29 december - i go back to 798 by myself which i am very proud can do - i now have a card/picture of every place i am going - mandarin is not improving - go to the new ucca non-profit gallery, one of the first to be developed in china (really a museum but if you call yourself a musuem the party has a say in curating) - the the ucca was set up by guy and myriam ullens, belgium philanthropists who collected the new chinese art extensively in the late eighties and nineties - committed themselves to the new china, sold some turners that they had laying around and spent about $20 million on the new completely renovated factory building complex - this is the first museum here at 798 and is seen both as a stamp of legitimacy of new wave chinese art and also the 'mainstreaming' and acceptance of this once radical movement - it has mainly been set up as a counter o the prevailing culture of art as business - that art can also be curated, appreciated and even contemplated - not just bought and sold - sometimes art is used as a status offering of influence to sway favour - a cultural adaptation of gift giving on a much larger scale - the first exhibition is impressive - titled '85 new wave (5 nov - 17 feb 2008) it features 150 works from 85 of the chinese new wave artists - the work has an underlying radicalism with symbolism heavy especially post-tienanmen - the first room of he gallery contains an amazing 60 metre illustrated timeline of the history of the avant-garde movement starting with the death of mao of course - a volunteer arts student shows me around - he wants to be a curator!
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