Blanc Space Wants to Connect Beijing to the International Art World

There’s a new art space in Beijing, which opened its doors as of Oct 23. It’s one which seeks to open up new doors for the capital’s art community as a whole, bridging a gap between Beijing’s art world, and the international art world.

Located in Shunyi, Blanc Space, its less a gallery and more a small art-centric city situated within Beijing Tianzhu Comprehensive Free Trade Zone. A mouthful of a name for an FTZ for sure, but the situating of Blanc Space here gives us more clues as to its one-stop shop nature.

Blanc Space, which was established by the Blanc Art Group with assistance from the city government and China's Culture and Tourism Ministry, are looking to turn their Blanc space from a blank slate -- see what we did there? -- into a platform that can help local and international artists grow, thrive, and succeed in Beijing.

The group plans to do this out of two buildings. One building is intended for spaces specializing in antique arts, which the group says is a key component in the capital’s continued facilitation of global cultural relics and other artworks. This centers on a business model which integrates strategies for storing, transporting, displaying, and trading antique art and cultural relics.

The other building consists of six floors which will be able to host up to 14 International Galleries, permanently or for short projects. The sixth floor will be home to the DANGXIA Art Space, which will be dedicated to assisting young, emerging, and creative artists, curators, and art practitioners.

The list of represented galleries, quickly give a glance at just how international this area already is: White Space, Lisson Gallery, Massimo de Carlo, Woaw Gallery, Almine Rech, Balice Hertling, Clearing, Chantal Crousel, Contemporary Tokyo, Esther Schipper and INK Studio, to name a few.

Blanc Space has only just opened but there’s already an event taking place there, the 2021 International Antique Art Fair. The fair brings together nearly 100 antique dealers and galleries from every corner of the world, in order to foster more trade in international heritage art.

Trade in international art will be a breeze through the platform, says the group, being its the first ever art space in Beijing to feature a tax-free trading policy. This first event is an inkling of whats to come, in a space geared towards to the old and new of the art world. Blanc Space could be an exciting new chapter for Beijing’s art scene, so here’s to more fresh art events to come.

Blanc Space 国家对外文化贸易基地
Building A1 and D7, Yard 3, Jinhang East Road, Shunyi District, (Beijing Tianzhu Free Trade Zone)
顺义区金航东路3号院A1和D7号楼(天竺综合保税区)

READ: Gurmehar Singh: "I believe Beijing has the potential to become an art superpower"

Images courtesy of Blanc Space