On July 7, 2015, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China, organized by CAFA, “Happy Chinese New Year Fantastic Art China” New York series of events launched a press conference in CAFA, Beijing, announced the curatorial idea, thematic programs, participating artists and partners of the key subsidiary brand program – 2016 “Happy Chinese New Year Fantastic Art China” New York series of events, which is being exhibited worldwide and organized by the Ministry of Culture. At the same time, it also officially announced that “Happy Chinese New Year Fantastic Art China” Spring Festival Design Competition has started and wants a comprehensive representation of society to be displayed.

Xie Jinying, Director of the Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Culture, Fan Di’an, President of CAFA, Shirley Young, Chairman of the US-China Institute, Su Xinping, Vice President of CAFA, Yu Ding, Dean of the Institute of Arts Administration and Education, CAFA and the chief curator of the “Fantastic Art China” program, Huang Jiancheng, Vice President of the School of Urban Design, CAFA, the chief designer of the program, Chen Chunmei, Division of American and Oceania Affairs the Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Culture, Shang Jiyuan, Head of “Happy Chinese New Year” Office, as well as Duan Haikang and Jiang Jie, the representatives of the participating artists attended the press conference.

Wang Xiaolin, Assistant to the President of CAFA and Dean of CAFA Office of Academic Affairs presided over the press conference, she said, on the occasion of the arrival of the Chinese new year 2015, the team of “Happy Chinese New Year Fantastic Art China” went to the United States to present a visual feast for the local people in New York, the events changed the traditional culture to modern to represent public art, which made the Chinese lunar New Year enter mainstream society in the United States from the Chinese communities, which was a classic case for the spread of Chinese culture overseas.

In the press conference, Xie Jinying initially introduced the origin and developing situation of “Happy Chinese New Year”. The events were themed on “Happiness, Harmony, Dialogue, Sharing”, taking “Nature’s Festival”, “Family’s Festival”, “Spiritual Festival” as the core idea, to reflect and promote the “harmony between the heaven and human”, “harmony but not sameness” as advocated by Chinese culture. Xie Jinying highly praised the achievements of the part of “Fantastic Art China”, “Fantastic Art China” series of events successfully blended traditional elements, contemporary art and creative design, to present the old and vibrant culture of the Chinese Spring Festival in the form of public art, in order to further enhance the influence and appeal of the “Created in China”.

Fan Di’an, President of CAFA compared 2016 “Happy Chinese New Year Fantastic Art China” as a family reunion dinner and emphasized that the preliminary success of the events released two signals: first of all, it showcased a dynamic China to American society, dominated by New York, secondly it greatly promotes the domestic social and cultural cognition.

It was also consistent with the construction of innovation in society as promoted by the state, through a variety of new art forms, to gather many cross-border and cross-media artists, through this kind of public art form to create a comprehensive and innovative cultural signal. Shirley Young, Chairman of the US-China Institute also said “Happy Chinese New Year Fantastic Art China” was a good project of culture output, becoming a good chance for Americans to understand China, gaining a win-win in the Sino-American culture.

As the chief curator of the “Fantastic Art China” program, Yu Ding, Dean of the Institute of Arts Administration and Education, CAFA introduced the general idea of 2016 “Happy Chinese New Year Fantastic Art China”. The events in 2016 focused on the “harmony between heaven and humans” and announced it was themed “Intangible Music, Audio Grand Scenery”, taking “audio vision” as the curatorial core idea, making the voice visualized, making vision heard, making voice and vision interact and shuttered, connecting the entire “Fantastic Art China” New York series of events. Yu Ding also introduced the fact that the Fantastic Art China series of events were made up of a Public Art Exhibition, the Empire State Building Light Installation, Happy Chinese New Year Themed Fireworks Show in the Hudson River and an International Art and Creative Bazaar. Among this, the part of public art section will invite Tan Dun, Pan Gongkai, Su Xinping, Jiang Jie, Duan Haikang, etc., to participate in the exhibition. As one of the participating artists, Su Xinping said it would embody the traditional Chinese cultural background in the works, to reflect the richness and power of Chinese culture. Then, Huang Jiancheng, Vice President of the School of Urban Design, CAFA and the chief designer of the program introduced the entire visual presentation, including the use of color system, design of image and poster, lighting installation, themed fireworks show, etc.

Intangible music, audio grand scenery, gathering the stars of art and creative elites - 2016 “Happy Chinese New Year Fantastic Art China” New York series of events builds the concept of “Happy Chinese New Year” from multiple perspectives and directions, to sweep a strong “Chinese style”, integrated with tradition and contemporary, sound and vision.

The events will start on February 6, 2016 in New York, going through to February 14, the 7th day of the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Text by Zhang Wenzhi, Photo by Xu Fan/CAFA ART INFO

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO