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 Thursday'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 News Agency November 2, 2007)
