is a small contemporary art showroom in the hutong zone between Jiaodakou Nan Dajie and Dongsi Bei Dajie. As the name veritably screams, it's a highly conceptual spot. Click through any of the descriptions of the four exhibitions they've held to date and you'll be blasted with a strong dose of International Art English. Dictionary recommended. Indeed, the high-flying verbiage is an integral part of the whole. In addition to offering a city-center alternative for viewing contemporary art in Beijing, Intelligentsia explicitly aims to use its 50-square-meter room to facilitate a multi-vocal dialogue on the contemporary state of international art among artists, writers, curators, designers, and random hutong dandies. They even accommodate assholes like me, who suffer from a rare form of intellectual inertia making us resistant to spending more than five minutes at a time metabolizing paragraphs that aren't predominately monosyllabic. Intelligentsia opened over Chinese New Year with a show featuring the work of its two founders, French artist Nathalie Frankowski and Puerto Rican artist Cruz Garcia. You can check out their joint works here. I visited the gallery yesterday and picked Cruz's brain about their mission, their points of difference from other local micro-galleries, and the specific conditions of running such a DIY operation in Beijing. Here's what he had to say: ***

: I'm Cruz Garcia from Puerto Rico, I've been living here together with my girlfriend / partner, Nathalie Frankowski, she's French. We are artists and architects and authors, we have similar practices. We wanted to create a space that was a form of critique of the things that we saw that were not so positive around the artistic environment here, which is a little bit closed, or [based on] particular aesthetic preferences. We wanted to create a space that gives some sort of freedom in the sense of the market. So it's not only Chinese artists, for example, or only international artists. We want to try to keep a high rigor of intellectual debate somehow, inviting writers. It's not only about visual art. So we found this space around October last year, and then we were preparing the plot of what the space was going to be. It took us three months. We opened the first exhibition in January, during the Chinese holidays. It was an experiment. Actually, we opened with a show of our own work, so it was more to see how people would react, without compromising any other artists' work. It was somehow successful, because people were really eager to see some spaces that show contemporary art in the center of the city. And also because we are able also to bring a high level of artistic production. After that, we started arranging group exhibitions, ambitious in the sense of trying to look at a very broad perspective of what artists are doing all over the world. We've been looking for artists in Latin America, Europe, Asia, even in Africa. We try to disappear the boundary that is usually put when you go to exhibitions, precisely here [in Beijing]. You see a lot of Chinese artists, or Asian art, or "Western art in China." We're not really interested in that. We want to see art for what it is, not for who is making it. But in order to do that, we really have to look to the whole picture and to see contradictions and dialogues that go on in the contemporary [art world]. In the second show, Hermeneutics of a Room, we started showing photography, painting, objects by sculptors. There was a Romanian photographer called Simona Rota that is based in Madrid, a Chinese painter called Meng Zhigang, [Slovenian photographer] Matjaž Tančič, Camille Ayme, a French artist based in USA, James Ronner from New York... so it was a very international show since the beginning. And it also had the goal of the intellectual debate we wanted, we invited writers to come. Then the show that followed up, Dialectical Territories: Landscapes and Abstraction, was another group show. There was a collective from Moscow called Troyka Union. They also traveled for the opening, which was very interesting, because then the debate is physical. We had a Spanish artist called Laura Gil Santana that was working with photography, a Chinese painter working with carbon paper called Li Wei. We put them together and the debate was within the words and also with the artists that were present. The fourth show is [the current] one, The Relevance of the Critical Medium, about questioning the role of art or the role of the medium, all these things become questioned by the pieces. We haven’t decided the final titles yet, but next three shows will focus on concepts of semiology (signs and symbols) with works by Mexico-based Puerto Rican artist Jason Mena, Dominican Republic-based artist Pascal Meccariello, Ukranian artist Alena Olasyuk, Dutch artist Céline Lamée, and Beijing-based artist Ren Zhitian. Next will be a show on contemporary aesthetics as spectacle and the art opening as event (curated by Sophie Salamon in collaboration with a Berlin-based contemporary art gallery) including works by Moscow-based artist Roma Mokrov, Beijing-based painter Zhang Zheyi, and conceptual artist Ren Bo. After that, we'll have a show called "The Map and the Territory" with works by Brazilian artist Sofia Borges, Troyka Union, Simona Rota, and more.

: It's interesting because we try to find links between the works of these artists. I think that's mostly what happens in Biennales, but on a small scale it's more difficult. Usually you're responsible to the market, but here we really try to create a sort of island, which is more about the approach and the purpose. And artists have been very positive about it. Everybody that we've approached has been extremely positive. All the artists that we're showing in the future are also very interesting. We have some interesting writers joining in to elaborate on the text. The purpose is that eventually, when we close the gallery, it's going to be a book. That's the "intelligentsia" concept, it's actually an intellectual effort to create this environment for the free discussion of ideas, free thinking and free art.

: Intelligentsia is always this group that doesn't really belong anywhere, it's not from a particular place, it's not a particular class. So that's what we wanted to create, this forum where people can feel free to join without being tagged. Also with the art, even when we as artists do very specific things, or as architects do very specific things, we're really open in discovering and learning from other artists' work. It's a learning process, finding different approaches and talking to the artists, and looking at the work, studying, reading about what other people have written about the work. It's also this form of intelligentsia, a lot bigger than the little space we have here. It's minuscule in size, but it's really big in ambition [laughs].

: Yeah, it's conceptual. For now we have a very idealistic model, in which we try to fund how the gallery has been running. If someone wants to buy a piece, we're for now not taking any commission. It's more like a direct relationship with the artist. A lot of artists we are working with, they're already represented by some galleries. We're somehow resisting the temptation of becoming a commercial space. And that gives us complete freedom of what we show, there's no dependence on what people want. "People" in the sense of the local market, who want very specific things that we don't necessarily agree with. Some people wonder why we call it a "gallery." For us it's a gallery. Our question is why people don't call galleries "art shops." That's the service they provide, selling work. It's not what a gallery should be. So it's very intentional that we call this a gallery, in order also to make a critique of what the gallery has become. Not only here, but everywhere.

: They're all very different in nature. HomeShop never had a program, for example. HomeShop was very organic, a collective. The purpose was not to show contemporary art. Flicking Forehead is also very flexible in that sense, it's also an event space. But [Intelligentsia] is very specific. It works like a gallery. We show works of contemporary art. It doesn't matter the medium, it could be film, it could be performance like we had already, it could be painting, sculpture, but it still serves the purpose of providing a space where we can develop a relationship with the artists to present work, and there's an opening and there's people coming and watching, and there's some literature being written, and there's a curatorial role that is very present in all the exhibitions. We have a longer-term relationship with the artists. Most of the time, it's not only one show we want to do with the artists, probably some of them are going to come several times.

: Up to now, of course we've both been somehow involved in the curating. Sometimes there's a joint curator. For example, the one that is coming in the summer, Sophie Salamon from Berlin, she is going to be curating the show. We're going to provide some assistance, and we're looking for the artists together, but that one's going to be an invited curator. We are very open in that sense, for curators to come and provide some new perspective. Because of course, even if we're really flexible, we're still ourselves, we have our formation and our background, so it will be very interesting to see different approaches to exhibitions. Again, that's the idea: people coming in, giving us some pointers. We're really looking forward to that. Everything is very quick, because [we have a new show] every month. When we're developing one exhibition, we already have to be thinking of the next three in order to not stop the flow of events. Now it's easier, because the artists know already. There's already some background. They can identify with the approach and see that it's a real effort. I think in other places, it would be more normal... I guess in Europe, because there's a lot of government funding and stuff like that, but here it's not the case. But that's also what makes it necessary somehow. It's starting to create these links that are responding to some hegemonic power. It's not like a charity night, it's not like we're trying to make this about social awareness… It's more like, that's what we think art should be. It should be there, also it should be great. All of the artists here, even us, we show in galleries that are more commercial, established galleries in 798 or in MOMA or whatever. But here is a different space, anyone can come in and bring something.

: We work in a lot of media [laughs]. For example in architecture, we work with buildings of course, drawings and collage. Some of the works we show in museums are collage, with architectural references, video. We published a book last year, and this year we got on two covers of the most famous German architectural magazine, Arch+. They translated our manifesto "Pure Hardcore Icons" into German. So that's another medium, text, we are very familiar with that. When we are in the role of artists, we paint and make objects. We have a show now in 798 at Pifo New Art Gallery, it's called "2014: New Abstract Art." It's amazing, I think it's the first time a foreigner has been shown in that gallery, and they put us with the Vice President of CAFA. It's like 12 artists, mostly born in the '50s, and they're showing two of our works: one really big composition on canvas, and a book of collage that the gallery collected. So that's a really abstract approach, that's just painting and collage-making. But we really are flexible with the mediums, too. I think that also influences the way we approach what we present here [at Intelligentsia], because we are really interested all the multiplicity of what makes contemporary art "contemporary." Again, it's an intelligentsia. It's like an ongoing, interactive school. I think the reaction of the people has been very positive. At first people don't expect this. They come, read the catalogues on the table, give their opinion, give their critique. This includes people more related to art, even from the establishment. They're coming to the gallery because the artists they show are also showing here. And they mention, "There's this space, it's very idealistic." Artists love idealism, even if they are selling a lot [laughs]. So at the end, they're really happy to join. It's also a learning experience in the sense that even we thought it would be more difficult to find artists. We have this really small space, we want to make group shows with international artists. At the beginning there was a little bit of skepticism. After that, it's been positive reactions.

: It's amazing. It's almost ridiculous, the amount of positive things coming out. The amount of really interesting artists, artists we meet now, they're mostly introduced by the artists [we're exhibiting]. So there are curators that show artists, but artists have so many friends that are really talented. The approach with us... it's not like we're trying to do business with them, it's more like we want to share. We want to share your work with our work, with all the artists' work that you don't even know, that we don't even know. The sole purpose of doing that is to create these exhibitions, there's no finality beyond just making the thing itself. So that's why it's difficult, because we put a lot of work into it, and there's nobody funding it. But at the same time, it's very rewarding because everything you put is there, and then it's for everybody to see. So it's a very pure, utopian idealism [laughs].

: Yeah, we've had an end game since the beginning, because we knew it was going to be that way. This is a struggle all the time, galleries are always closing. It can go longer if something happens, but if it doesn't, then it's OK, because that was the idea since the beginning. We always tell the artists: "At some point it's gonna close, and it's gonna be a book." I think everybody knows that. It's not really an ending, it's like a new beginning, another form. It becomes another thing. And because people are writing about it, we're also writing a lot about it. I'm sure other people will join after, when we're in the final process of making the book, to write about what happened. All the people that saw it, all the people that read about it, the artists themselves. So that's not the ending, it's just a continuation of the project. We can take it another way, to another city, we never know. Everything changes so quickly, you cannot plan for a really long term.

: Yes, exactly. Also, in Beijing, one year here is five years everywhere else. All the curators and other gallery owners ask us, "How often do you do exhibitions?" And we say, "One every month." And they tell us we're completely insane. In four shows, we've shown more than 20 artists already, from eight, nine, ten countries… which is very ambitious. And I'm talking about artists that are not even based here. The scale and the budget we have, it's almost nothing. But you don't need a blockbuster production to make an interesting art show. You just have to be careful about where you spend money, and what type of art you show. You learn a lot about that, being in Beijing. You can use a lot of the environment in Beijing, art reproduction is very cheap here.

: Yes, in that sense it's the ideal place to do this kind of thing. Doing the previous show, there was a lot of photography. Making that in Europe would have been at least 20 times more expensive. And probably we wouldn't even get the same quality. Here you can find really good quality [materials], and it's still doable. So it's the moment and the place. For now. *** Intelligentsia Gallery is located at 11 Dongwang Hutong. Find it on a map here. They're open by appointment; make one here. Keep track of their monthly exhibition sea changes at their website. N.B. All the photos in this article are from Intelligentsia's current exhibition, The Relevance of the Critical Medium, featuring works by Ren Bo, Wu Yang, Coco Esteve, Vinzenz Reinecke, and Geoff Overheu. More info on that one here.