On August 24th, the opening ceremony of the Pavilion of the P.R.China of the 17th La Biennale di Venezia was held in Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center in Beijing. Zhang Xu, vice minister of culture and tourism, attended the ceremony and delivered a speech. Speeches through video were given by Li Junhua, Chinese ambassador to Italy, Luigi Brugnaro, mayor of Venice in Italy, Roberto Cicutto, chairman of the exhibition and Laura Fincato, former deputy director of foreign affairs.
Zhang Xu said in his speech that the La Biennale di Venezia had a long history and was one of the great art events with the largest-scale and the strongest influence. It’s an important platform to show the art creation and the cultural development level of every country. Starting from 2005, China had been participating the exhibition with national pavilions. Representative Chinese artists and architects presented their work one after another to show traditional Chinese culture, Chinese philosophical thoughts as well as art vocabulary and outstanding work presenting Chinese value and spirit. In such case, art was a material to build a platform for communication and mutual-learning between Chinese and foreign culture. The theme of China national pavilion was “a courtyard-ology: from the mega to the micro”. The aim of it was to show the wisdom of Chinese collective inhabitancy pattern, the boundless opportunities of “courtyard” in modern architecture design and an exploration of innovative ideas of mankind’s living together in the future. The pavilion reflected the main theme of “how can we live together” and offered ideas, analysis and answers made by Chinese culture to overcome problems in real life faced by all.
Li Junhua said that the cultural communication and cooperation between China and Italy had a long history and were significant under the “Belt and Road” initiative. The exhibition had been a contributing part of China-Italy cultural cooperation mechanism. The pandemic had a relatively strong influence on the interaction between people in China and Italy, but practical cooperation never stopped thanks to our mutual effort. He believed that the opening ceremony of Chinese pavilion was a chance to let more Italian to understand Chinese architecture ideas and products as well as to enable Chinese to learn the charm of the exhibition.
Luigi Brugnaro said that he hoped that he could make full use of this opportunity to solidify the friendly relationship between China and Venice established through the ancient Silk Road which even in today was an example in economy and business. The theme of Chinese pavilion was “a courtyard-ology: from the mega to the micro” which meant not only the space but also the inhabitancy features of Venice, because the space and beliefs showed by China pavilion had similarities with those in Venice whose people lived in narrow streets and small squares. Such environment cultivated their tough characters which were also representatives of the city. This was also the reason why Venice held the exhibition amid the pandemic. Brugnaro expressed his gratitude to China for it’s support to the La Biennale di Venezia, but also it’s organization of such a grand opening ceremony.
Roberto Cicutto said that the opening ceremony proved that China payed attention to the exhibition. The theme of the China’s pavilion was an example of Chinese outstanding tradition which was similar to Venice which was composed of small corridors, streets and squares. Our two countries were home to long cultural tradition and a large number of cultural heritage. We were closer because of cultural communication and our getting together was an interpretation to the world of how to build cultural space, expand communication and promote mutual understanding.
Laura Fincato said that Venice had been in close and friendly relation with different places in China. The friendship was highlighted in the exhibition by China’s and Italy’s pavilions which were beside each other. Since 2005, the pavilion had been a witness to China’s participation. Chinese artists and architects had been showing continuously increasing innovation. The pandemic had given us a hard time, but we appreciated China for it’s strong support and we were able to develop our traditional friendship into a more amazing one because China confirmed to participate in the exhibition.
Later, Zhang Li, curator of the National Museum of China and dean of School of Architecture of Tsinghua University, Cui Kai, representative of participating architects, and art directors of China pavilion including Wu Hongliang, Yue Jieqiong and Zhao Peng had been exchanging ideas of China pavilion’s exhibition ideas, presentation methods and highlights. They interacted with Michele Bonino, Polytechnic University of Turin, in China pavilion in Venice. Zhang Li introduced that the theme of China pavilion was “a courtyard-ology: from the mega to the micro” which was a response to the La Biennale di Venezia’s theme of “how will we live together”. The exhibition could be divided into four sections which were “Common Understanding I-Inspiration and Intervention”, “Common Understanding II-Classic and Interpretation”, “Common Design-My Courtyard”, “Common Feeling-Listen to the Courtyard” and “Common Healing-Everyone’s Story Corridor”. Participating artists, scholars and architects created nearly 150 works which interpreted tradition; were constructed in modern era; made with new multimedia technology and computer technology and offer an exhibition experience that was fresh, unique, and was a combination of tradition and modern era as well as of theory and practice.