Jin Shangyi: It has been decades since the establishment of the Beijing Biennale. The contents of oil paintings and sculptures have changed a lot in different countries around the world especially China. The majority of the artists of the 6thBeijing Biennale are young artists who are at the forefront of the era. They are familiar with the latest development of China. Changes always happen in the contents and expressions of art and the artworks of the 6th Beijing Biennale cover a wide variety of styles as a result of the participation of young artists and the development of the era. All the artworks focus on the theme of “Memory and Dream”. Although oil painting is imported from outside, after one hundred years of development, especially development in recent decades, it makes great progress.
Liu Dawei: Beijing Biennale has attracted more and more attention and participation of artists from all over the globe and the number of participating countries has increased from 40-odd in the first session to 96 in the 6th session. The reason behind this is that we stick to our philosophy in a bid to express our perception on art and our right in decision-making. We will continue to promote the principle of taking art on easel like paintings and sculptures as the mainstream. Paintings in the modern society still can express the spirit of the era and the development of the society. Seeing from the active participation from the world’s artists, we can tell that they respect the system of the Beijing Biennale which we follow. The theme of “Memory and Dream” fully expresses the humanistic concerns of the contemporary artists and leaves a vast space for their artwork creation. Now, the world has entered into a new era in which environment, people’s well-beings and economy have become our common concern. The 6th Beijing Biennale best presented these hot issues and provided a multi-dimensional space for artists.
Shao Dazhen: No matter it is conceptual art or installation art, it will infect people’s psychology, thoughts and emotions. Exchange is of highly importance. The keynote of the Beijing Biennale is to promote artistic communication between China and foreign countries, global artistic development and art creations mainly on traditional art. Beijing Biennale takes figurative art as its mainstream but also embraces some avant-garde art like installations, conceptual art and videos. Art can’t be described by conservative or avant-garde but it need to accept something innovative, broad its horizon, make breakthroughs in tradition. A lot of foreign artists tend to combine Chinese elements into their artworks. However, Chinese artists are too conservative and they need to learn from and pay attention to foreign artists.
Wu Weishan: The theme of the 6th Beijing Biennale is “Memory and Dream” and in the long-standing history of human beings, there are many moving stories among which some of them were recorded while others only evoked strong memories and imaginations. Memories are full of emotions in the process of the social development. Artworks can express memories buried in people’s heart. Memories presented in artworks will be sublimated and produce refreshing impetus.
Xu Li: Friends from all over the globe can get together to communicate their understanding of art via the platform of Beijing Biennale. Artists from abroad can further understand China through the exchange while we also want to promote Chinese culture and art through the platform to deepen the cultural exchange of different countries and friendship among different nations.
Tao Qin: The Beijing Biennale is committed to the Easel Art but it does not neglect its original intention which is to promote more new artists and new art styles. We stick to our commitment but we are not conservative. We hope that the digital exhibition can bring a fresh experience for everyone. Virtual Reality is a hot word in recent years. Beijing Biennale not only focuses on presenting artworks from all over the globe, but also follows the latest trend in how to display the exhibition. The 6th Beijing Biennale applied the technology of virtual reality and put the exhibition online to share with everyone on the Smart Art Museum which is produced under the cooperation of China Artists Association and the Art Resource Center of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles.
Wang Yong: The most precious memory for humankind is the memory about culture and history. Artworks from different countries express dreams towards the future, but at the same time they all relate to the memory of history and cultural tradition, which gives the Chinese artists a great inspiration about how to combine the local tradition with the contemporary thoughts and sentiment to create an innovative artistic style. Every country has its own characteristic in art creation. There are realistic artworks, but most of the artworks can be classified into abstract, imaginary and romantic series and almost all of them embody the cultural tradition of different countries which presents a fresh appearance after transformation in modern times. The current situation for Chinese artworks is that the imagination of Chinese artists is decaying and they pay too much attention to reality. As a result, there is less imagination and romance in their artwork. However, foreign artists have more surrealistic imagination which can inspire Chinese artists to be more creative.
Lu Yvshun: The 6th Beijing Biennale is an exhibition with large scale and high standard which can be found in the number of participating countries, artists and artworks. It shows the Chinese grandeur and the impact of China towards the whole world. The exhibition reveals the value of China. In the 6th Beijing Biennale, there are more artworks from new young artists. Their artworks fully present their vitality and make us believe that the future of the Chinese art lies in them. These young artists are good at exploration and innovation.
Li Xiangqun: We notice that almost all the artworks from foreign countries pay attention to the social reality and their own local cultural features and living conditions which present the characteristic of their nation and the era.
Yang Feiyun: Some of the selected artists are very young but their artworks are attractive. At present, China is in such an era that art develops rapidly and it has become more and more globalized. It can be found that many artworks pay close attention to the social reality of China with their own artistic perceptions.
Zhang Xiaoling: If historical memory is the resource for contemporary artwork creation, experience and feelings of the realistic life can be taken as the impetus. Overall, the selected artworks of the 6th Beijing Biennale cover nearly all aspects of life with wide range of subjects, extensive experience, in-depth sentiment and abundant graphic formula. Some of these artworks are realistic descriptions and others are abstract expressions; some are about grand historical event and others are about personal daily lives. Artworks from artists at different ages add splendor to each other and extend valuable exploration while interpreting the theme of “Memory and Dream”. As a result, it represents the feature of Beijing Biennale which is different from other biennales and reflects the achievements of the contemporary art of China in recent years.
Hu Wei: We notice that there are many young artists in the 6th Beijing Biennale, which can be taken as an improvement as it shows that the China Artists Association fully pays attention to the development of young artists.
Lin Xiangxiong: The Special Exhibition of Southeast Asia in the 6th Beijing Biennale exhibits artworks of more than ten artists coming from 5 different countries. These artworks focus on the artistic features of Southeast Asia. The exhibition will provide an innovative creative impetus for artistic tradition and style by exhibiting their artworks on this international art platform.
