Museum Note

——He Liwei

On the very occasion of booming economy and cultural renaissance in China, Xie Zilong Photography Museum was officially opened on September 16th, 2009. Driven by his original intention, Mr. Xie Zilong assumes a great aspiration to build this museum at Hexi Yanghu Wetland with an investment of 150 million yuan, for enriching the global photography history and trends and starting up a domestic public welfare undertaking for photography. Hundreds of teams and organizations and over 2000 builders spent painstaking efforts from dawn to dust in planning for two years and constructing for another two years respectively to realize this grand dream and the museum finally rose from the ground with a building area of 10,000 square meters and art museum of 10 mu (1 mu is about 666 square meters).

Photography, invented 178 years ago as a new perspective for people to view the world from, has become a favorite art form for hundreds of millions of people, while the art of photography in China, so far, lacks an authentic top-level palace of photography. As the founder of LBX Pharmacy Chain Co. Ltd., pushed by his original intention to benefit the people, Mr. Xie has made LBX Pharmacy Chain the pioneer of fair-price drug stores in China with his stores covering almost half of China, and successfully listed at Shanghai Stock Exchange. Mr. Xie, a big fan of photography, aspires to contribute back to the society and his hometown, so he put all business income in his photography museum whose magnificence, brilliance and grandeur is second to none in this world. As the private non-profit photography museum of the largest scale, it’s cheerfully responding to the great rejuvenation of Chinese culture.

Xie Zilong Photography Museum, designed by the team of Mr. Wei Chunyu, dean of the School of Architecture, Hunan University, is “the vessel of light and shadow and the ark of art”, aiming to “collect the history of Chinese photography” and aspiring to “to give a world-class museum back to photography art”. the museum, an exchange and interaction platform, blends and presents Chinese and world photography, and assumes the responsibility of collecting and researching on photography as well, with a focus on the discussion on the direction of Chinese photography in particular, to streamline the history of Chinese photography. The museum serves three academic and artistic functions: first, as a database for studying the development of Chinese photography; second, as a place for all schools of photographers in China to have their voices heard; third, as the most valuable exhibition hall for photography education and dissemination in China and even the world. Such numerous and impressive arrays of exhibits undoubtedly showcase devoted endeavors to push forward the development of Chinese photography. Moreover, taking academic studies as the blood vessel, education as its responsibility, the museum, enables the public to be exposed to and impressed by the lights and shadows of remarkable pictures and the splendor of humanity, which also elevates social life to a spiritual height.

We Hunan people always dare to be the first. Imposingly erect, Xie Zilong Photography Museum is a case in point of such pioneering spirit in the culture of Hunan people. With the first step made, we’ll be viewed by the world and also gain the opportunity to view the world, namely a mutual connection between the world and me. Therefore, an event significant like this will bring benefits to the hundreds of generations to come.

So much is my note for the museum.

Introduction of Xie Zilong Photography Museum

Xie Zilong Photography Museum (XPM) is located at Zone D of Yanghu Wetland Park in Changsha City, and it was founded by Mr. Xie Zilong (photographer, Chairman of Hunan Photographers Association, President of LBX Pharmacy Chain Co. Ltd) with an investment of 150 million RMB. As currently the largest public welfare photography museum in China, XPM was officially opened to the public since September 16th, 2017.

XPM was designed by the famous architect Mr. Wei Chunyu and his team (Dean of the School of Architecture of Hunan University). Received the gold award of Public Amenity Social/ Institutional of ARCASIAN Forum Dhaka 2019, which is also the highest architectural design award for the Asian architectural community. XPM covers an area of 10,600 square meters and it was poured with a one-off cast in white clear water concrete ——experiencing the art of photography through the building itself is the resistance and subversion of the current flamboyant architectural language, and is a return of the essence of architecture and art. The main building has four floors. The first floor is The Commercial Space and it has an art store, a coffee shop, ChunXiaDong Japanese restaurant, a multi-functional hall, a public water platform and special exhibition areas, etc; the second and third floors are 4000 square meters of professional Art Exhibition Halls; the exhibition lines are 1000 meters long and the biggest exhibition wall is up to 10 meters high and 40 meters long; the fourth floor has XPM Art+ Club, library and X-studio which uses professional exhibition lighting by the German Erco and a full set of Swedish Profoto.

As a professional and hall-level photography art museum, XPM integrates image collection, exhibition, academic research and public education, and is committed to becoming an important window for the dissemination of Chinese photography art and promote the development of Chinese photography art.

IV Functions

1.Academic

Based on the collection of photography works, XPM systematically combs and studies the history of photography art development；focusing on academic research and collection of photography（image/video）, and exploring the infinite possibilities of photography（image/video）.

2.Collections

Collecting photography art treasures and discovering its classics

The "Encourage Donation, Honor Collection, and Paid Acquisition" are especially used for systematic collection of early image history materials, video art works, and image artifacts. Mainly, the collection is rich in variety, including protein photos, glass negatives, stereo photos, card photos, silver salt paper base, gravure printing originals, etc., and XPM is currently the most collectible private image museum in China.

3.Exhibition

International standards, boutique exhibitions

XPM adopts the “Exhibition Invitation System” to invite high-quality photography art works from both home and abroad countries to exhibit with professional academic vision. At the same time, it supports excellent curators to hold high-quality exhibitions and provides a platform for the public to access high-quality photography art.

Exhibition Classification: XPM Collection Exhibition ，Collection of Chinese Art Exhibition ，International Exchange Exhibition, HuXiang Impression Exhibition.

4.Public Education

Leading cultural pioneers through photography art and bringing art into everyday life. XPM regularly invites famous domestic and foreign artists to hold public lectures, support outstanding curators, establish volunteer teams, and continue to carry out public education activities such as “photography art on the campus”, “photography art into the community”, “photography art into the enterprise”, and " photography art into the government agencies" to popularize the academic achievements of photography art; to enhance the public's artistic quality and enrich the public's spiritual and cultural life.