This is the second edition of ART021. What do you expect from it?
The scale of this year’s fair is bigger than last year, and we have more programs this year. What we need is to be practical and pay more attention to enriching the content and building the platform, benefitting all parties in the art fair, including galleries, collectors, artists and the media.
Shanghai already has another fair that happens in September. Why the need to start ART021?
Shanghai is an international metropolis, not a small village. It is very normal for a metropolitan city to have various expositions. Right now, Shanghai is in the leading position in China’s cultural development, and the prosperous diversity of the city determines her cultural position. In this year alone, Shanghai had four expositions in September, and two expositions and one biennial exhibition in November, which is a very good phenomenon in my opinion. We certainly need this diversified development. As for ART021, it is very unique in terms of scale, revenue, gallery composition, program, personnel and so on.
Many new galleries in China have opened in recent years. Do you think this new generation of players is responsible for the market’s expansion?
In my opinion, there are many factors that can facilitate the development of a market: one is government support; another is economic. Of course, the active participation of the new generation also plays a positive part in this trend. Their participation can help to break the habitual rules and principles on one hand, and on the other hand, they can also promote communications with the Western world and bring in many new thoughts and mentalities. Now it is just the beginning. As more and more new forces enter the marketplace, China’s contemporary art market will embrace a period of survival of the fittest.
