LEAP 1
One Giant LEAP?
This is a magazine about art in China, or rather art and China, that aims to do things ever so slightly differently from the dozens of art magazines which have emerged here in Beijing since auction fever began in 2006. And yes, it’s a print magazine, with a web presence, but with the bimonthly rhythms of paper. Sounds retro, but we’re no hipsters. Our company, remember, is called Modern Media, without a lick of irony.
So what makes us different? For starters, we don’t sell coverage. Sounds like the sort of thing you wouldn’t need to put in an opening statement, but that’s the context we’re up against. Next, we take to our work with a basic understanding that serious criticism, serious journalism, assume sometimes incompatible registers in Chinese and English. Which is why we believe in editorial standards, a curatorial sensibility, and the very best translation. We believe that the fundamental aesthetic quality of this time and place is its eclecticism, and our editorial choices reflect that: artist portfolios, woman-and-her-work profiles, rigorous reviews, panels re-rendered as cartoons, timely Chinese translations of key texts from Artforum, and a fashion shoot, unproblematically juxtaposed. We also believe that China, owing to its distinct culture but also to its informational strictures, is its own context, and a Beijing-centered one at that. We have seen the cracks in the wall, we understand the skewing logic by which knowledge makes its way in and out, and that’s right where we intend to work.
We fantasize about Rauschenberg’s visit to China in 1985, and Warhol’s in 1982, and Gilbert and George’s in 1993, in dreams that jump from there right to the basement apartment on East 7th where they shot Beijingers in New York in 1992. We believe that the moment has come for a magazine deeply of this place and this scene, presuming the sort of background knowledge that you won’t have unless you’re an insider, the better to create new and better insiders. We’re junkies for old exhibition announcements and interviews with avant-garde almost-beens. We are not looking to promote “Chinese contemporary art” (Those three words!); we just believe that enough people believe in them already (first it was foreigners, who are no longer necessary to the concept’s prolonged existence) that it’s time for a smart take on a special sphere. Ours are no rose-tinted glasses, although if you want a pair of those, we know a great place on the East Third Ring. We don’t deal, but we’re not so innocent or aloof to deny that everything here is transactional.
What’s in a name? In Chinese we’re called Yishujie, which just means “Artworld.” LEAP, which we like to write all in caps, is the Derridean supplement that completes the circle by standing just outside it. Our magazine is structured with a top, a middle, and a bottom, each with its own team and style. That’s just the beginning. We publish on the first of every other month, and hope you’ll come along for the ride.
Philip Tinari
Beijing, January 25, 2010