On March 1, French curator Jérôme Sans began his tenure as the artistic director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Beijing. Formerly the director of programmes at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, England, Sans took over the position from Chinese curator and critic Fei Dawei, acting artistic director of the center since its opening last November.

The change has been somewhat controversial for the new center. With Fei playing a more research-oriented role, UCCA is left with no other native Chinese members on its senior staff. Fei, who curated UCCA’s inaugural “‘85 New Wave” show, was originally introduced as the center’s long-term artistic director while continuing to serve as director of the Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, a separate but affiliated foundation managing the Belgian couple’s collection of over 1,500 artworks.

Recent UCCA press releases describe Sans’ arrival as “a phase of new developments [sic] following UCCA’s successful launch led by Fei.” Rumors of disagreement between Fei and colleagues at UCCA persist. Fei could not be reached for comment, although a revealing March 24 post on his personal blog includes a photo dated December 31, 2007 of Fei and Sans with the artist Huang Yong Ping and his wife, Shen Yuan. In the cryptic post, Fei writes, “At that time, I already knew Jérôme was a candidate for director, but Jérôme didn’t know it himself. Because a flash wasn’t used for the photograph, the picture came out fuzzy, just like that moment.”

Sans describes the move as a natural transition from regular collaboration with artists such as Huang, the late Chen Zhen, Wang Du, Yan Peiming and Wang Jianwei, as well as curator Hou Hanru.Widely known as the co-founder and director of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Sans was co-curator of the 2000 Taipei Biennial, organizer of the 2005 Lyon Biennial, as well as adjunct curator for the Institute of Visual Arts in Milwaukee from 1996 to 2003.

In a recent statement for UCCA, Sans positions the institution both as “an art center. . . in a Chinese context” and “a point of reference in the international scene.” While the document describes plans for a restaurant and an after-hours lounge, it remains to be seen how Sans will implement broader objectives as artistic director.