French artist captures life in Beijing amid COVID-19

Editor's Note: Living in Beijing for the past five years, Pierre Alivon from Paris, France is the curator of ART. Des, an art gallery in the city. He is also a photographer, traveling across the country to meet artists and discover interesting stories to share on his blog ART520. During the darkest days of the epidemic in China, he witnessed the Chinese people working together to fight against the virus and is now observing the nation as life returns to normal.  

Over my past five years living in Beijing, I have enjoyed sharing photographic chronicles on my social networks each day. As a photographer and exhibition curator, I travel around the city to meet artists, discover different places or just take photos. I also seek to capture a memory of the present moment by showing the daily life in Beijing with special attention to details. Although I am of French origin, I now have a passion for the city of Beijing, and for China in general, that is constantly changing.

Once, a quiet environment was undoubtedly one of the most sought-after luxuries by Beijingers since the metropolis was always buzzing with activity and energy. But then, the coronavirus epidemic began and temporarily put the city into quiet mode.

Consequently, I started to capture the Beijing streets scenes in a new light. While being very attentive to safety and sanitary conditions, I wanted to continue my daily routine to constitute a photographic testimony on the confined life in the capital, which I would be able to share with my friends overseas so that they too could come to understand the evolving situation. For instance, in one of the Sanlitun photos, one of the city's most dazzling fashion and lifestyle districts, the usual hustle and bustle has evaporated - buyers are scarce as impressive department stores stand alone under the azure sky.

Journey of self-discovery

In February, the climate in Beijing was very cold with rain, snow and even pollution coming all at once. The atmosphere was dark and with the added fear of novel coronavirus and confinement, it sometimes felt a bit like the end of the world. I had to boost myself to find the desire to go out to take photographs under these conditions. In the end, though, I am happy I did as I really like the photographs taken during this week of terrible weather.

Looking back, I can say that confinement has brought me personal benefits as well. It was an experience of self-discovery, a philosophical experience I would say. This necessary isolation gave me a lesson in humility, pushed me to question myself and reminded me of my weaknesses. But this questioning of myself also showed me the fundamental link that unites me with the outside world: human contact. The greatest wealth is found in people who give us love.

I would quote Montaigne with this expression: "You have to get the taste of death in the mouth to better appreciate the taste of things," of life. What I say is very trivial, but in the current context we are living in now, it has allowed me to understand the importance of my emotional harmony with others.

This moment of confinement was also an opportunity for personal reflection, a new start to take more time to face my weaknesses, my fears and to be more fraternal in the future. I received a lot of messages from my Chinese friends who filled me with emotion. This is the fundamental human link. It's the fact that we share emotions, solidarities.

Everyday heroes

In my photographs of confinement, I gave a large place to everyday heroes. The delivery men braved the snow by riding their electric scooters across the city; the sanitation teams worked hard to disinfect the roads, clear the snow and keep the streets in order; medical workers hastily walked to hospitals. During this period of collective effort, I wanted to show the solidarity of Beijingers.

I leveraged confinement time to take time to create a new sculpture that I called Dragon. I found my inspiration when I heard in the media that we were in a kind of a war. My new sculpture is a dialogue about the courage, dignity and emotions of the peoples of the world.

We must all feel responsible, caring and determined, which will give us the courage to face this epidemic together. We need a universal brotherhood. All the citizens of the world are becoming soldiers to fight the epidemic.

The first people to fight it were the Chinese people. All of them found the energy and a positive force in them, energy which is evoked by the dragon, the symbol of the strength of the Chinese people. The character of the statue is listening to music while looking at the sky and dreaming of kissing his parents, pampering his children, living poetic moments with friends. He thinks of a world of solidarity that will be a victory not only against the epidemic, but against all future crises that could impact humanity.
Newspaper headline: The dragon awakes