At 10am on September 7, 2017, the press conference of “Troposphere – Chinese and Brazilian Contemporary Art” had a grand opening at the Beijing Minsheng Art Museum. Marcos Caramuru de Paiva, Brazilian Ambassador to China, Chen Guoqiang, Director of the Office of the China Minsheng Bank and Director of the Minsheng Art Institution Administration Committee, Zhou Xujun, Director of Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Hu Xudong, Deputy Director of Brazilian Culture Center of Peking University, curators Sarina Tang and Bao Dong, artist representatives Sui Jianguo and St Clair Cemin and so on attended the exhibition.

At the event of the year, the “BRICS Summit” held in Xiamen launched the large-scale exhibition of “Troposphere – Chinese and Brazilian Contemporary Art”, which has been organized by the China Minsheng Bank Art Institute Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, with a dialogue on contemporary art between China and Brazil. The exhibition was organized by China Minsheng Bank and Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, co-organized by the Brazilian Embassy to China, CURRENTS Culture and Art Foundation, Beijing Minsheng Culture and Art Foundation, with the academic support of Brazil Cultural Center of Peking University.

At the press conference, Chen Guoqiang, Director of the Office of the China Minsheng Bank and Director of the Minsheng Art Institution Administration Committee initially delivered a speech, and said that it was of important significance to hold the press conference of the Chinese and Brazilian contemporary art exhibition on September 7, which was the National Day of the Federal Republic of Brazil, and he said that “I would like to take this exhibition as an opportunity to allow that China knows more about Brazilian culture.”

Marcos Caramuru de Paiva, Brazilian Ambassador to China addressed the press conference and said that the Brazilian President Michel Temer had made a state visit to China on September 1 this year, and this forthcoming exhibition was the first co-operation between China and Brazil after President Michel Temer visited China, which was very creative.

After this section, Zhou Xujun, Director of Beijing Minsheng Art Museum introduced the general situation of this exhibition. “It is the first time for an exhibition of Brazilian contemporary art to land in China, which will be a new milestone in the exchange and dialogue of contemporary art between China and Brazil. She hoped that the audience could understand the status quo, characteristics and style of the contemporary art of the two countries, to jointly show the value and charm of the contemporary spirit.

Curator Sarina Tang introduced the exhibition project and curatorial concept in detail. Born in Shanghai, she has respectively lived in New York, Lucca in Italy, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and Beijing since 1970, because of her personal multi-cultural background, curator Tang has maintained his attention on contemporary art of Chinese and Brazilian artists for decades, with a unique interest and professional perspective. Tang said that, “Troposphere – Chinese and Brazilian Contemporary Art is held to focus on the exchanges between Chinese and Brazilian artists, and I am also very honored to have an opportunity to participate in this exhibition, so that the Chinese audience can understand Brazilian contemporary art.”

At the press conference, another exhibition curator Bao Dong said that this exhibition was trying to find common ground between Brazil and China, “Brazil?is?the fifth?biggest country?in the world and it is of about 8.5 million square kilometers, while its per-capita living space is bigger than China’s. When we enter the interior of Brazil, we find that there are many similar places in Brazil and the Chinese mainland” and this “generality”, the common life experience will also be reflected in Chinese and Brazilian artists’ creation. The world has severely changed in the past 100 years, will we now lose our direction? Bao Dong said that, we should propose a concept of mankind that will share the future.” Therefore, this exhibition is like the exchange between the two cultures and countries, which serves us both and beyond this we discuss the common ground of mankind. Each cultural practitioner should explore it while political leaders, business leaders, and a variety of civil institutions should work together to contribute to it.

At the end of the conference, artist Sui Jianguo and artist St Clair Cemin respectively delivered a speech on behalf of China and Brazil, to discuss the appearance of contemporary art of China and Brazil from the perspective of the artist, as well as the expectations of the exhibition; Hu Xudong, Deputy Director of Brazilian Culture Center of Peking University delivered a speech and said that, from September, 2017 to February, 2018, Brazilian Culture Center of Peking University would be in cooperation with Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, to offer a series of public education activities, around Brazilian culture, art, politics, economy and society, to launch a series of public education activities, to help people with an in-depth understanding of Brazil.

The exhibition will be held in Beijing Minsheng Art Museum on December 9 with invitations to a total of 40 important contemporary artists from China and Brazil to present their works. It is also the first large-scale Brazilian contemporary art exhibition to arrive in China.

Text by Lin Jiabin, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Photo by the organizer