THE Beijing International Art Biennale will return to the National Art Museum of China in September 2017, with the seventh exhibition themed “The Silk Road and World Civilizations.”

    The organizing committee that comprises the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the Beijing Municipal Government and the China Artists Association is inviting artists from home and abroad to submit work to discuss the spirit of the Silk Road in a different world order today.

    “Although many sites along the Silk Road have already disappeared, its call for communication and mutual development is still what today’s world should strive for,” said Liu Dawei, chairperson of the China Artists Association, who initiated the art biennale in 2003.

    Since its birth, the biennale has dwelled on the contemporary evolution of traditional forms of painting and sculpture and their roles in merging Eastern and Western cultures.

    The first exhibition in 2003, titled “Originality: Contemporaneity and Locality,” displayed more than 400 works by artists from 45 countries and regions, reflecting such common issues as globalization and cultural preservation.

    The latest edition in 2015, titled “Memory and Dream,” drew a much larger base of participants from 96 countries whose works totaled nearly 700 pieces.

    The biennale has also incorporated installations, videos and mixed-media works in recent exhibitions so that more artists working with multiple mediums can better flaunt their creativity.

    Beate Reifenscheid, director of Ludwig Museum Koblenz in Germany, is one of the biennale’s international curators who approach and recommend Western artists. She said the event interests many artists because it provides an opportunity to communicate with Chinese artists and others from Asia.

    She said the theme of the upcoming biennale both reviews history and concerns the world’s future. “People today live in an age of globalization. People are constantly on the move,” Reifenscheid said, adding that it is similar to the formation of the ancient Silk Road, along which people bridged different cultures. “Because of the openness of art, the world becomes genuine and peaceful,” she said of cultural interactions in general.

    (China Daily)