Press Release
January 20, 2014
In 2003, approved by the State Council of China, the Beijing International Art Biennale (Beijing Biennale for short) with Chinese characteristics was set up based on the established practices of international art biennales. The Beijing Biennale is a large exhibition of arts co-sponsored by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Government of Beijing Municipality and the China Artists Association. The Beijing Biennale has been held for five times and it is praised as the Chinese Pivot of Contemporary International Paintings and Sculptures by international artists. The successful holding of the 5 previous Beijing Biennales indicates that China, a great country with a 5,000-year history of civilization and Beijing, the ancient capital of Chinese culture with a 800-year history serving as the capital of China, are being merged into the dialogues and exchanges in the art world relying on the cultural strength and art features through the biennale which is an internationally prevailing mode of art exhibitions.
Held in Beijing, China’s political and cultural center, the Beijing Biennale enjoys unique geographical advantages and cultural strength, which leaves it better positioned to highlight the strategic significance of China’s cultural development than being held in other places. In terms of the cultural subject and the positioning of aesthetics, distinctive contemporary Chinese features have taken shape since the very beginning of the Beijing Biennale. The Biennale demonstrates the magnificence of the reform and opening-up of China and China’s willingness to assimilate the essence of the contemporary culture in eastern and western countries, and it is committed to turning Beijing into a center for international exchanges of the art of contemporary paintings and sculptures. The Outline of The Eleventh Five-year Plan for National Culture Development unveiled in September 2006 listed the Beijing International Art Biennale as one of the “highlighted well-known cultural events”, which demonstrated the Chinese government’s high attention and great support to the Beijing Biennale and set a strategic goal of developing it into a well-known brand of the contemporary Chinese culture in the world. For example, in the process of preparing the Second Beijing International Art Biennale, I visited Austria, and a then State Councilor was very familiar with the Beijing Biennale and spoke highly of it while paying close attention to it.
So far, the Beijing Biennale has been held for five times with an increasing number of countries participating in the exhibition. The number of participating countries in the Beijing Biennale is 45 in 2003, 69 in 2005, 81 in 2008 when the third Beijing Biennale was postponed from 2007 due to the Beijing Olympics, 85 in 2010, and 87 in 2012. The number of participating countries is not everything, but after all, it demonstrates the expanding appeal and influence of the Beijing Biennale in the world.
Through years of development, the Beijing Biennale has almost 100 participating countries, over 3,000 artists, more than 3,000 exhibited works, tens of thousands of letters from home and abroad, and over a million visitors in total. Leaders of relevant Chinese agencies, foreign ambassadors, government officials of culture-related departments and artists from dozens of countries attended the opening ceremonies or visited these exhibitions. Major international symposiums were held during each of these five Beijing Biennales. The Beijing Biennales were covered extensively in the media both at home and abroad.
A system of collective exhibition curation is adopted by the Beijing Biennale and the planning committee is composed of art experts and scholars from home and abroad. The Beijing Biennale has been always taking the concept of building a harmonious world as the basis of the biennale planning, and it aims to promote the world harmony, social progress and human happiness through this exhibition of contemporary arts. With the theme “Innovation: Contemporary and Regional”, the first Beijing Biennale advocated the spirit of cultural innovation that accommodated contemporaneity and regionalism. The theme of the second Beijing Biennale was “Humanistic Concern of the Contemporary Art” which expressed the contemporary art’s focus on the real life in society and the general public. “Colors and Olympics”, the theme of the third Beijing Biennale, revealed and interpreted the Olympic spirit. “Environment Concern and Human Existence”, the theme of the fourth Beijing Biennale, revealed the attention of Chinese and foreign artists to ecological problems and their position and responsibility. The theme of the fifth Beijing Biennale---“Future and Reality” combined the spiritual pursuit of the future with the humanistic care in reality with a view to building an art world in which we could go beyond reality and head to the future. The Beijing Biennale’s idea of building a harmonious world and its proposal of respecting the cultural diversity and facilitating dialogues between the eastern and western cultures on the basis of equality are well received by international artists. For example, Ms. Theobald, Chief of the Section for Non-Governmental Organizations of UNESCO, attended the third Beijing Biennale and sent us a mail saying: Our trip to Beijing was productive and inspiring. The Beijing Biennale presented the Chinese contemporary art to her with amazingly diversified and first-class works. Besides, it provides a broad platform for international exchanges of art. The combination of UNESCO and the Beijing Biennale is the best interpretation of the role of visual arts in promoting the cultural diversity, mutual understanding and dialogues between different cultures.
The Beijing Biennale takes contemporary paintings and sculptures as main forms of the exhibition and some new media art works, like installation, images and comprehensive materials, are also part of it. For example, one of the best works elected in the fifth Beijing Biennale was a light installation created by an Italian artist. The main subjects of the Beijing Biennale are paintings and sculptures, and the new media art is also welcome at the Biennale. This feature not only makes the brand of Beijing Biennale differ from other biennales, it is also well received and supported by international artists. Many international artists attending the second Beijing Biennale said that they began to understand Chinese paintings and appreciate the charm of traditional Chinese water and ink paintings only after coming to China and seeing such Chinese landscape as Mount Huangshan.
The Beijing Biennale is well received by the press and artists in the world. The Korea JoongAng Daily comments that while the world art has been dominated by Europe and America, a new power has been rising quickly in northeast Asia over the past century and thanks to the initiation of Beijing Biennale, China may compete with western countries in the field of visual arts.
Some professional media in China comment that, the Beijing Biennale is a high-powered engine and it will undoubtedly influence the art landscape in China and even the world and its influence will emerge gradually through its uninterrupted operation; it is a “huge ship” for international art exchanges with the focus on paintings and sculptures.
European artists attending the Beijing Biennale said that traditional art forms should not decline due to the emergence of new media art. China provides a pivot to the world so that due to the involvement of the Chinese art, there can be a balance in the field of the international contemporary art whose emphasis is currently on the U.S.
According to international friends, the Beijing Biennale reflects the cultural openness and progress of China in the 21st century and as a great forward-looking cultural event, it provides artists in various countries an important platform to introduce their local cultures to each other and learn from the cultures of other nations, leaving a world with more attention on China which is a time-honored but vibrant country.
The Sixth Beijing International Art Biennale is planned to be held in Beijing in the autumn of 2015 and the theme is “Memory and Dream”. The memory is the inscription on people’s hearts, accumulation of the history, treasure house of the spirit and space to be explored by art. Every nation in the world has their unique historical and cultural memory. The time-honored historical and cultural memory of the Chinese nation is as rich and precious as that of other nations in the world. All nations can communicate with each other and share their unique soul experience and fragrance of the spirit.
Dreams are beautiful ideals of people, hopes which put an end to disasters, visions for pursuing happiness and goals which call for relentless efforts. People in every country in the world have their own dreams. To achieve the Chinese Dream of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the dream of peaceful development and win-win cooperation between different countries in the world is the shared goal of us.
The theme of “Memory and Dream” echoes the “Chinese Dream” which is a hot topic currently. Chinese Dream is a new concept which implies the harmony and happiness of Chinese people, demonstrates the spirit of openness and inclusiveness, raises awareness about human beings sharing a community of common destiny, advocates the world’s sharing of China’s achievements and the seeking of a great vision. Though countries have many differences in politics, economy, culture and social conditions, their people and artists share the common goal of pursuing beautiful homes and harmonious life. The spirit of Chinese Dream provides a vast space for artists to exploit their talent.
Memories and dreams combine the history and the reality, connect the past with the future, and are best placed to reflect the humanistic care of artists, arouse their passion to paint and give full play to the aesthetic imagination of artists so that art works can be as lasting as memories and as magical as dreams.
The continuous development of the Beijing Biennale depends on that the cultural caring is for both China and the world. While displaying creation and development of the contemporary art, the cultural caring should echo the major problems facing the human society; confront the crisis awareness and social and cultural responsibilities for common issues; show "a sense of common destiny" with people all over the world, and understand people’s common thoughts and feelings.
The Beijing Biennale is “a bridge between the East and West, and a bond connecting tradition and modernity”. It helps to build up a diversified modern art history, and a contemporary art scene in the world which is multi-lined, parallel and interactive. In a sense, the Beijing Biennale rewrites the history of contemporary Chinese art being subordinate and passive worldwide, provides China a platform for dialogues on the basis of equality with the international community, and establishes a set of modes of exhibition operation following both international conventions and China’s actual conditions. It can be foreseen that the Beijing Biennale will be extended and improved as the Chinese and world’s art landscape changes.
In addition, the Beijing Biennale should focus more on global issues. The contemporary China attracts worldwide attention while stepping into the future. And China also needs to understand the world stepping into the future. Eliminating calamities, rebuilding the basis for going into the future, global people joining hands to build a harmonious world and strive to create a beautiful future, these are the sacred duty and a wise choice of us, including contemporary artists, as well as a noble spiritual mission of the contemporary art.
The Beijing Biennale is a cultural platform for China to present the talent and charm of international artists. It serves as an international cultural platform for artists from all over the world to give full play to their imagination and creativity. I expect artists from various countries to fully demonstrate their individualized creation and vivid expression of ideals and thoughts. Wonderful arts will certainly go beyond national borders, touch our hearts and convey our shared aspiration----world peace, development and win-win cooperation.
The Beijing Biennale has been successfully held for five times, and we hope the sixth Beijing Biennale can make a breakthrough, add more new elements to this well-known art brand and enable us to get more life experience from the visual arts.
We can expect a brand-new international art event in Beijing in the autumn of 2015 to express the thoughts of artists from all over the world that the memory is the dream of the past; the dream is the memory of the future; memories make the history full of stories; and dreams enable us to create miracles.
