Chinese Pavilion to debut
Collected by Vivian Zhang

并誉为世界三大艺术展之一的威尼斯双年展本月初开幕, 全球各地的当代艺术家们将齐聚水城, 共襄盛事. 而中国馆也将首次出现在这座艺术之都.

Ai Weiwei, a Chinese architect who will present his work at the 51st Venice Biennial Cai Guoqiang, an overseas Chinese artist recently promulgated the plan of setting up the Chinese Pavilion at the coming 51st Venice Biennial. The theme of the Chinese Pavilion, which will present works of four artists and two architects, is set as "Virgin Garden: Emersion".

China's Ministry of Culture and the Venice Biennial Organizing Committee reached an agreement on March 3, 2005, pronouncing that China would set up its first official pavilion at the Venice Biennial 51st International Art Exhibition, which is to open in June. The ministry will further discuss with the Venice side on establishing a permanent Chinese Pavilion in 2007.

The theme of Chinese Pavilion, "Virgin Garden: Emersion", was inspired by the terrain of the exhibition venue and illustrates the meaning of China's contemporary art appearing at this west-dominant biennial. The pavilion is separated in two parts, an outdoors and an indoors one. The former is located in the contemporary Virgin Garden, where the Chinese architect Zhang Yonghe will present his bamboo tent and the audience may take shade in the garden decorated with bamboo strips by Chinese traditional craft. The young artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu will bring a UFO made by a Chinese country resident and have a trial fly in Venice. The indoor part, located at an abandoned marine warehouse where video and light installations will be shown, places much emphasis on the feeling and reaction of the audience toward the abrupt events.

The plan by the curator Cai Guoqiang stated proudly that this move would be regarded as a sign of stronger Chinese influence posed on the world in terms of politics, economics and culture.

Actually, the Chinese had started to attend Venice Biennial more than ten years before. In 2003, the China's Ministry of Culture encouraged curator Fan Di'an to plan on a Chinese Pavilion for the 50th Venice Biennial. However, due to the outbreak of SARS, the Chinese had to present their works in Guangzhou instead of Venice. This year, for the first time in history, artworks from China mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan will be shown together at Venice Biennial. It will be the sixth time for Taiwan artists and the third time for Hong Kong artists to attend the international art event, and the first time for China mainland artists to attend the national pavilion part of the exhibition.

Features of this year's Biennial


This year's Biennial curators

For the first time in the 110-year-long history of the Venice Biennial, the artistic direction of the international exhibition is headed by two people and for the first time ever by women. The Spaniards María de Corral and Rosa Martínez are presenting two independent exhibitions which complement one another, and intend to show artworks spanning from the 1970s up to the present, including new works created especially for the Biennial.

About Venice Biennial

The Venice Biennial is the oldest international art exhibition and is acclaimed as Contemporary Art Olympics. Regarded as one of the three major art events in the world with Sao Paulo Biennial and Documental in Kassel, it takes places once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it.

The very first Biennial was held in 1895; during the first editions, decorative arts played a major part. The event became more and more international in the first decades of the 20th century: from 1907 on, several countries started installing national pavillions at the exhibition. After World War I, the Biennial showed increasing interest in innovative traditions in modern art. Between the two World Wars, many important modern artists had their work exhibited there.

In 1931, control of the Biennial passed from the Venice city council to the national Fascist government. In the 1930s, several new sections of the event were established: the Music Festival in 1930, the International Film Festival in 1932 and the Theatre Festival in 1934. From 1938, Grand Prizes were awarded in the art exhibition section.

After a four-year break during World War II, the Biennial was resumed in 1948 with renewed attention to avant-garde movements in European, and later worldwide, movements in contemporary art. Abstract expressionism was introduced in the 1950s, pop art in the 1960s.

A view of the Singaporean Pavilion at the 49th Venice Biennial









Vocabulary
debut 初次亮相
pavilion 展馆
emersion 浮现
avant-garde 先锋派
biennial 两年一次的活动
expressionism 表现主义

 

 

John Denver 约翰·丹佛



1943年出生在美国新墨西哥州的John Denver, 作为70年代最著名的民谣歌手之一, 他的艺术生涯可谓一帆风顺.

最初, 身为Mitchell三重唱之一的John Denver从在洛杉矶的夜总会里演唱而开始成名, 在1969年离开三重唱组后, John Denver开始进行独立的音乐创作与演唱. 80年代中期, John Denver做为非官方的音乐大师曾出使俄罗斯与中国. 1997年10月, 一代民谣大师John Denver不幸在一次飞机失事中丧生, 终年53岁.

在John Denver的音乐中, 吸收了同等的民歌、乡村音乐和流行音乐的元素, 而从他表现出来的东西中, 我们就不难理解为什么John Denver在80年代后期, 会从音乐创作转向慈善事业与生物研究. John Denver的音乐创作重点一直放在社会不公与战争灾难的主题上, 而其中他最好的一些作品则是有关生态主题的, 如这首"Country Roads", 把自然的美丽和人们对家乡的依恋之情结合起来, 再通过John Denver那带着鼻音却清晰的演唱和木吉他的强劲伴奏, 将歌词中空间的意义表现无遗, 成为John Denver名扬海内外的佳作.

Country Roads
Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, flowing like the breeze

(Chorus)Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Take me home, country roads

All my memories gather 'round her
Modest lady, stranger to blue water
Dark and dusky, painted on the sky
Misty taste of moonshine, teardrops in my eye

(Chorus) I hear her voice, in the morning hour as
She calls me
Radio reminds me of my home far away
Driving down the road I get a feeling
That I should have been home yesterday