Presented to coincide with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Our Future: The Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation Collection aims to  tell the story of Guy and Myriam Ullens’ long-term commitment to Chinese artists and their work.

As well as displaying highlights from the Ullens Collection, Our Future includes new acquisitions, commissions and a selection of historic works that explore how artists are developing ongoing critical responses to the coexistence of many diverse experiences in China, such as the mass media’s blurring of reality, fantasy, expectation and history.


Our Future: The Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation Collection
Photo courtesy of Ullens Center for Contemporary Art

The exhibition features 61 Chinese artists and a total of 89 works by artists such as Chen Zhen, Gu Wenda, Huang Yongping, Wang Du, Wang Guangyi, Zhang Xiaogang  There are new commissions by Amy Chueng, Cao Fei, Chu Yun, Qiu Zhijie, Shen Yuan and Wu Jicong; site specific performances by He Yunchang and Yang Jiechang; and new acquisitions from Wang Jianwei, Xie Nanxing and Yang Fudong.

The exhibition contains three works - two are related to fire and one uses jade. One of the “fire” works is a burning piece of charcoal made from an enormous tree trunk; the other is an exposed car engine with a stainless steel exhaust system that turns red following periodic explosions. Because of the shortage of appropriate terminology we may call them installations, but both works are far from “readymade,” resulting instead from carefully planned transformation of natural materials and utilitarian objects. The third work in the exhibition is a tiny jade human head set on a stainless steel base upstairs. Motorized by a mechanism it strikes the wall at the rate of 16 times per minute. Its “cool” material and monotonous, repetitive action contrast dramatically with the two “fire” works displayed downstairs. 

These works all allude to violence and danger, but of different forms and cultural connotations. They impress people with a penchant for danger as well as for technological precision---a characteristic of Shi Jinsong’s art.

Galerie Urs Meile
no. 104, Caochangdi Cun
Cui Gezhuang Xiang
Chaoyang district 
Beijing 100015
China

Galleria Continua
2 Jiuxianqiao Road
Chaoyang District
Beijing 100015
China