China and Belgium hold an artistic exhibition

Co-sponsored by the National Art Museum of China and Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, a China Belgium contemporary artistic exhibition, entitled The State of Things is currently on display at Hall 13.14,15,16,17,19,20 and 21. A number of works by 50 artists from the two countries are hoped to discuss the development characteristics of the contemporary art of both countries under the circumstance of common but differentiated cultures. In October 2009, the exhibition was held in Belgium during Europalia-China in October 2009. The show to be held in Beijing reflects new achievements of the artistic exchange between the two countries.
China has become a spotlight across the globe for its astonishing development speed. Over the years, China s contemporary art has aroused infinite curiosity and concern to the public. However, China s culture is filled with mystery to the mass in the western world. It is to some extent because of the lack of the in-depth across-cultural exchanges between the Chinese and overseas artists.
Based on academic dialogues, the exhibition organizing team of the two sides has chosen the works by 50 Chinese and Belgian artists in an aim to make more profound artistic exchange possible. The team has endeavored to reflect the intersection of the oriental and western world and discuss the relation between the contemporary art, the cultural tradition and the reality, and the artistic production mode under the condition of the current society. Their standards of the selection seem different but indicate a certain inner relation. The exhibition is hoped to help the public better understanding the similarities, the differences and the uniqueness of the trends of Chinese and western arts. The exhibits are of great importance and are expected to arouse the deep thought of bilateral exchange and promote mutual understanding to a higher level.

Luc Tuymans and Ai Weiwei, a world-famous Belgian artist and a famous Chinese artist respectively, participated in the arrangement of the exhibition. Two main backgrounds have been taken into full consideration during their selection of the exhibits, namely, China as a fast-developing country and Belgium as an exquisite nation.

The collision of the two perspectives is bound to make the exhibits more spectacular. The theme of the state of things concerns how the art establish its image and visibility under the background of the two different cultures. On the one hand, in the tide of the globalization, the original cultural characteristics have gradually been fading.

On the other hand, within the two different cultures, the relation between the illusion and the reality has been constructed in totally different modes. The exhibition is expected to review the flourishing contemporary Chinese art and the role the western art will play in the future as it are losing its dominance in Asia.

A number of large exhibitions discussed the momentum of the artistic circle in the past, and this exhibition succeeds in skillfully extending such discussion to the future.

Fan Di an, Director of the National Art Museum of China, evaluates the exhibition, under the complicated cultural circumstances of the globalization, the contemporary Chinese art is seeking and constructing its cultural orientation to facilitate the world know about the Chinese art and those in the Chinese artistic circle devoted to the academic construction. The exhibition is not focused on the trend or the fashion, but the individual feeling of the artists in the reality; not on the creation technique based on the conception and the symbols, but on the long-term practice of the artists on the artistic methods.
The exchange of contemporary art between Belgium and China is a new achievement of the two countries cultural interaction. The exchange can help us not only examine the contemporary art of the two countries from a new perspective, but also pinpoint the cultural similarities and differences related to the two countries contemporary art.
Based on the purpose of dialogue and discussion, the exhibition is hoped to provide an outlook of comparative observation and appreciation though displaying the works from the two countries.