Art Goes Public.docVIP

Art Goes Public 　　As night fell on June 30， 2016， Ul- lens Center for Contemporary Art（UCCA） and the Ullens Foundation released a joint statement at their official website， declaring that Guy Ullens， founder of both organizations， was planning to transfer UCCA and his personal collection， an announcement that sparked concern from the art circles across China. 　　UCCA Era 　　Guy Ullens is a Belgian collector who began acquiring modern Chinese art in 1987. Today， 80 percent of his 2，000-piece Chinese collection held in Switzerland is categorized as contemporary art， making him the foremost collector of modern Chinese art. 　　In November 2007， Ullens founded UCCA in Beijing’s 798 Art District， just as the area was beginning to blossom. Designers Jean-Michel Wilmotte from France and Ma Qingyun from China preserved the original architectural style of a 1950sera workshop when transforming it into an 8，000-square-meter artistic space for international exhibitions. 　　Well-known Chinese art critic and event planner Fei Dawei was recruited as UCCA’s curator， and he themed its inaugural exhibition： ‘85 New Wave： The Birth of Chinese Contemporary Art. “China experienced its first zenith of artistic creation in 1985， forming the basic structure of contemporary art in relation to its art history，”explains Fei. 　　The exhibition became China’s first showing of globally-influential contemporary Chinese art. Not only did the event showcase the exhibition space’s unique architecture and the works’ profundity， but it left a massive impact on the Chinese art market， arousing retrospective fever and reflection on Chinese art during the 1980s. For quite a while， UCCA was praised as a“good example of museum-caliber private artistic space for modern Chinese art，” and Ullens， its founder， gained a sterling reputation in China. 　　After a beautiful inaugural exhibit， UCCA hosted over 100 exhibitions across the subsequent decade and welcomed more than 4 million visitors. Covering a wide