The festival of Europalia is, as the organizers call it themselves, ‘one of the biggest festivals in the whole of Europe’, and as this mayor feast celebrates its fortieth birthday, one very special country was depicted to focus on; China.

Since the 8th of October, this country is the host in various spectacles and exhibitions all over Belgium and close-by regions. The festival does not focus on the China we know as it is depicted by mass media, or as the China that chopped entire woods and waivered whole regions of land for the Olympics Game of 2008. On the contrary, the grand cultural feast focuses on China and its intriguing culture, its old and contemporary art and philosophic reality as it is spread all over the country. There are four themes during the whole of the Europalia.China festival; ‘immortal China’, ‘contemporary China’, ‘colorful China’ and ‘China and the world’. Europalia was willing to present a ‘new and different approach to the country’. A program that includes great variation and manifestations in diverse forms of art, with workshops and musical performances, as well as dancing and filming groups that show us their creations, on top of both historical and artistic exhibitions, alongside of the focus on architectural mastering in China. There is even a tea house, in which one can enjoy the ceremonies and imagine oneself being in this real Chinese world.

Europalia.China will still be staging until the the 14th of February, in the whole of which it will be riddled with various performances, conferences and exhibitions, one of which we give you an insight on; ‘Still Life’ – Modern Chinese Photography by various acknowledged Chinese photographers, which is presented in the BOZAR, Palace of Fine Arts - Brussels. This exhibition documents a series of meditative insights by the view of the camera in the Chinese landscape. LI Yongbin, MO Yi, and the duo in art RongRong and inri do this in a minimalistic, repetitive and conceptual way, whereas artist RUAN Xiaorong, XIONG Wenyun, ZHAO Ling and Adou make rural and urban landscapes into images of personal expression. 120 art photos are shown from 13 photographers in a selection and production from the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing. Curator Frank Van Haecke (Bozar Expo) tells us this exhibition is “more than merely a photographic show, it knows how to bring to life personal views of the being established and residing in the culture that is called China, not the new, industrial and economic China but the view on this country by the artistic lens of a camera”. We see thus very poetic and statement-carrying pictures taken by individual photographers willing to get back to the original voice and spirit of the country. Not only does it represent the contemporary China thus, but also does it view the individual interpretation of the loss of a culture that had existed for ever so long, and now knows itself on the verge of collapsing into the modernization that is called mundial economy.

Europalia is worth the visit, especially during the dark and cold days of December and January, as the festival’s program will surely know how to take the visitor on a journey to the intriguing culture and artistic manifestations of this beautiful land of China.

For further information, visit www.chinaatbozar.be or www.europalia.eu. |