While the glamour is fading and the boom subsiding, both appear to have helped speed up that global normalisation of Chinese contemporary art. “Now we have seen serious galleries doing Chinese artists. Before they were just exotic, and the serious galleries kept their distance,” says Helbling. “Now there are more names [known]: if you asked someone 10 years ago, the only Chinese artist they knew of was Chen Yifei – just the one. Now there are 10, or even 20, names everyone knows, and they are not just ‘Chinese artists’ in general. There will be more and more, eventually 50 to 100 names. Now the pressure is to do interesting works, because with world attention [on Chinese art] you can’t just copy your neighbour, or repeat what you were doing three years ago.”

“China is more important now; China is a part of the world,” he continues. “If an artist says something about the world today, they will matter. Our world is much bigger now, and what artist figures out what matters today will become bigger than Warhol, since the world is bigger. Some just look at what is fashionable, but China is not a fashion that the West can make for two years. Whether the West talks about China or not, it doesn’t matter. Supposedly if the West is talking about China then it’s ‘big’, if next year it’s talking about India or Africa, China gets ‘smaller’. But China, with its one billion people, does not go away if there is not so much noise.”

ShContemporary – 10-13 September

After a stunning opening in 2007 but a sophomore installment that many found disappointing, the ShContemporary art fair aims to regain its legs this year with a new director and a new direction. Beijing-based artist and curator Colin Chinnery brings local experience that previous fair directors lacked. Showcasing the best of galleries from China, Asia and the world at the Shanghai Exhibition Center, the fair is divided into the general Best of Galleries section, Discoveries by a few top galleries presenting their best artists and curated by Wang Jianwei and Mami Kataoka, and Platform for individual emerging artists. A lecture series organised by Anton Vidokle runs throughout; check the website www.shcontemporary.info for the schedule of talks and additional details.

eArts Festival

Also in its third year, and scheduled to coincide with ShContemporary, which is coorganising one event, this installment of eArts marks yet another reconceptualisation in presenting the electronic arts. While 2007 was diverse and disparate, and 2008 segregated into each district having distinct events, this year eArts comes together into three big events coordinated with local and international arts institutions. The opening extravaganza eArts Beyond, subtitled 'Base Target=New' after an HTML tag, runs 11-20 September at the Oriental Pearl Tower. Fanstasic Illusions, showcasing Chinese and Belgian new media artists, will be at MoCA Shanghai from 13 September to 11 October, before traveling to Belgium. The research-driven New Media Archeology at ddm Warehouse includes a presentation on 10 September, a symposium on the 11th, and an exhibition that runs from 12 September through 11 October.