Yanguo Xia

I’m very thankful of the opportunity given by this travel grant from the Getty Foundation to participate in this year's CIMAM to meet and communicate with other young curators, experts and scholars in this field and beyond from around the world. Through lectures and workshops, as well as private exchanges, I have learned a lot about today’s new challenges in contemporary art and art institutions in today's new technological, cultural, and socio-political contexts. These have also given me new thinking in my own situation.

The Philosopher and artists were also invited to discuss rethinking some concepts from their perspective. Although the topics discussed in the three days seem to be more concentrated, the content of the speakers is multifaceted.

During the lunchtime workshop, although the time was tight, everyone actively discussed the specific issues: the first day about how CIMAM helps members solve problems through Museum Watch, the next day about the relationship between the independence of organizations and private sponsorship. Involved in these discussions, I learned about the different views given by curators in different contexts.

The organizer has arranged the entire event very well. In addition to the three-day conference, I participated in the post-conference to Norway. We visited Oslo's great museums, non-profit art institutions, and I was deeply impressed by collections and publications. Especially the non-profit space part, as a new founder of non-profit space in China, I have learned a lot from communicating with them.

In addition, in my opinion, the content discussed also can be rethought. For example, although many topics are very interesting, most of them are based on the Western context. As an Asian, Chinese, because of different contexts, it is difficult to get involved well in some issues, such as freedom, politics, censorship, and we all know that today's China faces a very complicated situation. I suggest that in future conferences, more specific discussions can be held on the context of China and Asia.

Thanks again to CIMAM and the Getty Foundation, I really had a wonderful five days of memories.