Photo: Art gallery founder shows the way to the future

Author?Time: 05-05-2008?Source: BOCOG

Guy Ullens, cofounder of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art

Full coverage: An interview with Guy Ullens, cofounder of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art

(BEIJING, May 4) -- "It is now an extraordinary period and probably only the beginning of contemporary art in China," said Guy Ullens, cofounder of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), in an interview with Beijing2008.cn. "It is not in the middle or at the end. The future is in front of us."

Ullens, who comes from a Belgian diplomatic family that came to China in the 1930s, has been collecting Chinese modern art with his wife Myriam since the mid-1980s. His personal collection of contemporary Chinese art stands at around 1,500 pieces.

The UCCA, located in the 798 district, is "the first foreign cultural institution to have been granted permission to set up in China," reported the United Kingdom newspaper Telegraph in an article about Ullens last November.

"I think it's something very unique," said Ullens, when asked about the 798 district by Beijing2008.cn. "I think the concentration of other villages, art villages, around the place, is something unique."

Ullens hopes the UCCA will help usher in a whole new generation of art lovers in China. "There is an enormous amount of turbulence in China at the moment about contemporary art," he said, "[There are] a lot of young good artists and it's fun. They're working everywhere, they're doing good stuff, they're comparable to the best westerners. This is a unique period, it's very booming, and 798 is exceptional, and I love this building."