China Today: Chinese International Gallery Exposition
Abraham Lubelski
The China International Gallery Exposition, which took place recently at Beijing’s World Trade Center exhibition hall, is only in its second year, but has already doubled in size. The CIGE was "approved" by the China Culture Ministry–a sign that the government is perhaps starting to approve of contemporary art as an engine for economic activity, though perhaps not for social commentary.
The majority of the 80 galleries represented at the CIGE, which had the theme of "Internationalization; Standardization and fore heading to the future," were from the Far East, with just a few from Europe. The U.S. representation was rather weak, with only four galleries, but that’s bound to change next year.
The atmosphere was not quite as frenetic as the Armory, which has double the number of galleries. And CIGE can’t compete economically with the more established international art fairs since China’s collector class is undeveloped and geographically dispersed. The Chinese contemporary art market is still in its infant stages, both economically and aesthetically. But the potential is massive, and unlike in the U.S. or Europe, where it took two or three hundred to develop, in China it could all happen in five years. By then the Chinese art market will be as powerful, if not more so, than in Europe and the U.S.
Next year, the art fair should allocate more space for experimental projects and for installations made specially for the fair, as we saw at this year’s Armory. In spite of–or perhaps because of–the Chinese government’s history of control and censorship over contemporary art, which may now be changing, there were signs of radical approaches. They sneak in without people realizing that it’s happening. This is where the new political and aesthetic visions are gong to come from. These pages show a selection of them.
