Soon after the conclusion of the 54th Venice Biennale on November 27, the original team of China Pavilion, namely curator Peng Feng and five artists—Pan Gongkai, Yuan Gong, Yang Maoyuan, Cai Zhisong and Liang Yuanwei, realized the exhibition “Pervasion Beijing” in Yue Art Gallery in 798 Zone from December 3 till 17, in an expectation to reproduce the same influence as in the Venice Biennale. 

The five exhibits were still named Snow Melting into the Lotus, Empty Incense, All Things are Visible, Cloud-Tea and I Plea: Rain, the same as in Venice. In China Pavilion in the Venice Biennale, the magic of those five exhibits lied in sensing five scents of lotus, incense, herb, tea and liquor. With the pervasion of those five scents, a typical Chinese expression was conveyed to audience through senses of vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch and created an incredible sensual world. On the contrary, in the exhibition in Beijing, except Snow Melting into the Lotus, none of the works remained the same and the original implication totally disappeared. This exhibition occupied a two-storeyed hall. As the 1st floor had less than half the area as the ground floor, the latter was used as the main venue. As far as we could see, the giant lotus in wash freehand painting by Pan Gongkai covered the two walls of the ground floor, onto which the English version of his article titled On Boundary of Western Contemporary Arts was projected. The English lines resembled snowflakes falling and melting into the Lotus. In a way, this exhibition highlighted this works as an absolute leading character and ignored the other four works in a corner. Consequently, this exhibition was joked as “a monologue of Pan as president of Central Academy of Fine Arts”. 

From November 27 when Venice Biennale was concluded till December 3 when Pervasion was opened in Beijing, the curator Peng Feng managed to bring this exhibition from Venice to Beijing within 5 days. As he failed to reproduce the original exhibition layout, the audience hardly felt anything related to the theme. To our regret, this Pervasion of Chinese five scents seemed to have lost senses in its homeland.