AN immersive digital art exhibition featuring paintings in the ancient frescoes in Dunhuang of Gansu Province will take place in Shanghai later this year before going on tour in 12 Chinese cities in the coming three years.

At the news conference announcing the exhibition plan Aug. 12, Wang Feng, head of the Dunhuang Art Academy, said that the digital reinterpretation of the paintings and sculptures in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, will help protect the cultural heritage and evoke greater interest in the traditional art.

The digital show aims to bring the ancient Dunhuang culture closer to the younger generation. The blend of art and modern technology has become an inevitable trend, according to Chang Shanna, a 90-year-old honored scholar on Dunhuang studies.

Dunhuang Art Academy, an institution dedicated to the research and reproduction of the fresco art of Dunhuang, will collaborate with the Greenland Hotel and Tourism Group in Shanghai and the World Union Philanthropy Foundation in Hainan Province to present the exhibition tour.

Cities that are part of the national tour include Nanchang of Jiangxi Province, Xi’an of Shaanxi Province and Lanzhou of Gansu Province.

The Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, a cluster of Buddhist caves dating back to the fourth century, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The art of Dunhuang documents the continuous interaction between Chinese culture and a wide diversity of foreign civilizations, according to Bai Yuntao, vice director of the National Museum of China.

(China Daily)