Jun 6, 2011 | Consumerism, Music
Beijing is chock-full of branded events these days. Whether it’s Diane von Furstenberg at Pace Gallery or Louis Vuitton at the National Museum of China, many fashion houses and luxury brands are trying to wedge themselves into the lucrative Chinese consumer market by pairing up with “legitimate” cultural institutions. Calvin Klein was no different when they rolled into Beijing and threw a party at Club Tango featuring performances by New Pants/新裤子 from Beijing and Far East Movement from Los Angeles. New Pants played a very short set including my current favorite “Sex, Drugs, Internet” while the Far East Movement rocked the energetic crowd with their “Like a G6” hit – see videos below. Otherwise, one corner of the dance floor was dominated by a specially constructed mini-studio where people could be videotaped dancing around a white room in the same manner as recent Calvin Klein advertisements. The only caveat was that anyone entering the box signed away their rights to the video in hopes of being selected for a future Calvin Klein campaign or web feature. People around the mini-studio could also watch live feeds of the antics occurring inside via flatscreens built into the siding. Overall it was a rather ingenious ploy to get people to freely relinquish rights to their personal images for commercial purposes. Events like this occur every few days in Beijing as international corporations continue to drum up a consumer frenzy throughout China.
Sep 26, 2010 | Art, Music
The Creators Project organized by Vice finally rolled into Beijing last week with tons of exhibitions and a blowout party in 798. Over the past year I have been meeting people from Vice who shot the short artist profiles that form the core of The Creators Project. Some of my favorites from China include Zhang Shouwang from Carsick Cars, DJ Wordy (see previous post), Ray Lei, Peng Lei from New Pants, and fashionista extraordinaire Vega Wong. They are all very well produced and will surely create an impressive archive of innovators from around the world. After reading up on The Creators Project parties in London and New York, I was quite excited for the main event here in Beijing. Unfortunately CSS canceled last minute and Delorean had troubles getting their equipment through customs (something always goes wrong in China). Nonetheless, the hometown boys held up their part of the bargain with two amazing sets by Rebuilding the Rights of Statues (ReTROS) and New Pants. One of the highlights included Fox Pang grabbing an old iMac on stage and smashing it to bits much to the delight of the audience at the end of their new hit “Sex, Drugs, Internet”. See the attached video for this and more highlights. Otherwise DJ Wordy shined with his short musical interludes while Major Lazer definitely lived up to their reputation and got the entire room riled up into a proper frenzy. The craziest part of this entire venture is that Intel sponsored it all. Hopefully we will see more specialized projects focusing on fringe media and artists with big corporate sponsorship behind it in the future. Gotta pay the bills somehow.
