THINKING OUTSIDE THE CIRCLE
An upcoming exposition aims to appeal to a new generation of art lovers as well as established collectors and industry insiders, Deng Zhangyu reports.
With Shanghai stealing the spotlight in China’s contemporary art scene with its new museums and art fairs in recent years, the city that’s home to the largest number of artists and galleries in the country is trying to win back its place as China’s art capital with a slew of art events.
The first Beijing Contemporary Expo, the fourth major art fair to be held in Beijing within a year, is opening its doors to the public from Aug 31 to Sept 2.
According to Bao Dong, art director and one of the organizers of the event, the aim of the new art expo is to attract a much wider audience rather than limit its scope to art circles.
“Many people ask me why I’m holding an art fair. For me, the question is more about what kind of art fair I want to present,” says Bao, a professional art critic and an independent curator.
Art expos are often seen as an effective platform for galleries to sell artwork directly to collectors. But Bao wants to create something far more accessible, and aims to attract people outside the art world to visit the show by adding elements of fashion, pop culture and entertainment into the mix.
And this is the reason why two out of the six sections at the fair have been designed to appeal to people curious about art rather than to established collectors with a knowledge of the industry.
The “energy” area of the exhibition will host a pop-up store organized by the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing to display its creative products based on the works by Xu Bing, an established artist who is known for his print making and installation works. It will also hold workshops where celebrities from the music and film industries will create their own works.
Shi Yan, who is in charge of this segment of the expo, says that she regards fashion as a link between art and life. Shi has worked in the fashion industry for decades.
“Contemporary art may appear to be far removed from the lives of ordinary people. But in fact, many contemporary fashion designs draw inspiration from art,” adds Shi.
To promote discussion about the art fair on social media, the “wonder” hall will invite installation artists and public art specialists to produce large pieces, with the aim of attracting visitors to take photos with the art pieces.
As well as generating public interest, the key aspect in creating a successful art fair is attracting the right participants — namely the galleries and artists themselves.
Altogether, 32 galleries from across the globe including the United States, Japan and Europe will take part in the event. As well as stands that display the artists’ works represented by each gallery, the art fair will devote the majority of its exhibition space to putting on a group show.
Entitled Painting Map, the show curated by Bao will feature 60 Chinese painters and offer a comprehensive insight into the development of contemporary Chinese painting. In it, visitors will be able see works by key Chinese artists such as Liu Xiaodong, Mao Yan, Xu Lei and Liu Wei.
As an independent curator, Bao says the group show will appeal just as much to visitors with little art experience as to collectors with a wider understanding of Chinese art history.
“It’s like a map without any navigation. Visitors can wander about freely and confront the works on their own terms,” he adds.
Talking about the increasing number of contemporary art expos in China — more than 10 international art fairs are held across China every year compared to the 100 or so major events in the rest of the world — Bao says China needs to develop such fairs.
Compared with the West, where modern art has been developing for more than a century, the concept is still regarded as something of a novelty by many in China despite having been first embraced by Chinese artists during the mid-1980s.
In Bao’s opinion, these fairs provide an ideal platform for promoting art beyond industry circles. From March to May, Beijing played host to three major art expos: Gallery Weekend Beijing, Jingart Beijing and Art Beijing. Some industry insiders have raised the concern that frequent art fairs may increase competition and waste time and money for art dealers. For Bao, frequency is not the problem.
“They’re only looking at the market in terms of art circles. They’re ignoring the bigger market outside this. There are still a lot of people who don’t know anything about contemporary art.”