"A Book from the Sky" by Chinese artist Xu Bing.

The Chinese art circle saw the most lavish opening in recent memory. A string of high profile banquets and press conferences put Fei Dawei, the Artistic Director of UCCA and curator of the opening exhibition '85 New Wave, in the spotlight. Our reporter Ramond has the story.

Reporter:
Standing in the spacious hall of UCCA, one can't help but be captivated by a large installation called "A Book from the Sky" by Chinese artist Xu Bing. This giant book occupies about 50 square meters in the central exhibition room. All the characters in this book were invented by the artist himself by imitating ancient Chinese characters. More intriguing than that is the book was printed in the movable typing mold, an ancient printing technology created about 1000 years ago in China.

Fei Dawei, curator of this exhibition has this to say

"When the '85 New Wave artist Xu Bing created this work, he intended to make an incomprehensible book. As one representative of this contemporary art movement, Xu Bing wanted to convince the public that the language and concept lies within the artwork can constitute art itself. It's a break away from the realistic tradition where the meaning and story told through language is the core of artist creation."

Indeed, "A Book from the Sky serves as the manifesto of the '85 New Wave movement.

The movement represents a watershed in contemporary Chinese art history. As the liveliest part of the entire intellectual liberation movement of the 1980s, it marked the end of a realistic era that had dominated art in China since the early 20th century. After 1985, contemporary art became the driving force behind the art scene.

Its appearance was no doubt a direct cultural result of the reform and opening policies that were being implemented at the time by the Chinese government.　

The movement also marked a highpoint in Chinese art history, which gave rise to a batch of globally influential works and artists. The force of their talent and passion has changed the shape of art both in China and abroad ever since.

Among these ardent participants is Fei Dawei, one of the most prominent art critics and curators who mounted the retrospective exhibition of the '85 New Wave two decades after the birth of contemporary Chinese art. Having been living in France for 20 years, Fei Dawei has been dedicated his life to bridge China and the world beyond it.

Born in 1954 in Shanghai, Fei has served on the juries of UNESCO's Art Awards since 1995 and was awarded the Medal of Knighthood for Literature and Art in 1999 by the French Ministry of Culture.

"I went to France in 1986 for the first time as a visiting scholar. The visit turned out to be of great importance. Besides giving lectures on contemporary Chinese art, I interviewed a large number of important artists, curators and art critics in France. That experience greatly widens my horizon."

Based on more than 1,200 slide works of the '85 New Wave artists, Fei Dawei started a series of lectures in galleries, art institutes and universities across France in an effort to channel China's explosive contemporary art to the rest of the world.

"I was involved in a cultural communication during my stay in France. I came to understand what the western world needed and what China needed and the gap between the two. France at that time had already completed the process of cultural renovation. In contrast, China was experiencing an art explosion. Yet the French part of understanding this incredibly important period remained remarkably limited: their expectation was that contemporary art didn't exist in China."

Fei's efforts soon attracted attention from the French art circle. In 1987, famed curator Jean-Hubert Martin asked Fei to be his consultant in appointing a few Chinese artists for an important exhibition being planned. The project was later extended as the groundbreaking art fair "Magician of the Earth" at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 1989.

"The theme of this exhibition was to encourage equal communication in the art world from a truly open and global perspective. Therefore, an equal number of 50 artists from the west and other parts of the world were selected respectively. I nominated three Chinese artists, namely, Huang Yongping, Gu Dexin and Yang Jiechang, to take part in this exhibition."

"Magician of the Earth" was an epoch-making event after which post- modernism, globalism and multicultural concepts began to become pervasive in various international art exhibitions.

"I would say the presentation of the Chinese artists came quite as a surprise to the western audiences. They were shocked to know the explosive development of contemporary art in China. More importantly, the achievement of the '85 New Wave artists also went beyond their expectation. For instance, "The Reptile" created by Chinese artist Huang Yongping was said to be the best, not just one of the best, in this exhibition."

The '85 New Wave was a movement of modernization, to the point where some claim that Chinese artists traveled the course of a century of western art history in just a few short years. But this westernizing movement was itself a force that renegotiated the place of art in Chinese reality, opening new possibilities for true self- expression. "Magician of the Earth" paved the way for China's contemporary art movement into a larger world.