The dawn of art philanthropy in Asia: the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art

I first heard Guy Ullens's name through an American friend who told me: “If you want to see contemporary Chinese art you must meet Guy Ullens.” Four years later, in November 2007, I went to see for myself the opening of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), a former Bauhaus-style factory in the 798 area of Beijing’s Dashanzi district. It is the fulfilment of a long-cherished dream for Ullens, a Belgian business tycoon and collector, and his wife, Myriam, and could not have come at a better time, when interest in Chinese contemporary art is booming. UCCA is a kind of hybrid between a not-for-profit private foundation and public institution which will organise exhibitions, commission works and host experimental projects. Not long ago UCCA would have been unthinkable, being the terrain of western art philanthropy, but now it underlines China's arrival on the global scene.

The building in which UCCA is housed was part of a huge munitions complex built by East German engineers and known as 798 because military installations were identified by numbers for security purposes. The essential industrial structure has been successfully retained by UCCA’s French architect. Jean-Michel Wilmotte. An automatic lighting system controls and optimises natural light, which floods through the roof and top windows. “I wanted to bring this place to a standard where it could receive any collection in the world”, Wilmotte told me at one of the two extravagant international art-crowd dinners for 700 that accompanied the opening.

There are three exhibition halls, one of which is a towering 8000 square metre space for large-scale works that can be reconfigured for temporary shows: a 130-seat auditorium; a restaurant; and a bookstore. With its western-style brand identity and logo that makes the most of the building's 50-metre chimney, it is reminiscent of a mini Tate Modern, with even that institution's former head of collections, Jan Debbaut, as a consultant. At a press conference, Baron Ullens revealed his passion for China ('a magical place’), but not the budget, which is expected to be supplemented by sponsorship for future projects.

The guiding principles are to create a Chinese institution for the Chinese public. and to inform and educate. Debbaut cited 'Guy and Mimi' (as the staff call them) Ullens’s 2000-work collection as a primary resource which can contextualise loans from other collections. Unprecedented for Mainland China is UCCA’s contemporary art reference library, housed on the mezzanine with books, catalogues, journals, artists' editions, archival documents and digital media for research.

As for the program, it will juxtapose emerging and established artists, both Chinese and international, with solo and group shows, according to Chief Curator Colin Chinnery, who shares program responsibilities with UCCA's Artistic Director, Fei Dawei. An active member of the 1985 art movement which broke thirty years of cultural seclusion in China, Fei curated UCCA's inaugural exhibition "85 New Wave — The Birth of Chinese Contemporary Art”. Fei has described the art ofthis time as 'very political, non-profit, non-utilitarian. It was art that responded to passion and idealism’. It is an extraordinary show, a quarter of which is drawn from the Ullens collection, and the first in-depth analysis of the time when Chinese artists explored the new-found freedom of experimentation.

Comprising 137 works by thirty artists and collectives, ‘’85 New Wave' shows how tar China has travelled in the twenty years, with this first generation of artistic revolutionaries setting the scene for the attention-grabbing political pop artists of the 1990s. With today’s booming market the climate has changed, as the Ullens alluded to at the opening, with Guy describing his early collecting ventures as 'visits with artists and explosions of discussions, when artists thought they were kings if they sold a work for $3000 or $4000'.

Among the most striking works in the exhibition were Gu Wenda's red, white and black banners, seemingly political but actually depicting everyday phrases; Huang Yongping's The history Of Chinese painting and the history of modern western art washed in the washing machine for two minutes. 1987, a room installation of washing machines and laundered paper refashioned in the shape of Chinese tombs. Geng Jianyi's black-and-white painting The second situation, 1987, with four Chinese faces grinning to the point of grimace: and Gu Dexin's faithful recreation of his 1980s artist studio. The early work of

Zhang Xiaogang was an exercise in figuration not nearly as assured as his phenomenally successful ‘Bloodline' series of paintings that currently fetch millions in the auction rooms in London, New York and Hong Kong.

Contemporary art has become a crucial tool in making China more accessible to Western eyes, not least because of the 2008 Olympic Games, when the country will be on global display. In contrast to the political repression of the early 1990s, artists now use their work to comment on the world around them. ‘We have a lot of artists thinking about things the government doesn't, and the intellectuals don't', says Giang Dong, a professor of art and French literature at Beijing University, ‘Artists are the real avantgarde - this is very positive. China's recent history is strong, but the only serious reflection on it is done by the artists.'

With this kind of openness, the centre's future will be fascinating to observe. A survey of American conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner will be followed by an exhibition of work by the French artist of Chinese origin, Huang Yong Ping , and ‘Stray Alchemist', a show focusing on artists' process across all media. Perhaps most importantly, the Ullens’s dream has given the 798 art district a kind of solidity in the face of an uncertain future. ‘Beijing has become more important because Of UCCA’ says Giang. ‘The fate of 798 art district is still not sure, but UCCA will protect it and stimulate other galleries and cities.’

Bettina von Hase