There's no shortage
of work by international artists on
view in Beijing, but they tend
to be grouped in galleries by
their country of origin.
Noting
this, Gallery Continua decided eight
years ago to open a branch in
China that, rather than promote art
from its homeland Italy, would be
truly international.
"We just
show good international art unlabeled
by any country or region," said
Federica Beltrame, director of the
Beijing gallery, in the 798 Art
Zone.
However, most of what
it sold went overseas, and it
relied on support from its Italian
parent gallery near
Florence.
This year, as a
measure of its open strategy success
coupled with an optimistic outlook,
Gallery Continua Beijing has decided
to go it alone and become
financially independent.
The main
reason for the optimism is that
it is starting to see a growing
interest among Asian
collectors.
"We made this
decision because we have faith that
we can count on these Asian
collectors and new ones that we
are meeting," said
Beltrame.
The gallery sold
three art works at the Art
Stage Singapore fair this year. It
is also going to Art Beijing,
Art Basel in Hong Kong and the
Shanghai Biennale, for the first time
without the assistance from its
Italian parent company.
"The
art fair is our main income,"
Beltrame added. "And we will
concentrate more on selling to
collectors to become independent.
We're going to be under more
pressure this year." Until now, the
market in China did not appear
ready to buy Western art. Usually,
the works Continua exhibited in
Beijing were sold elsewhere. The
situation is changing, although slower
than expected.
"There are more
collectors from China and Asia in
general that are showing a greater
interest in Western art. But
it's going much slower than we
thought," Beltrame said.
Until 2008,
the gallery had no local collectors
as clients, only two Western
collectors. As the Chinese contemporary
art market shrank after the financial
crisis, however, people started thinking
differently.
"They start thinking,
'What is art and what is
solid?' They came to us because
we were representing artists like
Antony Gormley and Anish Kapoor,"
Beltrame said. "They have been on
the scene for a long time and
have grown slowly, and now they
are established."
Production costs
for sculptures and installations, as
well as running expenses, in the 798
Art Zone of Beijing also rose
rapidly after the 2008 financial crisis.
So, the gallery now holds three
exhibitions each year, compared to
four to five before
2008.
"It's a very hard
place to be," she said. "People
are eager to see more art from
all over the world, but the
bureaucratic situation in China is so
complicated. It really penalizes you
whatever option you take. If you
come here to do business, it's
not easy to see the
results."
However, the idea of
closing the gallery in Beijing to
open in another more business-friendly
environment has never crossed her
mind.
"There is a certain
magic atmosphere in Beijing," she
said. "To have a gallery here
is like having an important window.
People come from all over the
world to see the installations we
do.
"Even though it's
difficult to sell, we still do
it, because by presenting such
important work, we give another view
of the artist's work. Maybe
because you have seen the
installation, you become interested in
the artist and you might purchase
something smaller."
The space
modeled from an old factory in
the 798 Art Zone is also something
the gallery would find impossible to
give up.
"It feels almost
like home. This space is really
loved. It is completely empty and
white. It's like giving an
artist a complete white canvas and
saying, 'Get crazy, do whatever you
want.' It's really demanding and
challenging. They do the best they
can because they know that this
is a big thing to be
represented here."
The Italian
company of Continua is based in
San Gimignano, a small medieval town
near Florence. It has another gallery
in an outer suburb of Paris,
"in the middle of field with
cows and a river".
"None
of these places is an easy
location for a gallery to operate
in," Beltrame said. "If we wanted
to make money quickly, we would
have a branch in New York, Hong
Kong or London.
"But Continua
believes that art is something you
have to enjoy - just as in life
you enjoy eating, drinking and the
weather."
