Franco-Frank-Franz-Francisco-Francois (Terracotta) by Peter Bevan (from the Special Exhibition of Donated Artworks from Previous BIABs)
Highlight of "B&R" Initiative in Six Special Exhibitions
THE TOUR OF ART FROM TINTORETTO TO LILANGA
As known to all, the development process of Western art is different from those of many Asian countries including China. The characteristics of a nation's history, without doubt, have influenced the basis and premise of its artistic development, and at the same time, the process of history has also changed its artistic development. Just think about the influence of Greek and Egyptian arts on Roman art, and you will find that the prerequisites for the development of Western art are diverse. Taking the strongly influential Western religious factor as one of the historical conditions, we can see that when the Catholic Church came to a need of expansion, it would begin to conceive religious artworks. The church attempted to achieve missionary purposes through works of art. So we can see that art can stimulate people's imagination by depicting reality.
In this special exhibition of refined content and distinctive style, the various essences of European culture have interwoven with each other, and still, have constituted certain venations. As for the exhibited European artworks of different periods and styles, some have complicated ideas while others are clear and easy to understand, but the concise works are usually better to understand.
——Vincenzo Sanfo
Director of the Italian Cultural Centre
International Curator of the Beijing Biennale
Focus, Confluence
THE SPECIAL EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY ART OF GEORGIA
Standing at the crossroads of multiple civilizations and cultures, Georgia has always been a geocultural space where the past persists into the present and where the prolific encounters and exchanges between distinct civilizations and cultures melt into a rich and diverse cultural experience of its own.
While excessively incorporating the best from the East and the West, the contemporary Georgian art landscape stands out as unconventional in many ways. These artists manage to remain in the vanguard of contemporary art and at the same time are vigilant to cultural legacy and thoughtfulness. All images, despite their coarsely grained frame and nostalgic looks, contain a perceptible tension between the stagnation of time and dynamism of everlasting motion. These creations are often expressive and intense and occasionally ephemeral, resembling the shots from the heart of an imaginary world or even a very tangible realm that most of us are unable to get in touch with.
——Tea Nili
Curator of Georgian Special Exhibition
The Silk Road and Civilizations
THE SPECIAL EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY ART OF MONGOLIA
Our artists envisioned how those brave traders and adventure seekers as well as diplomats travelled through vast deserts of Mongolia and what they encountered while travelling. While the significance of the Silk Road is unquestionable and many countries might have created their works to illustrate that, Mongolians, eternal neighbors of the road, wanted to depict everyday life of the desert/Gobi people, nomadic lifestyle and camels, the best transportation at the time. Mongolian civilization was very different from what modern people would imagine. Without virtually any urbanization, states prospered, states died at the behest of the ultimate judge, i.e, the time, leaving little to survive and to be studied. But in art, anything can be reconstructed with artists' vast imagination, talent and hard work, leaving one to wonder and to amaze. Since our nation was a nomadic one, our artists wanted to highlight that with their own unique contemporary techniques. Visitors of the Mongolian pavilion will experience rainbow colors of the light reflected on sand dunes from the artworks. Every artwork will be full of rich colors and lit because we wanted to show our visitors the colors of the past in the light of the present.
——Solongo Tseekhuu
Curator of Mongolian Special Exhibition
The Body, the Soul and the Place
THE SPECIAL EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY ART OF GREECE
The exhibition was conceived around the axis of dynamism, pluralism and personal values that Greek artists share with global environment. It tries to highlight how subjective narrations, experiences and interpretations of the human conditions are immersed into the social and physical reality, giving forms to unique positions that reveal the totality of existence. This is the reason why the words "body", "soul" and "place" were chosen, as signifiers of the fundamental parameters that inform artistic practice. "Place" is a signifier for cultural background, which has to do with birthplace and in the same time with artists' choice to move around places as nomads. "Soul" is connected with emotion and subjectivity, whereas "body", except from being a basic subject matter, also becomes a strong vehicle for self–expression, attracting more attention in the context of performative arts.
——Maria Tsantsanoglou
Director of Greek State Museum of Contemporary Art
Curator of Greek Special Exhibition
——Syrago Tsiara
Director of the Thessaloniki Center of Contemporary Art
Curator of Greek Special Exhibition
Crossing Currents:
THE SPECIAL EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY ART OF INDONESIA
The space between Indonesia and China is filled with crisscrossing currents. For some, these currents obstruct the view, often moving us further from our destination. But for many others, the process of overcoming these currents has made the linkages between Indonesia and China more colorful, more meaningful.
These are the linkages explored and elaborated by the 17 Indonesian artists in the Special Exhibition of Indonesian Contemporary Art at the 2017 Beijing International Art Biennale with the theme of Crossing 'Currents: A Voyage to the Colorful Diversity of Indonesia'. We are proud to bring with us 25 art pieces that represent Indonesia's today, the past, and the future.
By braving the currents, we open ourselves to these possibilities, opening ourselves to each other and for one another. Embarking on a voyage to Indonesia, we move forward together, mindful of each other's characteristics, while embracing the wonderful opportunities emanating from our diversity.
——Soegeng Rahardjo
Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the People's Republic of China
A Taste of the Essence
THE SPECIAL EXHIBITION OF DONATED ARTWORKS FROM PREVIOUS BEIJING BIENNALES
Since 2003, the Beijing Biennale has cumulatively accepted more than 500 pieces of paintings and sculptures of more than 500 artists from about 60 countries, accounting for 1/8 of the total exhibits of the Beijing Biennale, covering various categories of contemporary paintings and sculptures. These donated works have become the largest contemporary foreign art collection with the highest quality and richest variety, representing to a great extent, the essence of the Beijing Biennale. It is an art treasure that broadens the horizon of the domestic artists and art fans with high researching and displaying value.
In order to avoid this awkward situation of putting these important artworks in the warehouse without people knowing them, as is noted in BAI Juyi's poem, "collections are lifelong treasures, why waste hiding them in sleeves for three years", and to achieve a positive social effect, China Artists Association, based on the Beijing Biennale, the "The World Trip of Chinese Fine Arts", "Paint One Another, Know One Another" and other projects, has launched this special itinerant exhibition of donated works of the past Beijing Biennales to continuously broaden the in-depth international exchanges. On the one hand, it provides both quantity and quality insurance of the exhibits for Chinese and foreign art exchanges. On the other hand, it also plays an irreplaceable role in continuously promoting the Beijing Biennale and enhancing its world reputation. Of course, the artists themselves have broken through the time limit of the Beijing Biennale so that these works shall be continuously promoted.
——China Artists Association
Untitled (Oil on Canvas) by George Gagoshidze (from the Special Exhibition of Contemporary Art of Georgia)
The Secret of Blue (Oil on Canvas) by Oilan Janatkhan (from the Special Exhibition of Contemporary Art of Mongolia)
Man in Armour (Oil on Canvas) by Tintoretto (from "The Tour of Art From Tintoretto to Lilanga" Exhibition)
Belt and Road Initiative in the Eyes of the Artists
ZHENG Baizhong (Professor of Art Academy of Xiamen University, Painter from China)
A New Chapter of Maritime Silk Road (Heavy Color on Paper) by ZHENG Baizhong
In my preparation and sketches for inspiration, I traveled to different ports in Liaoning, Shanghai, Tianjin, Quanzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Yangjiang and Hong Kong where I visited various maritime museums and made careful study of the actual situation. Then I made up my mind to carry out creation in traditional Chinese paintings of green mountains and rivers in combination of contemporary Shanshui skills.
Narration in this painting starts from Quanzhou Port, passing along the Oriental Pearl—Shanghai Port, Diaoyudao and the Great Wall, and then to Nara, Japan, to Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, to Brunei,to the Palace of Malaysia. The center is dominated by the Indonesian Houses of Parliament where President XI Jinping put forward the new concept of Maritime Silk Road. Then I went on to depict Angkor Wat and Tanah Lot, especially the flourishing Gwadar Port in Pakistan thanks to China's support. Along a route with Istanbul in Turky, Harbor of Piraeus of Greece, Barcelona Port in Spain and Venice of Italy, the convoy of Chinese Navy safeguarding the Gulf of Aden, which I expect to demonstrate a new chapter of mutual exchange between the countries along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in an all-round way.
FENG Lumin (Painter from China)
THE New Chapter of the Silk Road (Oil on Canvas) by FENG Lumin, YANG Xiaomao, ZHANG Yanzhao and YAN Yaya
As early as in the mid-2016, YANG Xiaomao had the blueprint of the painting New Chapter of the Silk Road, and by November of the same year, ZHANG Yanzhao and YAN Yaya had completed an 8-meter-long scroll of historical and humanist outlook. After the Spring Festival in 2017, I took over this job and elaboratd on the first draft so as to highlight current outlook and key projects on the Silk Road.
As the Silk Road has functioned as the main connection passage of economy, politics and culture between the East and the West since ancient times, a panoramic view of this time-honored passage becomes the center of this painting. The first level of this painting is varied geographic features across a distance of 7000 kilometers, the second level is varied key projects in over 50 countries along the Silk Road, and the third level is the current humanist outlook. The China-Europe Train from Yiwu City to London forms a humanist stage on the Earth, and industrial workers from different countries becomes the center of the stage. In this complicated painting with a fixed theme, painters have adopted light yellow color to paint the center of the canvas while reducing the contrast in surrounding parts so as to highlight their focus and achieve a unified harmony of block colors.
Rémy Aron (President of Maison des Artistes of France)
Silk Road (Oil on Canvas) by Rémy Aron
Silk Road is a passage, a moving concept and expedition, which signifies the necessity to approach other countries, regions, nationalities and cultures. It is a common passage of inclusiveness. As far as we are concerned, such necessity is fully understood, but must be rooted into an artist's own cultural ground. We hope to establish an everlasting peaceful and harmonious future in the global village and make sincere cooperation in common steps for people-to-people communication in the Silk Road spirits as well as for the great community of human destiny.
ZHOU Lianrong (Vice Dean of Guanzhao Ziran Academy of Chinese Gongbi Bird-and-Flower Painting)
An Immortal Legend (Ink and Color on Silk) by ZHOU Lianrong
Kawther El-Sherif (Artist from Egypt, Wife of Ambassador of Egypt to Bahrain)
The Maritime Silk Road (Oil on Canvas) by Kawther El-Sherif
This BIAB is a witness for integration of ancient and modern Silk Roads as well as China's communication with the world. It has proven that Chinese culture, as an inclusive culture, is able to integrate trade, commerce and humanist exchanges as a perfect whole. As two time-honored civilizations, China and Egypt have both made great achievements. Nowadays, Egyptian people hold China's development in great esteem.
Sun Yumin (Head of Chinese Gongbi Painting Art Research Institute of Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University)
The Navigation Dream of Columbus (Gongbi on Paper) by Sun Yumin
During the long development in human history, the Silk Road civilization has left profound footprints and resonant sound. People will be easily reminded of vast desert and long queue of camel transport. Along this Silk Road, beautiful silk, porcelain and tea as well as brilliant and time-honored Chinese culture have unceasingly come to meet the entire world. The Silk Road has not only promoted economic trade and development network between the East and the West, but also enhanced cultural exchange of mankind by disseminating Oriental civilization to the rest of the world and bringing Western cultures and civilization back to China. By linking China with the world in culture, this time-honored Silk Road has promoted human civilization progress, prosperity of human cultures as well as exchanges and friendship among countries.
Farahnaz Azarabadihagh (Artist from Iran)
Road of Dreams (Acrylic and Batik on Canvas) by Farahnaz Azarabadihagh
How has the Silk Road evolved from a way of trade into a way of culture? Besides exchange in materials, the cultural integration has become a significant exchange when elements of different culture are combined together along this Silk Road. Furthermore, more ideas are spread along this Silk Road as a new way of communication. The spirits and values of the Silk Road have fulfilled human pursuit of spiritual merit, and we ought to bring it further in a certain novel formality. As a language of heart and mind, art has abundant contents and inspirations.
Garo Bernard André (Artist from Switzerland)
Mystére d'un Huis-clos Oriental (Mixed Media Painting) by Garo Bernard André
Artists always need to reflect their own cultural identity as well as connections between different cultures. Various natural landscapes of magnificence are key elements of all art works because in their creations, besides global views, I have witnessed the relationship between people, cultures and civilizations.
In the meanwhile, for the sake of future, I will observe the fragile relationship between humankind and environment through art works. Having adopted wood, stone, fir and marble as painting materials on canvas, I intend to showcase the normal caprice of the Earth as well as such unknown elements as power out of tsunami and volcano eruption in my works. Therefore, my position in arts is that our works shall not only reflect our personal experience, but also demonstrate the power of culture, as a typical language of expression.
