Paddy Film first included in Exhibition of Annual of China's Contemporary Art

An exhibition that serves as a panorama of various exhibitions last year is now underway at the Beijing Minsheng Art Museum.

Curator of the exhibition, Zhu Qingsheng, has unveiled two major highlights of the annual event in an exclusive interview with CRI.

The exhibition brings together representative art creations from around 140 Chinese contemporary artists.

A scene of "Paddy Film" on display as part of the Paddy Film art project at the exhibition of China's Contemporary Art at the Beijing Minsheng Art Museum. [Photo: China Plus]

They include Mao Chenyu's project titled "Paddy Film," which includes documents and videos from the films set in the big forest about Paddy.

"Paddy Film became first included in this Annual of Contemporary Art exhibition. It is an unprecedented endeavor of making film an art project, to be accurate, a comprehensive art management program. My team has designed to accommodate it into a special structure and this process endows the Paddy Film-related artwork with a fresh meaning," explains Curator Zhu Qingsheng.

In preparation for the exhibition, Zhu Qingsheng and his team surveyed 37-hundred-76 exhibitions that took place nationwide in 2017.

They then came up with a list of artists who would be short-listed for the event.

Organizers say they hope people will get a better understanding of the latest developments in the Chinese contemporary art scene through last year.

Visitors review the Paddy Film art project at the annual display of China's Contemporary Art, which formally opened on June 24, 2018. [Photo: China Plus]

Zhu Qingsheng says the exhibition also has elements for children.

"The interpretation for each piece of art on display is made both in English and also children's voiceover. We set up a special workgroup that dedicates to specify the relationships between these artworks and children. For children visitors, they may get interested in scanning to have a listen at their peers' interpretations. As children offer their perspectives towards the artwork and world in their interpretations, they may also guide us onto a new path of artistic creations."

The exhibition of Annual of China's Contemporary Art is the main exhibition of the Beijing Minsheng Art Museum.

It's supported by the China National Arts Fund.

This year's exhibition will run until August 24th.