location was in the WeWork office in Beijing’s Dongcheng disctrict, next to the MWoods Hutong Museum and the National Art Museum. How did you decide to use this office space as a temporary exhibition space?

PS: Up until now PLATESPACE has existed in three different physical locations. The apartment was the first, then came the WeWork office, and our latest one on a busy street on Guijie, also in the city center. The office space was a converted 9-square meter office encased in four transparent glass walls.

Fittingly, the first show was titled “Transparent Wall” by Xue Ruozhe . The artist dressed a mannequin as a female white-collar worker. She played with the properties of the WeWork office space to mimic and recreate the working conditions of white-collar workers. The mannequin stared at the computer on the desk, monitoring real-time footage from the artist’s mother’s company, creating an echoing form of surveillance.

After this show, we held around a dozen other shows there, all of them tailored to fit the space. Among them were "Ejecta Outta Corner” by Wang Yuchen or the duo exhibition by Feng Zhixuan and Yu Gong, which could be loosely translated to “Northern Scenery”. 

《角落里的喷射物》王宇琛个人站，2019

Ejecta outta the corner, Wang Yuchen, 2019

CR: We're really interested in your first collaborative educational project in 2021. Can you tell us a bit about you brought together the artists Chen Tianzhuo, Guan Yun, Ma Haijiao, Wang Yuchen, Xiao Hanqiu, and Zhang Jingya at a school in the region Qumalai in Tibet? 

PS: It was pretty straightforward, we wanted to invite the artists to work with the kids. We were hoping to introduce artists to social practices and hoped we could have a positive impact on the children as they grow up, through arts education. Another reason was that being in such unique natural setting and spending time in a different culture would might also bring some new inspiration for us all. 

CR: There is also the MountainTalks podcast, which is about the forest school (森林学校) in Sichuan province.

PS: This is a forest school project done by a friend in Ganzi in Sichuan. We are looking forward to a deeper cooperation in the future. For instance, we would like to invite artists to go to the countryside for a residency, exploring sustainable development of rural construction, biodiversity and environmental protection.

CR: This all sounds great. How do you feel is PLATESPACE’s role in Beijing’s larger art scene, in both the independent art scene and the established galleries and museums? 

PS: Given that PLATESPACE is growing and trying to survive in Beijing, we would like to explore more ways to experiment with possible forms of cooperation. Given all the rapid changes and everything going on here right now, it is hard to tell. 

CR: How have the past three years felt like for PLATESPACE given the ongoing pandemic? Have your visitors changed noticeably due to the closed borders, or the way you were thinking or structuring your shows, or has it been less of a change than expected? 

PS: Everything has been so unpredictable, especially since the return of cases, it's been a very worrisome and restrictive situation. But this has been the case for many people and institutions, not just for us. As for the change in audience, we're continuously trying different programming, so our audiences also continues to grow and change.  But, at the same time, as an independent art space or practice, we won’t have too much influence on the mainstream “art consumers.” Our power and influence is limited, and although this space is being co-organized by Liu Chang and me, that's part of why we always invite other collaborators to join forces. It's hard to say how just us two view the trajectory in PLATESPACE’s developments since it relies so much on the input of other members as well. We don't see that changing in the foreseen future, even if everything else is changing.

CR: Talking about the future  - how might the plans for PLATESPACE look like?  

PS: Based on the experiences in the past 3 years, we are looking forward and are already in the preparations to extend our collaborations!

"Feng Guang Bei Guo" by Feng Zhixuan and Gong Yu, 2019
《风光北国》冯志炫与宫羽宫羽项目，2019

中国艺术交流：你们好！盘子空间于2018年在北京成立，对吗？你能告诉我们一些关于你的艺术空间的想法是如何产生的吗？ 

盘子空间：你好，非常高兴接受你的采访！是的，PLATESPACE盘子空间于2018年10月成立于北京，但一路做下来历经了3年多的时间，创造了三个不同语境的实验独立艺术空间，合作了一些美术馆、画廊、商业体等不同空间和机构的艺术展览和项目，它们加起来大大小小有将近100个不同样貌的艺术项目，所以，说到这里，我觉得PLATESPACE更像是一个游牧的艺术计划，它是自然生长的，很难只用Space空间这个概念来概括。

正如我刚才所说，PLATESPACE是一个自然生长的过程，从一开始在 PLATESPACE实验我的个人项目开始，到邀请其它艺术家来实施他们的艺术项目，我们完全没有任何计划，所有的想法和安排都是空间和艺术家们一起探讨和商量，当然这一定和空间两个主理人在做空间之前的国外旅居生活有很大关系，经历了在几十个左右的国家和地区的旅居生活，这给了我们很多做空间的灵感。

中国艺术交流：除了你和畅之外，谁还跟着组织盘子空间，能介绍一下你们两个人的背景吗？

盘子空间：PLATESPACE是由潘冠群和刘畅两个人共同发起创办的，但PLATESPACE的组成方式和运营方式是游牧性的，这也就导致我们在不同的阶段和时期会有不同的伙伴加入共同主理空间。

潘冠群出生于北京，毕业于北京的美术学院油画系，从事艺术创作至今。刘畅出生于北京，毕业于北京的工业大学通信专业、北京的综合院校考古专业、经济管理专业等。

中国艺术交流：盘子空间的名字是怎么来的？

盘子空间：关于名称PLATESPACE盘子空间的由来，主要还是从英文Plate这个单词的多重词意出发的，比如其中会有金属板的词义在里面，“板”这种成片的较硬的物体可以用来搭建结构，也可以组成更多元的框架，同时也是非常好的承载物，这可能也和我们期待的空间状态比较类似，它应该是实验的、开放的、具有承载力的。

至于盘子空间的中文名称其实是大家叫出来的，我们觉得它是一个比较通常的物品，应用也比较广泛，就决定叫这个了，不过总的来说，PLATESPACE也只是一个名称，比起空间本身的输出以及对于社会来说，它也就没那么重要了。

中国艺术交流：你在北京不同的地方举办过展览。最早的时候你们组织的展览和活动是在北京段祺瑞执政府旧址里的一个公寓里面。你是如何在这个位于历史悠久的段祺瑞院子里的公寓里开始做项目的？还有，能介绍一下你们当时做的一些项目，比如与邵丰田《六件衣服》的个人项目吗？

盘子空间：是的，正如您所说，PLATESPACE的第一个空间是在段祺瑞执政府旧址里的公寓空间，它是一个历史悠久的院落，据说自元代就存在了，我们在暂时结束了全球的旅居生活后于2017年回到了北京，之后便一直居住在段祺瑞执政府旧址里，当时居住在院落中一套于50年代建造的苏式4居室专家公寓内，位于整个建筑的顶层，但由于楼层过高，不方便运输，最终还是选择了建筑对面一套低楼层的公寓作为PLATESPACE实体空间的开始。

邵丰田的《六件衣服》是空间较早的项目，它基于一次四川大凉山的支教项目当中的真实事件，在支教的过程当中学生会接收到外界捐赠的衣物，大家都期待能穿新的衣服，所以就彼此商量好轮流穿着这些衣物，这样每个人都可以彼此分享，艺术家邵丰田，把这一行为搬运到了PLATESPACE公寓空间的现场，邀请大家轮流体验这一行为。

在PLATESPACE的公寓空间内，我们陆续举办策划了将近几十个不同样貌的项目，它时而变成“鸡舍”、“游乐场”、“宇宙多维空间”、“记者发布会现场”、“艺术家的驻地公寓”等等等等。

中国艺术交流：另一个被临时使用的空间是位于北京东城的WeWork办公室，紧邻木木艺术胡同博物馆和国家艺术博物馆。你是如何决定使用这个办公空间作为临时展览空间的？还有，你能谈谈你们当时在那里举办的那些展览吗？

盘子空间：到目前为止，PLATESPACE共创造了3个不同语境的实体实验艺术空间，PLATESPACE Wework空间是我们创造的第二个空间，它和我们的其他空间一样位于城市的中心，PLATESPACE Wework空间是由一个9平米的全透明玻璃办公间改造而成。

在哪里举办的第一个项目是艺术家薛若哲的的个人项目《透明的墙Transparent Wall》，艺术家将一个假人打扮成女性白领工作者的模样，并利用WeWork办公空间的属性与实物，模仿并再现了白领工作者的工作状态，假人凝视着位于透明玻璃墙壁前办公桌上的电脑，与其产生互相监视，电脑里的内容是另外一家公司内部办公室的实时监控。

后续在PLATESPACE Wework空间我们又陆陆续续邀请艺术家举办了大概十几个艺术项目，效果都非常好。比如艺术家王宇琛的个人项目《角落里的喷射物 Ejecta outta the corner》和艺术家冯志炫与宫羽的项目《风光北国》等等。

中国艺术交流：2021年，你们举行了盘子空间第一期支教活动，《盘子空间曲麻莱支教》。你能告诉我们一些关于这个项目的起源和动机吗？在这个项目中，艺术家陈天灼，关雲，马海蛟，王宇琛，萧涵秋，张婧雅去了曲麻莱。

盘子空间：初心很简单，一是希望能实践艺术的社会价值，希望能通过艺术教育对当地小朋友在成长过程中带产生积极正面的影响，二是也期独特的自然生态和文化习俗带给一些新的启发。

中国艺术交流：你们还组织过一个MountainTalks播客。这个是什么项目呢？

盘子空间：这个是朋友在四川甘孜州做的森林学校项目，我们期待未来深度合作，邀请艺术家去乡野驻地，共同探索乡村建设， 生物多样性，环境保护的可持续发展。

中国艺术交流：你觉得PLATESPACE在北京更大的艺术场景中，在独立艺术场景和成熟的画廊及博物馆中的作用如何？

盘子空间：PLATESPACE生长和存活在中国北京这一大的前提下，我们也会更加积极的尝试各种合作的可能性，在万息瞬变的时代，她的作用还不好下以定论。

中国艺术交流：在过去的三年里，特别是在前两年疫情开始以后运营盘子空间感觉如何？观众是否发生了很大的变化？你们组织展览的方式和结构受到影响了吗？还是变化比预期的要小？

盘子空间：随着疫情的反复和变化，给空间的运营的确带来了困扰和限制，我想这是所有个人和单位都要面对的问题。

“观众的变化”我想您指的是空间受众的变化，随着我们尝试各种各样的艺术项目，受众确实在持续增长，但所谓的“独立艺术空间”对于社会或者说是大众消费群体来看，它还是太小众了，它的力量和影响非常有限。

空间是由我和刘畅女士共同创办的，我们在运营空间的过程中会邀请很多力量来参与共同运营与项目合作，所以空间绝不能以我或者是我们两个人的思维逻辑去单方面运营下去，因为人是会发生变化的，但合作的开放态度不会变化。

中国艺术交流：关于未来，盘子空间在未来有什么新的计划？

盘子空间：基于PLATESPACE在中国北京的三年多的运营，目前我们正在筹备和尝试艺术商业项目。