Philip Tinari, Director of UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, reflects on art as a rare space for exchange at a time of growing U.S.-China mistrust. In conversation with CUSEF President James Chau, he shares how contemporary art has evolved in China, why American artists like Andy Warhol resonate with Chinese audiences, and how his own cross-cultural life has become a “gift” shaped by years of immersion and shared creativity.
Click to watch the interviw with Philip Tinari
James Chau:
Philip Tinari, it is great speaking with you. We've known each other for a number of years, when Beijing was really opening up in many different senses. And during that time, you became and for the last 14 years, head of a really incredible global institution in Beijing called UCCA, Center for Contemporary Art. What do you do and how are you able to work so uniquely at a time where miscommunication and dialogue doesn't really happen?
Philip Tinari:
I think one thing that's such a gift about this world and this field that I've been so lucky to work in, is that you meet very few people who would categorically say that art is bad. So, somehow art becomes this place where different opinions and ideas can be expressed, and everyone has a certain shield of expression that allows us to talk about questions that sometimes go far beyond aesthetics. And what's really happened, especially in the last 10 years, is that that field of attraction has just widened dramatically. And I like to think it's sort of a lagging indicator of economic progress that's happened really over the last 40 years. Now, generationally, you have people coming into their adulthood who have been exposed to art from a young age, or have spent time outside of China, but to whom it seems perfectly natural that there should be a contemporary art institution that is rooted in China, but that is global in its aesthetics and in its ambitions, right in their home city. And that's who we are and who we strive to be.
James Chau:
You've led innumerable exhibitions, including, I think quite recently, a landmark exhibition featuring the works of Andy Warhol. When you walk through the halls and the vistas of an exhibition space at UCCA, for example, and you see young Chinese or older Chinese looking into the work of a great American artist, what is it do you think that is revealed about the American experience to them, and how does it reflect on them as Chinese in the 21st century?
Philip Tinari:
I'm always trying to take a step back from my American-ness and to think just about at UCCA, who are the artists we really need to be showing to the public now. And of course, many of them are Chinese, and many of them are American, and many of them are from everywhere else in the world. But there is always this special extra resonance, whether it's Andy Warhol or an exhibition we've just opened with a Korean-American artist, Anicka Yi, or last year the great conceptual artist, Lawrence Weiner. When you think that these are also Americans whose work we're showing, and there's an innovation, and there's a boldness, and there's an experimentation that's happening. And I'm not from the embassy. I'm not in the business of promoting the nation, but I do feel this kind of second order delight that you know something from this place that I come from is able to be seen and to be shared in this place that I've gone on to make my home.
James Chau:
This boldness and sense and level of experimentation is not necessarily shared by those working in public policy. In fact, at this time, we're seeing a withdrawal from that around the world, but also within that, also in the United States-China relationship. Where is the note of evidence-based hope here that we can continue exercising art and culture as a pathway for non-traditional interventions and breakthroughs? And do you think that creators are aware that they have that power within their profession?
Philip Tinari:
I think we sometimes need to have more of that awareness, because obviously, as any professional one is often focused on the details. How should something be lit? How should an exhibition flow? How do you borrow the works? How do you keep the artist happy? How do you program around the exhibition? One thing I always say is that art and an art institution, in so many ways, it. Like running any other business, right? You have inputs and outputs; you have revenues and you have costs and all of that. I think the level on which it's different is that we are so lucky to be able to leave this space for certain kind of magic. Whether that's on the level of the lived experience of the viewer, what you're really hoping for is making sure that appeals to a wide audience, but what I really am hoping for is that one person who's going to go in out of maybe 1000 or even 10,000 and the exhibition is going to completely change their life, and maybe they're going to go on to do something totally unexpected because of that. And I have no idea who they are or what that is, and maybe only years later we'll find out that that was this pivotal moment, that they were able to encounter something that spoke to them and that affirmed them and that took them in any direction.
James Chau:
What's an aspect of your own US-China story that you think is particularly relevant today?
Philip Tinari:
It's always been a privilege. I mean, I never have lost sight of the fact that this is not a logical place for me to have decided to make a life and a career, and that it's really a gift to have been allowed that level of access. It's a gift that I've contributed to in a way. I mean, I put in the work, I learned the language, and have made great efforts to work there for so many years, on many different levels, but at the same time, as our countries drift far apart compared to where they were 15 or 20 years ago, it almost comes to feel to me like more and more of a gift. I'm so grateful for all that I've learned from, from the artists I've worked with, from the colleagues I've been happy to have, from friends and others in my personal life. I think it's just such a gift to be able to engage with a place on that kind of a level, for that kind of a duration.
James Chau:
It's been a joy conversing with you today and working with you in the lead up to this US-China art dialogue. Philip Tinari, thank you very much.
