A PIONEERING GALLERY IN CHINA

In keeping with the constantly evolving nature of the gallery and its desire to address as wide a public as possible, four years ago Galleria Continua opened a new exhibition space in Beijing, China, the aim being to promote international contemporary art in a nation where it is little seen and to encourage new forms of cultural exchange. Galleria Continua Beijing performs a particularly intense cultural mediation role, offering Chinese art-lovers the chance to visit exhibitions in which international-level artists devise projects specifi cally for the gallery space and refl ect upon their experiences. It is a twofold challenge: for the foreign artist, who is exhibiting in China in a rather particular venue; and for the visitor, who is venturing into very different cultural territory.

The gallery’s interest in China arose principally as a result of its solid ties of friendship with Chen Zhen and Xu Min. Subsequent contacts with other people heightened that interest and led to extended discussions and correspondence. In April 2004 Galleria Continua participated in the fi rst contemporary art fair in Beijing. Then, in November of the same year, the gallery invited a number of artists to present their projects in the 798 Art District (the former 798 Factory), a reconverted industrial zone occupied by artists, gallery owners and art lovers. The premises taken over by the gallery (1,000 m2 and 13 metres high) had not yet been restored, and its 1950s Bauhaus style was intact. In May 2005 Galleria Continua held its inaugural show in the new space, featuring 16 artists from fi ve continents. At the time it was one of the few initiatives to be organized by a Western gallery in China. Since then there have been exhibitions of the work of Chen Zhen, Daniel Buren, Loris Cecchini, Lucy + Jorge Orta, Pascale Marthine Tayou and Anish Kapoor, plus various other projects, monographic and group shows. The space has become an exciting venue for presenting artists from around the world, all the more remarkable given the comparative rarity of such ventures on the part of Western galleries. The underlying thread of Galleria Continua’s activities in Beijing, as it is in San Gimignano, is to discover new artists and to provide showcases that bring together spheres of creativity and various different cultures.