Audiences were invited to find exhibits in a downloadable on-line form and scattered across six galleries. Those who got all the answers right were then put into a lucky draw to win an original print by a leading Chinese print-maker. More than 10,000 people registered.
"Before, we were too busy to care about what other galleries were doing," said Long. "Now it's time to come together and discover the sense of unity and kindred spirit that used to lie at the heart of 798."
Long believes that galleries that previously relied on foreign buyers for big bucks, should now focus on expanding the domestic market.
"The Chinese contemporary art world became so polarized that you got the nouveau-rich artists at one end and the perpetually poor at the other. Part of the reason is that we had almost no collectors dealing in the middle-to-low range of the market, collectors who in Western countries would make up the solid base of what I call the 'collecting pyramid'."
Long predicts China will pay dearly if the situation is allowed to continue. "What is contemporary today is classic tomorrow," she said. "If you look at what has happened to Chinese imperial antiques at international auctions, you realize that at the end of the day, the bills for contemporary Chinese art will have to be paid by the Chinese."
Rather than griping about visitor-bereft spaces and dwindling sales, Long reckons galleries should exploit the economic crisis - when people are less work-driven and have more time for art - to attract new potential buyers.
"There's no better time to see art than now," she insisted.
"In bad times, artists search for clarity and you encounter more articulated, thoughtful voices within the galleries than you might do before.
"Artists above all people should be self-reflective. Now with less orders to fill and exhibitions to attend, they have more time to probe deeper into their own inner world, to find solutions for problems of the outer one."
And that process of thinking, according to Sans, has helped to bring things down to earth. "Thinking is normal human stuff. It's unnatural to produce the art-world equivalent of Hollywood blockbusters all the time," he said. "For whom?"
"Before the crisis, everybody was led by those around them. Now you have to be visionary." Long believes the economic downturn will cause a "reshuffle" at 798. "Art market is unlike the stock market - there will not be a domino effect," she said. "The crisis is an opportunity for the art district to weed out some of its 'disingenuous' elements and to consolidate its reputation as the throbbing heart of contemporary Chinese art."
For Sans, the present is a "fantastic historical moment for Chinese art and for 798".
"I'm not trying to hide the crisis and frankly, I don't care how long it lasts," said the French director. "In your life, you'll probably know one or two little crises. It is the same with a gallery, the art world and 798. But remember: Real art is priceless and its spiritual side will live beyond any crisis or boom."
By Zhao Xu
Editor：Hu Zhicheng
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