Back by popular demand, our 798 Insider Tour will take you into the heart of this key Beijing art district. Be guided through the fascinating architectural history and top exhibition spaces, finishing with a relaxed introduction to 798’s colourful decade of rise and change. We welcome Robert Bernell, one of 798s most recognised locals as the founder and managing director of Timezone 8 Limited.

Spaces limited, registration required.
RSVP by: Wednesday, January 11.
Book your place:members@159.138.20.147 or call 010 5780 0295

In 1980, Robert Bernell began his Chinese language studies at Taiwan Normal University and following that at the John Hopkins Centre for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing. Arriving at the tail end of the New Tide movement, Bernell's art history professors included Li Xiaoshan and Zhang Shaoxia, authors of the seminal Zhongguo Xiandai Huihua Shi which announced a belief in the death of Chinese painting.

Bernell earned his Masters in Chinese language and literature from Stanford in 1989, and in 1990 embarked on a ten-year career in business that would take him from Burston Marsteller in Hong Kong, to beginning his own venture capital projects in Beijing. In 1998 he founded Chinese-art.com, a bi-monthly e-zine which quickly became rated by at least one US-based art newspaper as one of the world’s top five Chinese art resources. The site’s first print venture, the genesis for Timezone 8, was entitled "Chinese Art at the End of the Millenium," a collation of the site’s content, edited by John Clarke. "Chinese Art at the Crossroads" was soon to follow in 2001. The success of both texts, published through a small, specially created publisher in Hong Kong gave Bernell the capital and the confidence to establish Timezone 8 in Beijing’s 798 art district, at that time in its infancy.

Robert Bernell’s bookstore’s publishing schedule has since become quite aggressive, producing an impressive 22 titles since 2002, and including the work of luminaries such as Cai Guo-Qiang and Wang Guangyi. Recent collaborative projects with art publishing giants such as Steidl, and a distribution network spanning London, New York, Amsterdam and Hong Kong have assured Timezone 8’s place among the most important publishers of illustrated Chinese art books.

In addition to this, Robert is firmly recgonised as one of 798’s longest-standing residents, and hs witnessed over a decade of change in the area.

Partner: Indie Workshop