On November 23, 2016, hosted by the Central Academy of Fine Arts, “To Commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army · CAFA Relay Series of Exhibition: Long March of Art” launched a press conference at the vip room of CAFA Art Museum, to explain the opportunity to host the show, the theme and the significance of academic construction, and also revealed the planning process and details of the exhibition, the stories behind the birth of the exhibited works, and the exhibition design. President of CAFA Fan Di’an, Deputy Party Secretary of CAFA Wang Shaojun, Head of Research Department at CAFA Song Xiaoxia, Dean of the School of Design, CAFA Song Xiewei, and Director of the Department of Fundamental Education for Plastic Arts Zhang Lujiang attended the press conference, and Minister of the Propaganda Department at CAFA Qin Jianping presided over the press conference.

To commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, CAFA organized the leaders of a variety of departments and specialties to make plans and ideas, to work together to launch the “Long March of Art” creation and research project, following the brand spirit of CAFA Relay exhibition, to relay the excellent traditions on the levels of thinking and learning. The “Long March of Art” project includes the multi-disciplinary, multi-specialty, multi-form collective display of CAFA, to reveal that CAFA is a large academic team with indispensible academic responsibilities and common cultural concerns. The exhibition will be held at the National Art Museum of China on December 23.

As an important creative group of Chinese art, CAFA has a strong strength and rich achievements in the creation of major themes. At the press conference President of CAFA Fan Di’an mentioned that the achievements of the several generations of creative groups of CAFA actively reflected the developing features of art in different periods with the thematic creation, the works by some senior painters entered the museum to play a historical role, and the large-scale creation became a new research topic in the new environment, the start of the long march of art was also a new practice of CAFA to deepen the creation and scientific research mechanism.

Deputy Secretary of CAFA Wang Shaojun further explained that the project promoted the innovations of scientific research and creative mechanism of CAFA: various disciplines had divergent thinking in the creation, and had an in-depth study of the long march, while different disciplines and individuals chose different topics to have an in-depth research, formed a multi-faceted expression of the arts; taking the live experience as an important way to feel the historical scene of the Long March, highlighting the real feelings of the teachers and students in the deep relationship between the history and reality, thus to form the sincere expression of art; continuing the first relay, taking the academy tradition as a resource, to explore the contemporary transformation; emphasizing both the whole scientific communication in the curatorial concept, and the multi-dimensional integration and expression.

Song Xiaoxia, Director of the Research Department of CAFA gave a detailed account of the specific circumstances of the various academic groups of CAFA that went deep into the historic site, and also mentioned that the event inherited the brand of “Relay”, which aimed to achieving two goals: to encourage artists to find the individual art pursuit and the integrating point of the era and history, to create a path of academy associated with contemporary China and the contemporary world; to create a collective creative collaboration system based on the brand of “Relay”, and to form a benign interactive creative ecology of CAFA. Director of the Department of Fundamental Education for Plastic Arts Zhang Lujiang shared his true feelings of the creation of “Recipes of Long March” created by the creative group at the press conference. As the general design of the exhibition, Dean of the School of Design, CAFA Song Xiewei also revealed that the exhibition would highlight its narrative nature and the experience brought to the audience.

Since the “Long March of Art” event started in last November, all faculties of CAFA have formed teams and respectively went to Jiangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces to invest and experience the life of the Long March, integrating the emotional experience, spiritual resonance and artistic expression. The exhibition will be divided into four sections: “Firm Ideal”, “Right Direction”, “Hard Work and Plain Living”, “Solidarity”, which gives the spirit of Long March a transformation of the contemporary cultural context, at the same time, it reveals the CAFA is as an academic body bearing the academic responsibility and humanistic care. The exhibition contains a variety of artistic languages and colorful forms of expression, reflecting the multidisciplinary participation, the overall characteristics of multi-morphological interaction. The exhibited works cover Chinese painting, oil painting, printmaking, sculpture, and also involving the use of other creative media such as video, animation, picture book, installation, VR technology, architectural mapping. The disciplines of humanities and art management participated in the exhibition, while organized the teachers and students carrying out children’s art education on the Long March. The exhibition does not only extend the creative space for the performance of historical themes, but also is a demonstration of the latest multidisciplinary achievements of CAFA under the contemporary art context.

The exhibition will be held at the National Art Museum of China on December 23. It will also focus on the creation mechanism, process and achievements to have a series of publications: “The New Road of the Academy – Research on the Creation Mechanism of the CAFA ‘Relay’ Series of Exhibition”, “On the Scene – CAFA ‘Relay’ Series of Exhibition Sketches and Creations by the Teachers and Students in the Second Round”, “Long March of Art – CAFA ‘Relay’ Series of Exhibition Art Collection”.

Text by Zhang Wenzhi, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Photo by Yang Yanyuan/CAFA ART INFO