Ullens art center to debut in China with rare Chinese contemporary art show
2/11/2007 16:44
The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), founded by the Ullens
family from Belgium, will open on Nov. 5, with an inaugural exhibition exploring
the 1980s that "changed the direction of art in China and its relationship with
the world art scene".
The exhibition, called "'85 New Wave: The Birth of
Chinese Contemporary Art", is the first comprehensive display of Chinese
contemporary art work largely from 1985 to 1990, which was "a revolutionary
period in art history", according to the UCCA Artistic Director Fei
Dawei.
Fei said in that period Chinese artists began "reinventing their own
culture, breaking free from decades of socialist realism to begin a process of
intense experimentation".
The show, running through February 2008, includes
"137 seminal works representing a wide range of media", such as painting,
photography, video and installation by 30 well-known Chinese artists of the
period, including Wang Guangyi, Xu Bing, Geng Jianyi, Huang Yongping and Zhang
Peili, among others, said Fei at yesterday's press conference.
"It's the
first major exhibition exploring the revolutionary movement of artistic and
social transformation," said Fei, himself an active participant of the 1985
Movement.
He said the exhibition shed light on a critical period in history
that is largely unknown because a great number of works had been lost or
dispersed abroad.
"Some of the most important works of contemporary Chinese
art at the time were unknown to the world until late 1990s when they felt the
influence of rapid economic development and the widespread fame of the
"Political Pop artists", Fei said.
The movement, which "departed from
tradition and pointed to a new direction in contemporary Chinese art history",
shaped the structure of Chinese art, he said, adding that 20 years on, looking
back on the era could give perspective on rethinking the meaning of
art.
Breaking through 30 years of cultural seclusion, the artists, working
almost from scratch, created a parallel and alternative contemporary art history
to the West that revolutionized Chinese art from "a doctrine of strict socialist
realism" to "mature experimental and conceptual practice" in just a few years,
Fei said.
Many documentary materials, manuscripts, letters, sketches, photos
and rare videos are going to be made public for the first time, according to
Fei.
Founded by Guy and Myriam Ullens, the Belgian baron and baroness who
boast more than 1,500 Chinese contemporary art works by three generations of
Chinese artists, the largest of its kind in the world, the UCCA is one of the
most comprehensive contemporary art institutions in China and the only
non-profit art organization in the country supported by a private
foundation.
Located in a transformed Bauhaus-style electronics factory in the
flourishing 798 art zone of Beijing's industrial Dashanzi district, the center,
reconstructed by French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, in collaboration with Ma
Qingyun who leads a well-known Chinese architectural office MADA s.p.a.m, covers
a floor space of 8,000 square meters with "31-foot-high ceilings to accommodate
monumental works".
The center is to present both group and solo exhibitions
exploring current developments in Chinese and international contemporary art,
and site commissions and experimental projects series by emerging Chinese
artists, according to the UCCA.
Educational programs such as art tours,
screenings and lectures will also be designed for schools and communities, which
is also one of the aims of the Ullens institutions to "spread art knowledge to
the general public", said the Belgian baron.
The Guy and Myriam Ullens
Foundation, established in Switzerland in 2002, promotes Chinese contemporary
art by sponsoring events worldwide, lending works from its collection to museums
and art centers, and organizing major exhibitions in China and Europe.
Xinhua
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