Duration: February 8 – December 8, 2021
Venue: Ocean Flower Island Museum, Danzhou, Hainan Province

Jointly sponsored by China Arts and Entertainment Group (CAEG) and Evergrande Tourism Group, organized by China International Exhibition Agency (CIEA) and Ocean Flower Island Museum, co-sponsored by the Co-Innovation Art Creation and Research Center on Silk Road of Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), and with academic support from CAFA, the media briefing for “The Tides of the Century – 2020 · Ocean Flower Island International Art Exhibition”, was held at the CAFA Art Museum on December 22.

View of the Media Briefing

Fan Di’an, Chairman of the China Artists Association, President of CAFA and Chairman of the Exhibition Academic Committee, Li Baozong, General Manager of CAEG, Li Denghai, Vice President of Evergrande Tourism Group and General Manager of Ocean Flower Island Company, Euthumios Athanasiadis, Press and Public Diplomacy Counselor at the Embassy of Greece in China, Zhang Zikang, Director of CAFA Art Museum, Liang Anna, Curator of Evergrande Ocean Flower Island Museum, Liu Zhenlin, Director of CIEA, Sui Jianguo, Artist and Academic Committee Representative, and curators including Wang Chunchen and Yue Jieqiong were in presence.

Fan Di’an, Chairman of the China Artists Association, President of CAFA, delivered a speech.

Li Baozong, General Manager of CAEG, delivered a speech.

Li Denghai, Vice President of Evergrande Tourism Group and General Manager of Ocean Flower Island Company, delivered a speech.

As a large modern marine museum built by Evergrande Group with huge investment, the Ocean Flower Island Museum covers an area of about 74,000m₂, including about 23,000m₂ for gross building area. The museum is composed of eight modern buildings. The inauguration ceremony “The Tides of the Century – 2020 · Ocean Flower Island International Art Exhibition” will be started on February 8, 2021, and the opening ceremony and academic activities will be held in May 2021.

More than 140 works of diversified cultural backgrounds, made by over 80 artists from 23 countries including Greece, France, South Korea, Cameroon, USA, Japan, Thailand, Venezuela, Singapore, Iran, Italy, India, UK, Vietnam, and China, will be displayed during the exhibition.

Wang Chunchen, Vice Director of CAFAM and the Main Curator of this Exhibition, introduced the exhibition.

At the critical moment of global fight against COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide artists have actively responded to the invitations from China. The premium works from all over the world gather at Hainan Ocean Flower Island, expressing the unanimous efforts and wishes for helping each other and fighting against the pandemic.

Xu Bing, Background Story: Thousand Li of River and Mountain,  450x932x30cm,  2014  Provided by the artist studio.

Sui Jianguo, Cloud Garden, Handprint #3, Photopolymer 3D Printing and steel frame, dimensions: 700×300×600cm, 2019 Provided by the artist studio.

Zhang Xiaogang, The Drawer of Time, composite materials: cement slabs, electronic industrial screen, color printing photos, etc., dimensions: 300 x 868 cm (variable as per site), 2018 Provided by the artist studio.

The prestigious artists, such as Tony Cragg (UK), Marc Quinn (UK), Xu Bing, Tatsuo Miyajima (Japan), Leandro Erlich (Argentina), and Loris Cecchini (Italy) will display their works, while Gabriel Dawe (Mexico) and Kedgar Volta (Cuba) will make their debuts in China. And Gabriel Dawe (Mexico) will display his brand new “rainbow” work specially made for the exhibition.

Gabriel Dawe, Exhibition View of Rainbow, Courtesy of the Artist.

In addition, the installation created by French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot with Danzhou Diaosheng, one of China’s national intangible cultural heritages, as core elements, will provide groundbreaking local tactile experience for audiences. The artists, including Wang Jianwei, Song Dong, Choi Jeong-Hwa (South Korea), Sinta Tantra (Indonesia), and Liu Jiayu will display their new works for the exhibition.

For the “Youth Resident Artists”, six artists, namely Cai Yaling, Yue Yanna, Li Linlin, Hu Qingyan, Tian Xiaolei, and Li Yuanchen, will perform resident creations by focusing on the Ocean Flower Island Museum to express their thoughts on marine environmental protection, life, consumerism, natural environment, etc.

Greece is the guest-of-honor and a main part for the exhibition. The part is planned and designed by Katerina Koskina, a well-known curator. Her concept is based on the theory of Socratic dialectics, namely the cognition changes of things are generated through three stages: thesis, antithesis and synthesis. This is both the theoretical basis of Greek philosophic thinking and the origin of modern western philosophy, complying with China’s notion of respecting history and the dialectical thought of keeping pace with the times.

Portrait of Katerina Koskina

The Greek guest-of-honor section for the exhibition has obtained substantial support from the Embassy of Greece in China as well as the confirmation from Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China. Important works, created by over 30 Greek artists from the 1970s to present, will be displayed during the exhibition. Many of them are collected by the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, Greece and have participated in numerous international exhibitions such as Venice Biennale and Kassel Documenta on behalf of Greece.

As the miniature of Greek contemporary art, the exhibition displays the works of the late artist TAKIS, George ZONGOLOPOULOS, Costas VAROTSOS, Aemilia PAPAPHILIPPOU, and Theo TRIANTAFYLLIDIS, the backbone forces of Greek art as well as the latest highlights of Athens Digital Art Festival. Besides displaying the contemporary art development achievements of Greece in a distinctive and multidimensional manner, the exhibition responds to the dialogues between China and Greece as two civilizations.

Aemilia PAPAPHILIPPOU, Chess Continuum

Costas VAROTSOS, Horizons

Marianna STRAPATSAKI, Invisible Places- The Vast White, 2008

George ZONGOLOPOULOS, Tel-Neant, 1997

Theo TRIANTAFYLLIDIA, Nike, 2018

THEODOULOS, Aftofota—Eterofota, 1996

Planned by Yue Jieqiong, Vice Director of Co-Innovation Art Creation and Research Center on Silk Road of Central Academy of Fine Arts, “An Azure Rendez-vous” section has invited the artists from Venezuela, USA, and Austria. The artists will jointly make an installation on the basis of the blue “seawater” installation made by Lu Yuanzheng, a Chinese artist, to present the concept of a Community of Shared Future for Mankind connected by the oceans.

The Ocean Flower Island Museum is located in Danzhou, the final workplace of Su Dongpo, a famous poet in China, as well as the origin of Hainan’s culture. For this purpose, Xu Jialing, a curator at CIEA, has invited the famous Arabian poet Adonis and seven Chinese poets and artists, Lyu De’an, Che Qianzi, Dai Guangyu, He Canbo, Tian Wei, Jia Qiuyu, and Fu Xiaotong to display their paintings and installations for the event themed by “Oriental Poetics” and respond to the historical context of Su Dongpo by demonstrating the evolution and development of oriental poetics in contemporary works.

The “2020 · Ocean Flower Island International Art Exhibition”, previously scheduled for the end of 2020, has been postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Academic Committee and curators, the exhibition title will remain unchanged even it has been postponed.

Georgios Iliopoulos, Ambassador of Greece to China, delivered a speech via the video.

Liu Zhenlin, Director of CIEA, hosted the media briefing.

Leaders of The Art Department of Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China, the Bureau of International Exchange and Cooperation, CAEG and Evergrande Tourism Group, submitted appointment letters to academic committee representatives and curators (Fan Di’an, Zhang Zikang, Wang Chunchen, Sui Jianguo and Yue Jieqiong).

As Chairman of the Academic Committee for “The Tides of the Century – 2020 · Ocean Flower Island International Art Exhibition”, Fan Di’an has invited 10 experts at home and abroad to be the committee members, including Zhang Zikang, Sui Jianguo, Wang Duanting, Zhu Qingsheng, Adrian George, Caitlin Doherty, Paul Gladston, Nanjo Fumio, Chiba Shigeo, and Tatehata Akira. Wang Chunchen, Vice Director of CAFA Art Museum, acts as the main curator; Dr, Katerina Koskina, former Curator of National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, Greece and Culture Counselor of Athens Municipal Government, acts as the curator for the Greek guest-of-honor section; Yue Jieqiong, Vice Director of Co-Innovation Art Creation and Research Center on Silk Road of Central Academy of Fine Arts, and Xu Jialing, a curator at CIEA, are the curators for other sections.

Fan Di’an, Chairman of the China Artists Association, President of CAFA, answered to the reporter’s question.

Li Baozong, General Manager of CAEG, answered to the reporter’s question.

Li Denghai, Vice President of Evergrande Tourism Group and General Manager of Ocean Flower Island Company, answered to the reporter’s question.

Wang Chunchen, Main Curator of this Exhibition, answered to the reporter’s question.

Artist Representative Sui Jianguo answered to the reporter’s question.

About the Exhibition:

Organizational structure:

Academic supporter:

Central Academy of Fine Arts

Sponsors:

China Arts and Entertainment Group, Evergrande Tourism Group

Organizers:

China International Exhibition Agency, Ocean Flower Island Museum

Co-sponsor:

Co-Innovation Art Creation and Research Center on Silk Road of Central Academy of Fine Arts

Chief media supporter:

CAFA ART INFO

Academic Committee:

Chairman: Fan Di’an (President of China Artists Association, President of CAFA)
Members:

Zhang Zikang (Director of CAFA Art Museum)

Sui Jianguo (Professor at CAFA)

Wang Duanting (Director of Foreign Fine Art Research Laboratory, Institute of Fine Arts, Chinese National Academy of Arts)

Zhu Qingsheng (Professor at Peking University)

Adrian George (Associate Director of Exhibitions, ArtScience Museum, Singapore)

Caitlin Doherty (Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville)

Paul Gladston (Professor at University of New South Wales)

Nanjo Fumio (Special Advisor of Mori Art Museum, Japan)

Chiba Shigeo (Researcher, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Professor at Chubu University, Japan)

Tatehata Akira (President of Tama Art University, Curator of Yayoi Kusama Museum)

Organizing Committee Members:

Liu Zhenlin, Liang Anna, Fang Qi, Ma Ruiqing, Hong Ning, Chen Xiangning

Curators:

Chief Producer: Liang Anna

Chief Curator: Wang Chunchen

Greek guest-of-honor curator: Katerina Koskina

Section curators: Yue Jieqiong, Xu Jialing

Exhibition planner: Zhang Jinhao

Guest-of-honor curator assistant: Wang Ying

Exhibition affairs: Liu Wenbin

Operation & maintenance: Zhang Xiujun, Yuan Ye

Public educational activities: Gao Yue, Li Yunyun

Promotion: Zhang Yaowen, Zhu Li, Zhuang Zhuang, Li Tiantian, Yang Yanyuan

Logistics: Liang Yufei, Fan Chuangeng

Assistants: Chen Gengjiang, Chen Siyu, Gong Jian, Huang Lei, Huang Yutao, Jiang He, Li Chaoshi, Liu Yang, Lu Shengqiang, Na Xu, Qiu Yukui, Tang Shunguo, Wang Jianxing, Wang Jingbo, Wang Wanqi, Wang Wenbin, Xue Lijia, Yang Jie, Yang Lai, Zhang Mengyi, Zhang Xinxin, Zhou Bingxue (in alphabetic order)