Europe as Façade

In China, numerous buildings employ an overtly baroque style, alluding to a hyper-Europe. In the context of an intensification of nationalistic Chinese sentiments that help maintain the Chinese nation-state, Europe remains an important constitutive outside. What cultural translations from Europe to China are at stake here, when Europe is turned into a façade? Inspired by the work of Rey Chow and Michel Foucault, this article reads these façades as constitutive mirrors, both heterotopian and utopian, that open up possibilities to rethink the notion of culture and its geopolitical manifestations. To analyse the imagination of Europe in such models, websites of real estate developers are analysed, showing how for them, Europe is a fantasy to capitalise on, signifying craftsmanship and a pastoral and rich and full life. In contrast, the artwork Mirage City by Amsterdam-based artist Meiya Lin questions the presence and perpetual multiplication of a hyper-Europe in today’s China. In the final part of this article the author reflects upon the ways in which the presence of Europe in China interpellates him

Die Olympischen Spiele 2008 in Beijing und die Kunst der Aufrechterhaltung des Nationalstaates

The Beijing Olympics and the art of nation-state maintenance This article maps out how different actors are involved in the promotion and mediation of the Olympics. It looks at the roles of, first, the nation-state, through an analysis of the promotional materials; second, the art world and global companies, through an analysis of the touring exhibition "Sport in Art" and the Beijing art district 798; and third, the Western press and activists, through a brief analysis of the critique of the Games in the Netherlands and the Chinese response to that critique. Our analysis shows that the imageries promoting the Games are never fully under control of their producers. The Beijing Olympics, we argue, should be perceived as a field of contestation, in which conflicting discourses, constituted by different regimes of truth produced by distinct interest groups, vie for global attention