Beijing artist Liang Kegang returned from a enterprise journey in southern France with effectively-rested lungs and a tiny item of protest towards his residence city’s choking pollution: a glass jar of clean, Provence air.
He put it up for auction before a group of about one hundred Chinese artists and collectors late final month, and it fetched 5,250 yuan (£512).
“Air should be the most valueless commodity, totally free to breathe for any vagrant or beggar,” Liang said in an interview. “This is my way to query China’s foul air and express my dissatisfaction.”
Liang’s perform is part of a gust of current artistic protest and entrepreneurial gimmickry reflecting widespread dissatisfaction more than air quality in China, in which cities frequently are immersed days on finish in dangerous pollutants at ranges several occasions what is regarded as risk-free by the Planet Health Organization. The persistent difficulty has spurred brisk markets for dust masks and residence air purifiers.
China’s senior leaders have pledged to clean the country’s air, partly in response to a citizenry increasingly vocal about environmental troubles. But it is a daunting activity that need to be balanced with demands for economic improvement and employment vital to sustaining stability.
In February, a group of twenty Beijing artists sporting dust masks lay on the ground and played dead in front of an altar at the city’s Temple of Heaven park in a functionality artwork protest.
In March, independent artists in the southern city of Changsha held a mock funeral for what they imagined would be the death of the city’s last citizen because of smog.
“If smog cannot be efficiently cleaned up, what it will leave us is death and cities of death,” artist Shao Jiajun said.
Liang’s contribution is a short, ordinary glass preserves jar with a rubber seal and a flip-leading. It has three small, handwritten paper labels: one particular with the identify and coordinates of the French village, Forcalquier, where he closed the jar 1 saying “Air in Provence, France” in French and a single with his signature in Chinese and the date 29 March.
The auction closed on the evening of thirty March, and Chengdu-primarily based artist and entrepreneur Li Yongzheng was the highest bidder.
“I have constantly been appreciative of Kegang’s conceptual artwork, and this piece was extremely timely,” Li said in a telephone interview. “This previous year, whether it was Beijing, Chengdu or most Chinese cities, air pollution has been a serious difficulty. This piece of function really suits the occasion.”
Liang is not the only one particular to make funds from China’s air-pollution angst. Entrepreneurs also see the possible, and so do tourism officials in components of the country where skies are clear.
Chinese President Xi Jinping joked to Guizhou province delegates in the course of last month’s Nationwide People’s Congress that the scenic southwestern province could place its air up for sale. Days later on, the province’s tourism bureau announced ideas to sell canned air as souvenirs for visitors.
“Canned air will force us to stay committed to environmental safety,” provincial tourism director Fu Yingchun mentioned not too long ago.
In central Henan province, nearby tourism authorities promoting a resort scooped up mountain air and gave away bags of it in downtown Zhengzhou, the provincial capital. City dwellers greedily inhaled the air, and some stated they planned to go to the mountain resort to get more than a lungful.
Chen Guangbiao, a recycling tycoon who briefly created headlines with his abortive program to purchase The New York Instances, has been marketing fresh air in cans below his “Very good Person” brand. They sell for $ three each on China’s on the web bazaar of Taobao.
Jar of French mountain air sells for £512 in polluted Beijing
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