IBERIA Center for Contemporary Art, funded by the International Art & Culture Foundation (IAC) of Spain, opened last year in Beijing’s infamous 798 district. Since its opening IBERIA has been fighting for the top spot as one of Beijing’s most important contemporary art centers.

IBERIA’s current exhibition CHINA 2006: Humble Snapshots of a Great Era by artist Sun Jianchun, is a perfect example of their willingness to take risks, allocating a huge hall to a relatively unknown artist. This installation of 360 oil paintings was shown last year at the Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM) which was the largest Chinese contemporary art exhibition ever held in Spain. This work is remarkable in its size and scope.

For the whole year of 2006, Sun Jianchun searched the Internet for non-mainstream news stories which depicted the lives of the lower classes in China, a class that is normally forgotten. Everyday he would find a story and paint that event on a small canvas. The events that he chose are fascinating, unsettling and very real. Suicides, murders, deformities, plastic surgery victims and drug addicts are juxtaposed with marriage, movies stars and pregnancies.

Excerpts taken from exhibition:
(bottom row 3rd) 2006.06.27
Hongyan, a 25-year-old transsexual. She wants to get married with Xue’er, her transsexual lover. The two had been lovers living together when they were still men. They both had operations turning them into women, only wishing to earn some money by working at night clubs. Hongyan, the girl on the left of the picture, enjoys very much being made up by Xue’er.

(bottom row 4th) 2006.06.28
Recently, a shop selling fashionable condom gifts has appeared in Hangzhou. Condoms were found wrapped up in the form of lollipops, mobile phone accessories and photo frames which are given as gifts.

In this section you can find China’s fattest men, a male baby with 3 arms and a drug addict who can only inject in his legs because the blood vessels in his arms have hardened due to prolonged drug use.

Iberia Center for Contemporary Art