The recently-concluded Beijing International Art Biennale drew artists from 84 countries to present their works to 200,000 art lovers. And the winners were unveiled at the event’s awards. The entries were all rewarded for their ability to take a fresh approach to presenting the event’s theme of "Future and Reality".
This light installation in a corner of the hall might have been passed over if it weren’t for the discerning eye of the judges. It came out on top, notching top honors at the Biennale. Titled "Redrawing Future" and created by Italian artist Alessandro Cardinale, the piece catches your imagination by using lights to project an image onto the wall to express an idea.
Wang Yong, organizer of Beijing Int’l Art Biennale, said, “This desk is also a projector, which projects lights onto the wall, creating the image of a child drawing. He is drawing a blueprint for the future of human beings. But it’s just a virtual image. So the artist might not be sure about what the future holds.”
While "Redrawing Future" is blowing away visitors with its shadowy images, a woodblock print piece by Professor Chen Qi from the Central Academy of Fine Arts titled "Chronology" is winning the favor of judges with its strong Chinese flavor. The work, which won the Excellent Art Piece award, uses water as a medium to join past, present and future. The artist explains the great lengths he went to to create a woodblock print made up of 9 shades of grey.
Chen Qi, artist, said, “There’s no block as large as 2 by 4 meters. I used 42 smaller woodblocks to make it. So there are 42 layers to this painting.”
There were 700 works on display at the fifth Beijing International Art Biennial. They represented various mediums like painting, sculpture, installation and video, but served the same theme "Future and Reality".