Tiger sniff: What is the meaning of art? Is tallness the only property of art? Apart from fulfilling the mission of enthusiast art? How does a business run art?
To answer these questions, Philip Tinari, curator of UCCA Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, told us about the transformation of UCCA at the Tiger Sniff FM Festival. Periods. “You must know what art is and what UCCA is before you choose to enter a black channel into an art space. Our 12-year development process is mainly to move the door of art from the black channel to the public and welcome more People. “
The following is a selection of Tian Yuyu’s speech. The picture is provided by UCCA Ullens Center for Contemporary Art.
UCCA Ullens Center for Contemporary Art was originally a dream of the founders Ullens couple. From the 1980s, in the early days of China’s reform and opening up, the European noble couple often came to China to find business opportunities and fell in love with them. Chinese art.
Ulens and wife
They first bought a lot of traditional art such as ancient paintings, porcelain, bronzes, and later met some artists, such as Liu Xiaodong and Chen Danqing, and began collecting Chinese contemporary art.
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In the 1990s, the contemporary art ecology in China was not complete. Although some artists have been doing their own experiments and creations, there is no market or art institution. The Ullens and his wife gave birth to a very crazy idea. At that time, the 798 Art District, which was not well known, was relatively remote, and established its own institution to display the collection at that time. This is our current factory building, it is two identical buildings, one of which has a chimney and an office building in front, with a total of more than 10,000 square meters.
Then, we invited the very famous French architects Michel Villermotte and Ma Qingyun to make a remodeling design. The biggest feature is our large exhibition hall, a lot of white space, and the small windows above it, An exhibition hall of 1800 square meters without pillars has been built, which is a very valuable space configuration in the global art industry.
By the end of 2007, we opened at the core of 798. At that time, 798 was not as many people as it is at the weekend. This photo actually reflects a reality at the time: You must know what art is and what UCCA is before you choose to enter a black channel to enter an art space. Our 12-year development process is mainly to move the door of art from the underworld to the public and welcome more people.
UCCA early appearance
Period 1.0: From tall to vibrant
Mr. Fei Dawei, our first curator, is a witness and driver of the Chinese 85th-century and 80s-based art movement. He is also the most international in the curatorial team of the Chinese avant-garde art exhibition in February 1989 One bit for background.
He has been to Paris since 1986, and as a very early Chinese curator, he has communicated with the French art world. In the first global art exhibition held in France in 1989, “The Magician of the Earth”, all three participating Chinese artists wereHe recommended it. He came to UCCA and began to build an art collection in 2003. He began to prepare this space in 2005. In 2007, our opening exhibition “’85 New Wave: China’s First Contemporary Art Movement” actually looked back at this historical movement.
At that time, Martyr exhibited Teacher Xu Bing’s Book of Heaven, which was the first time this work was exhibited in this space. Last summer, in the exhibition “Xu Bing: Thoughts and Methods” held by UCCA, this work met this space again. The opening exhibition “85 New Wave” set our academic positioning to a very high standard. In fact, this is also the first time that there is a local art institution in China to review Chinese artists. At that time, the creations of hundreds of artists across the country were gathered. Come together.
“85 New Wave: China’s First Contemporary Art Movement” exhibition site
But after a while, Mr. Ullens may feel a little tall and widowed, maybe he can’t attract the public, he invited a French to be the curator, Jérôme Sans. Students who know more about art may have heard of a movement called relational aesthetics. The essence of it is that the artist will make a curry rice, invite everyone to eat together, and then chat, this is his work.
The spirit of relational aesthetics enters UCCA’s display through Sans. In his exhibition “Our Future: Ullens Foundation Collection Exhibition”, we can see the works of dozens of artists appearing on the wall, on the ground, or even falling from the sky, showing the art It is very energetic.
Everyone may remember that the biggest sign at the entrance of UCCA was the three dinosaurs. It was the work of teacher Sui Jianguo. In fact, Sui Jianguo was also the first artist to move into 798. This dinosaur was placed at our door and played a role The role of this kind of guidance.
After many more years, we feel that it is a bit incorrect to use a piece of work to represent the entire organization for 12 years. These dinosaurs moved 50 meters eastward last year, still at 798, but at our doorChanged its look.
The exhibition in this period has a characteristic, which can be visually summarized with a lens. This is Yan Peiming’s exhibition “Children’s Landscape” in 2009. There is an air setting inside the flagpole to let them stand up; Or, like the “Ice Breaking-The Third Plan of Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge” made by Mr. Qiu Zhijie, the entire exhibition hall was turned into a ship, and his installation was scattered inside.
Or, like My Teacher Universe in 2011, he blasted a large stone, and then made all the fragments into new small stainless steel stones.
“Looking Forward: My Universe” Exhibition Site
Period 2.0: Let Chinese Contemporary Art Go International
The second period of UCCA is the 2.0 period, starting in 2012. I joined the post at the end of 2011 and came from a Chinese-English bilingual art magazine called the “Art World”. I have been doing combing and promotion of Chinese contemporary art before, so I hope I can find a place like Beijing Way to make Chinese contemporary art international.
The first thing is to ask Teacher Zhang Yonghe to design a new door for UCCA. According to the design of a Xidan bookstore he made in the 1990s, the bookshelves are all modified on the wheels of bicycles, and then he also made us a train that can be moved like a train, and the new logo at that time can be opened from the middle to change Framed doors.
Unfortunately, at this time, Mr. Ullens started selling his collection to the auction market. So many people have misunderstandings about us. In fact, UCCA did not have a collection. Mr. Ullens’ collection did not belong to UCCA at that time, but his own. When he sold these collections, he was taken over by many very good collectors in the country. In fact, this institution became more free, and then he could do more different exhibitions of young and accomplished artists at home and abroad.