Art going crowd in China

Watching how people view/"interact" with art in 798 is an experience all by itself. Dont get me wrong, its great to have young people, all people, come to view art, appreciate art; problem is, their etiquette is at best strange if not unacceptable. There's lots of photo taking by artworks. I could sort of understand if it's an installation, but if its a painting, honestly tougher to understand (to be clear, you see that at Lourve at the Mona Lisa hall as well, so its not just in BJ). There's lot of touching going on - people will put their hands on paintings, on sculptures, etc. Granted there are artworks that are to be touched and interacted with, but most in 798 is not. The younger group are the more serious offenders. By this Qiu Zhijie work in SZ Art, a giant fiberglass (plastic?) Chinese bottle, 3 young girls pressed their whole bodies on the work with hands and bodies and legs on the piece....which freaked out the gallery assistant there.

The upside way to look at this is to say, for art to broaden its appeal, (I am particularly thinking about West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, which is supposed to attract lots of mainland tourists), why not create lots of public space work. Sculptures which you can touch. And lean on, sit on. Where its a Kodak spot, for everyone.

Lukily, even in BJ, one will see different behaviors in other institutions. At National Art Mueseum of China, people seem to stick to the more commonly-accepted etiquette of appreciating but not touching works, not posing next to paintings, etc. Honestly, I was relieved...So, not all is lost...