The party of the century

Things have been in total whirlwind lately...the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art opening was on Nov 2 and 3 and so there are literally hundreds of people in town for it (600 people alone for the dinner on Friday night!). in case you don't already know, the Ullens Center is a privately funded international center established by Belgian collectors Guy and Miriam Ullens. They went all out and spared no expense in putting on the opening event of the decade that was not to be missed. One could tell by the number of black audis lining the streets of 798 arts district, guys in black suits with headsets, european women in furs, etc. However, the fact that no artists (besides those participating in the '85 show）were invited to the VIP dinner on Friday night (they were instead invited to the party the night after), and that speeches at the dinner were done in english with no Chinese translation managed to piss off a fair number of people. and rightly so. Scads of famous artworld types and personal friends of the Ullens' were flown in just for the party and put up in hotels around town. God only knows how much money was spent on these 3 days alone...let's hope the same amount of attention is put toward the art itself!

With the opening, tons of artists, curators, are in town and I have been running around like crazy. today is my first day with more than an hour at home and so I can finally catch up on some things. My friend Doryun Chong from the Walker Art Center is in town so it is fun to have someone to pal around with, we went to part of the Ullens forum on the '85 New Wave show, to see Guan Yi's art collection in Songzhuang and took part in a nice salon type artist discussion that led into a crazy late night karaoke session...I think that was the marathon day I got up at 6:20am to have a meeting with Hans Ulrich Obrist and Guan Yi and then drove out to the outskirts of Beijing to show him a plot of land near the airport...but I can't be sure since it is all blending together now.

I am supposed to write something about the Ullens opening and '85 New Wave show for Flash Art..aiiiyaaaa I have had barely time to think straight. will have to try to pull something together and take a stab at it before all the energy and excitement is totally dwindled and forgotten.