"2005 Guangzhou Photo Biennial: Re(-)viewing the city"
2005-01-18 until 2005-02-27
Guangdong Museum of Art
Guangzhou, , CN China

In Europe as in most western countries, Guangzhou symbolizes the modern and commercial China. With a population of more than ten millions inhabitants, enjoying one of the highest standards of living in South East Asia, the city marries with harmony traditional and contemporary lives styles. The province has been for more than half a century the bridge between mainland China and Hong Kong and the West. January 15th 2005 will see the opening of the first Photo Encounters Biennial in Guangzhou China.

The main organizer, the Guangdong Museum of Art, one of the most important Modern Art museum in China, and its director Mr. Wang Huangsheng have already initiated world class events:
- The first contemporary art triennial in 2002, with a success known the world over in art and cultural circles.
- The photography exhibition "Humanism in China" in December 2003. This exhibit including more than six hundreds prints will be shown in Europe and North America in 2005 accompanied by its exceptional catalogue published in France by Philippe Picquier publications.

Agnes de Gouvion St-Cyr, general inspectrice for photography with the Ministry of Culture support the event in bringing her knowledge and her rigour, but also by opening the collection of the Fonds National dºArt Contemporain by conceiving an exhibition which will recall the emergence of contemporary photography while being based on a photographic view. The Pompidou Center will present the exhibition "Paris by Photographers" conceived and realized by Alain Sayag, curator with the museum. The prestigious house "Leica Camera AG" will honnour us with its support and its presence.

The Biennial of photography will have a topic which will make it possible not to narrow the choice of the curators. We will develop the idea of the "Photographic City" with the title "Re-viewing the City". The questions about the environment and more particularly urban planning are very present in China but also in the West. Even if in certain fields, the Westerners have a certain advance on Asia, the comparison of the problems and the solutions suitable for each one can be visualized through photography, and this without the barrier of the language which is often an obstacle to comprehension.The artistic choices will include group shows; historical or contemporary, but will be mainly expressed through monographic exhibitions in order to offer a broad spectrum of Chinese photography while showing to the local public often new works and foreign authors seldom exhibited in this country. They will be shown in the splendid Guangdong Museum of Art but also in the museum of the Academy of Arts, within the library of the city, the university of architecture and in the Vitamin gallery to invest the city fully. These 60 exhibitions will be accompanied by projections, a symposium and discussions around the principal topic, in order to promote encounters. The catalogue, published for this occasion, will be the durable part of this explosion of images and its memory while waiting for the next biennial which, I hope will be annual.

WANG HUANG SHENG / ALAIN JULLIEN
Biennial Director / Artistic director

International artists - solo shows

Olivo Barbieri, René Burri, Elliott Erwitt, Martin Kollár, Marc Riboud, Bogdan Konopka, Jane-Evelyn Atwood, Lisette Model, Edith Roux, Claude Dityvon, Jean-Pierre Favreau, Français Fontaine, Stéphan Guéneau, Pierre Bourdis, Peggy Sirota, Klavdij Sluban, Christian Poveda, David Damoison, Xavier Testelin, Edward West...

International artists - group shows

"Artneuland" with Guy Raz, Roi Kuper, Simcha Shirman, Eyal Ben-Dov, Gilad Ophir "Tangophoto" with Pablo Carrera Oser, Nathalie Desserme, Frédéric Jacquemot, Thierry Kleiner , Esther Levine, Jan Michalko , Hisashi Murayama , Filippo Romano, Olivier Thébaud , Cyrille Weiner

Chinese artists - solo shows

HAI Bo, WANG Qingsong, WENG Fen, XING Danwen, SHAO Yinong & Muchen, HAN Lei, HONG Lei, HONG Hao, LUO Yongjin, MO Yi, SHI Guorui, WANG Ningde, ZHANG Qing, DU Yingnan, KAN Xuan, QIU Zhijie,...

IMAGE
Edith Roux

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for China

Other Important Exhibitions in China