Dashanzi 798 Art District - taking a quick art break in Beijing - part 2
In mid January, fellow blogger Min Guo and I had two hours to whip through the Dashanzi 798 Art District in Beijing in mid January (see earlier Dashanzi 798 Art District part 1 post). While we were there, we were able to visit the recently opened Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA).
Getting Oriented: UCCA Beijing
UCCA is located in the Dashanzi 798 Art District. See my earlier post on how to get to Dashanzi 798 Art District.
Hours
- Tuesday — Sunday 10:00-19:00
- Closed on Mondays
Ticketing
- Adult 30.00 RMB
- Group 20.00 RMB (more than 10 people)
- Student 10.00 RMB (with a valid ID)
- Senior 10.00 RMB (aged 65 and above)
- Special Needs 10.00 RMB
- Free for children under the height of 1.3m
- Free on Thursdays
Check for updated information on the UCCA site.
‘85 New Wave, the Birth of Contemporary Chinese Art - 11/5/2007 - 2/17/2008
We saw the inaugural exhibition, ” ‘85 New Wave, the Birth of Contemporary Chinese Art” which was exhibited from November 5, 2007 to February 17, 2008. The 85 New Wave exhibition site is here.
UCCA describes the exhibition as follows:
85 New Wave is an exhibition that takes a step back from this commercial fray to examine a unique episode of art history when China began reinventing its own culture. The 1980s in China represented a kind of explosive answer to the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s, when China was not only cut off from the rest of the world, but was also forced to disown and renounce its own culture. Suppression of such a powerful culture could only be met with an equal and opposite force. The result of this explosive reaction was the ‘85 New Wave Movement. This search for new artistic language and dialogue sent artists in pursuit of multiple lines of enquiry. After decades of political movements, the line of modern Chinese artistic development had been seriously eroded, leaving only traces from which to reinvent a new culture. Forced to work almost from scratch, artists instigated a parallel and alternative contemporary art history to the West that brought Chinese art from strict socialist realism to mature experimental and conceptual practice in just a few years. Consequently, this will be the first time that a comprehensive exhibition of this period will be presented to the public since the 1980s.
It seems that this was a “cusp” moment for China and its artists, away from the “closed” period of the Cultural Revolution, to an overwhelmingly period of “openness” to Western contemporary art movements in an incredibly short period of time. During the period, pioneering Chinese artists must have felt like “strangers in a strange land,” developing “contemporary art with Chinese characteristics.”
Here are some photos of the art from across the Web:
source: Reuters Pictures via Daylife
Source: HughPearlman.com
Source: HughPearlman.com
Source: UCCA via Korea Times
Source: Xinhua Chinaview.cn
Source: Xinhua Chinaview.cn
Source: ShanghaiJournal.Squarespace.Com
Source: ShanghaiJournal.Squarespace.Com
Links to other interesting articles and posts:
Travel and Leisure - 2/2008 - UCCA has a collection of 1,500 works housed in an 86,000-square-foot building. It is the largest museum dedicated to Chinese contemporary art. This short article was written by Sharon Leece, who wrote China Style and China Modern.
ShanghaiJournal.Squarespace.Com - 11/2007 - more photos from the opening event.
PollockTheBollocks.com - article that I think is zhuanzai’ed from the Korean Times - 11/2007
The Art Newspaper - New Director for the Ullens Center appointed. French curator Jérôme Sans.
If all goes according to plan, Mr Sans will replace UCCA’s current artistic director, Fei Dawei, the Chinese art critic, who is to step down from operational matters and take on a research-based role. Dawei curated the museum’s inaugural show “‘85 New Wave: the Birth of Chinese Contemporary Art” which received mostly positive reviews in the international press but divided opinion in Beijing.
The UCCA press office downplayed the staffing changes, saying that Dawei’s original remit was only ever to be “instrumental in setting up the centre as a museum.”
However when Dawei was presented to the press at the opening of the museum last November he was described as UCCA’s full-time, long-term artistic director. Mr Dawei could not be reached for comment, however, sources in Beijing say that Mr Dawei’s disagreements with his colleagues are believed to be behind his change in role.
Conclusion:
UCCA seems to be the largest, most well endowed contemporary art museum in the Dashanzi 798 Art District. It is worth spending the afternoon at the gallery and exploring the Dashanzi Art Zone if you happen to have some time to spend in the northern area of Chaoyang District of Beijing just beyond the Fourth Ring Road heading toward Beijing Capital International Airport.
