Regulations of the 8th Beijing International Art Biennale, China 2019
Beijing International Art Biennale (Beijing Biennale for short) was initiated in 2003, with the ratification of the State Council and funded financially. It is jointly sponsored by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the Government of Beijing Municipality and the China Artists Association, and it is an international academic exhibition with its unique mode which was ratified by the Central Government. We have so far held the Beijing Biennale successively for 7 times in 2003, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2017. The participating countries have reached from 45 to 102, the participating artists have totaled more than 4000 and the visitors have been more than 1 million during the past 10 years. As a platform for international cultural exchanges, Beijing Biennale adopts the cooperative mode of the Chinese Curatorial Committee and the international curators. We adhere to the idea of making efforts to build a specific international platform, and the Beijing Biennale is praised as the biggest art biennale with its exhibits mainly consisting of paintings and sculptures. Through the conception of promoting the global harmony by the contemporary artistic exhibition and respecting the variety of the international culture and advice of equal conversation between eastern and the western culture, Beijing Biennale has obtained the recognition and the support from more and more artists across the world.
I. The Designation of the Exhibition
The 8th Beijing International Art Biennale, China 2019 (The 8th Beijing Biennale for short)
II. Duration, Venue and Sum of Exhibits
Duration: August 26th to September 23rd, 2019 (to be determined)
Venue: National Art Museum of China, Beijing
Sum of Exhibits: 600 or so
III. The Theme of the 8th Beijing Biennale
Theme: A Colorful World and A Shared Future
Interpretation of the Theme:
How fortunate we are as we have eyes that can appreciate a variety of beautiful colors. Different colors represent people’s anticipation for the most beautiful future. Since Jan Van Eyck improved the technique for oil paintings, pigments obtained from plants and minerals have increased unprecedentedly. The continuous improvement in pixel, color quality, temperature control and screen display make the color of images on televisions, computers and mobile phones more saturated and bright. Therefore, life is never dull in the 21st century, since we indulge ourselves with great relish in fascinating colors. In Chinese culture, the utilization of colors in artworks is inspired by Chinese painting, poetry and calligraphy, which present abundant emotional experience. The word “color” (in Chinese: cai) can be easily found in many Chinese four-character idioms: zhangdengjiecai, liuguangyicai, xiangyunruicai, fengshenyicai etc., all expressing people’s aspiration for harmony and good fortune. This is how Chinese culture interprets the great beauty on earth: various colors symbolize diversity and results in elegance and exquisiteness.
People coming from various ethnic, geographical, cultural and social backgrounds all yearn for a shared splendid future as they are under the same blue sky, despite different emotional appeals they may have. It is much the same as it is in the field of color. It is difficult to choose which color is more important than the others. They separately play their roles in the spectrum, contrasting with each other or adding radiance and charm to each other, making the sunlight bright and colorful. None of the colors has been displaced even though they are mixed, clustered, or diluted into complete new hue or color families even to the extent of being classified under seven-color, five-color or the three primary colors. They cooperate rather than confront and each of them will never dispel, eclipse or muddle others. Thus, each color as an imperative part contributes to the final hue and color effect. In the same way, diverse colors also perfectly present our splendid prospect and our shared future.
Diversity is manifested in reconciliation, harmony, reciprocity, coordination, competition, progress etc. Multiple colors imply a shared success, which coincides with the philosophy of “harmony in diversity”, demonstrating that it is different in approach, but satisfactory in a result. Great progress in civilization calls for an end to conflicts, appealing to us to cooperate to overcome the current difficulties and share the benefits based on convenient transportation, communication and developments in cross-cultural and trans-regional similarity and interdependence for a bright future. In today’s global village, we share warmth and coldness alike; so human beings should stand together through thick and thin rather than engage in jostling against each other. In a sense, colors provide a symbolic interpretation of the relationship among different individual destinies.
A colorful world will usher in a splendid future, which represents the common destiny for mankind. The 8th Beijing International Art Biennale comes at a time as China enters a “new era” and it is confident of presenting China’s project and the world’s prospect by means of art. The theme of the 8th Beijing Biennale, “A Colorful World and A Shared Future” is an upgrade of the series of themes of the previous seven Beijing Biennales and it also highlights and echoes with the current hot topics. A colorful world is the realistic foundation of our shared future while a shared future is a direction for a colorful world to follow. The principle of visual arts reflects the wisdom and philosophy of mankind. Artists from all over the world are expected to be inspired by the theme to describe the shared future for mankind in their creation based on their experience, thinking and proposition. Therefore, many incredibly vivid personal destinies will be manifested to uphold positive energy of mankind.
(Please follow the copyright law and regulations when creating the works.)
IV. Requirements for Participating Artists and Works
Works for the Beijing Biennale are expected to come from all over the world and influential artists and their representative works will be selected from various participating countries. The works to be exhibited would be mainly composed of paintings and sculptures. However, a certain amount of video and installation works are also acceptable.
1. Participating artists from China and foreign countries of the Beijing Biennale, consist of specially invited ones and free ones. The Curatorial Committee is to make the decision on the list of the invited artists, and freely participating works are from all over the world.
2. As a rule, participating works should be completed in the last 3 years and should be of high aesthetic taste and artistic quality. If the works are at certain agencies or collected by other people, the artists are obligated to contact these agents and collectors. If the failure of contact results that the works could not participate in the Biennale, the artists will lose the selection qualification. The author should not change the works without authorization; otherwise the Curatorial Committee would refuse the substitutes. The material of the exhibited artwork should be consistent with the information informed in the registration form.
3. The minimum size of drawing work should not be smaller than 1.2×1.2m (including frame) in principle, or larger than 3.0×3.0m (including frame). The minimum size of a sculpture is 0.5 m3 (the summation of the size of length, the width and the height should not be smaller than 1.5m), and the maximum size is 2m3 (the summation of size of the length, the width and the height should not be bigger than 6m with the sculpture base included); the weight of a single work should not be over 150 kg, (with the sculpture base included) with all parts jointed firmly, and the whole item should be stable, non-fading and non-deforming. Regarding how to present the artworks, it needs to be under the requirements of the Museum. If you have any special request, please contact the Organizing Committee before July, 2019.
4. The Organizing Committee has the right to refuse to exhibit works which are not in accordance with the forms submitted by artists or which are oversized, overweighed, noisy, mildewed, smelly, easy to leak liquid, difficult to transport and arrange for exhibition or dangerous to visitors and museum. Considering the requirements of the National Art Museum of China where all the artworks will exhibit, the reproduction of works if it is not a print work or it is an inkjet works or works integrated with inkjet printing and sketch will not be exhibited. The selection panel will consider it as invalid submission and it won’t have any opportunity to be selected.
5. All the submissions are required to be original creations. Once plagiarism is discovered, the submission involved will not be eligible to be selected. If the selected work is involved into any unsettled historic matters, the Organizing Committee reserves the right to disqualify the entry from selection, exhibition, publication and participation into the symposium.
V. How to Participate and Related Schedule
1. All artists should each submit the photos of one or two works to the Curatorial Committee for selection and should send Registration Form for Participating Artists and Caption of Works for the 8th Beijing International Art Biennale, China 2019. You can download the forms from the website of the Beijing Biennale (cf. XII. Contact Information).
All the blanks in the form should be filled in. Except for the signature, all the contents in the form need to be filled in via computer and printed out. Materials will not be accepted beyond the deadline.
Participating artists need to attach one personal color photo at the size of 2 inches with the registration forms. Meanwhile, an electronic image of the same personal photo no smaller than 1Mb according to the requirements of printing is also required.
2. The deadline for you to send all required material is December 25th, 2018. Please send by post the forms with your handwritten signature, color photos of the works (The photo should be printed on a relative A4 size photopaper, and each sculpture should be matched with 3 photos from different perspectives. On the back of the photo there should be the following information: name of the artist, title, size, materials and so on. Assembled works should be attached with detailed installation instruction), one flash drive (all the material should be put in one flash drive) or one compact disc (all the material should be put in one compact disc, and the electronic image of your self-portrait need to be no smaller than 1Mb, the artworks no smaller than 10Mb) to the Beijing Biennale Office before December 25th, 2018 for the curators’ selection. (cf. XII. Contact Information) Please keep the tracking number of your delivery for your convenience.
All materials related to the participating works will not be returned.
3. No registration or participating fee is asked.
4. The Curatorial Committee will select exhibits from all the works by virtue of their photos in March, 2019. The result will be declared on the official website of the Beijing Biennale after it completed all the required procedures for approval of foreign affairs. Meanwhile, the Organizing Committee will send an official letter to the selected artists to clarify the duties, rights and obligations of both sides. The official invitation letter will be sent to representatives of selected artists after completion of the procedures for the approval of foreign affairs by related departments. Regrettably, only selected candidates will be contacted.
5. The Organizing Committee reserves the rights as follows: freely exhibiting the selected and invited works, freely taking photos of these works and making use of these photos free of charge, freely and publicly making use of the artists’ personal information in the registration forms and on the website for international publicity of the exhibition and the publication of the catalogue.
6. All the timelines listed in this regulation is just for reference, so the time frame depends on the actual developments of the project. The Organizing Committee will inform all the selected artists if there is some change that asks for your cooperation.
VI. Mounting, Packaging, Shipping and Insurance of Art Works
1. The Organizing Committee covers the cost of round-trip transportation of foreign works (works of special exhibitions excepted). For the domestic exhibits, we cover only the returning cost.
2. The artists are responsible for installing frames for their painting works. Oil painting should be firmly fastened on the external frame, and nails and other sharp objects should not be protruding from the internal or external frames. Prints, watercolors and pastels should not be mounted on frames with a glass surface. However, organic glass or transparent plastic board can be used. The participants should prepare themselves for a special displaying table. Works created with other media need to be further discussed.
3. The participating artists (or participants) should cover the cost of round-trip insurance of transportation by themselves for their works. The Organizing Committee will be responsible for the insurance of the works of the exhibition during the exhibition period.
4. The Organizing Committee will inform international artists the authorized transportation company which will contact with the overseas artists in a timely manner by website announcements and e-mail. Before May 31st 2019, all the artists from abroad are required to deliver your artwork to the logistics company appointed by the Organizing Committee after Heat Treatment or Methyl Bromide fumigation. Please clearly mark the artwork number informed by the Organizing Committee on the outside of all packages. To facilitate the customs clearance, all non-manufactured wood/original wood packaging materials (including all the package materials, such as wood case, pad and wedge) must be treated by Heat Treatment or methyl Bromide fumigation at the origin and the artist is required to put the mark of IPPC on 2 opposite sides of the wooden packaging materials. All of the packaging charges will be afforded by artists themselves. Please note that the logistics company will not provide the door-to-door service for picking up your artwork.
Before July 31st 2019, domestic participants should send packaged works directly to the designated address in time and the transportation property should be “from door to door”, with the artwork number informed by the Organizing Committee on the box. The participants should cover the arrival cost of the works. The return cost of the works will be covered by the Organizing Committee.
Selected participants should send the selected works to the transport agent in time. If the artists change works without getting authorization, the Organizing Committee has the right to refuse the works. If the selected works cannot be transferred to the agent or to the designated address in time, the Organizing Committee is not responsible for the results.
If artists send works which have not been selected to the Organizing Committee or the venue of the exhibition, the Organizing Committee will refuse to accept the works and have no obligations to protect or return them.
5. If works (including the works of the Special Exhibitions) are damaged due to inappropriate package, damaged, broken or deformed because of their instability and infirmity during transportation, the Organizing Committee will inform the artist in time and will not be in a position to compensate for the loss.
6. The Organizing Committee will be responsible for returning the works. If the selected overseas artists send their works to the Organizing Committee without the assistance of the appointed agents, the Organizing Committee will not be responsible for returning their works. If the artists do need to return the works with the help of the appointed agents, the artists should negotiate with the Organizing Committee before August 1st, 2019.
VII. The Catalogue and Publicity Materials
1, The catalog: 635mm×965mm, 1/16, in color format. In addition to the information of all participating works, it includes brief introductions to artists and a short caption of the artworks. Each participating artist will have two catalogues.
2. Exhibition Guide and Tips for the Artists
3. Color Poster
4. Invitation Cards for the Opening Ceremony and the Symposium
VIII. Symposium
1. A one-day international symposium with simultaneous interpretation (in English) will be held after the opening ceremony.
2. The Curatorial Committee members, exhibition participants, influential art critics, curators, scholars and so on from both home and abroad will be invited.
3. The discussion will focus on the exhibition theme and the exact motif is to be decided.
4. Before July 1st, 2019, selected artists should send the symposium feedback (and the outlines of the essay) to the Organizing Committee. The Organizing Committee will select the representatives and cover 4 days’ accommodations and food in Beijing only for foreign selected artists who participate in the symposium (The companion of the artists should pay all his/her cost by himself/herself, and deal with the visa to Beijing by themselves).
IX. Donations
The Organizing Committee accepts the voluntary donation. If you decide to donate your artwork, please indicate and sign at the end of the Caption of Work Form. Your donated work should be the original artwork. Sculptures made of resin, plaster, or other materials that can’t be solidified of the casting mold would not be accepted as donated artworks. The Organizing Committee will issue a certificate to the artist and provide opportunities for tour exhibition of these artworks in China and foreign countries at the right time.
X. Certificate
The Organizing Committee will issue Certificate for Selection and Certificate for Donation.
XI. Organizations
Sponsors:
China Federation of Literary and Art Circles
The People’s Government of Beijing Municipality
China Artists Association
China Artists Association will be responsible for concrete implementation.
Co-organizations: (to be determined)
Cooperation Organizations: Chinese Embassies in Participating Countries, Embassies of Participating Countries in China, Cooperative Organizations from Participating Countries
Organizing Committee:
The Organizing Committee of the 8th Beijing Biennale, composed of the honorary director, executive director, deputy directors and committee members will coordinate organizations, supporting organizations, co-organizations and related departments and is responsible for the preparation and exhibition work of the 8th Beijing Biennale.(the details need to be further discussed)
Curatorial Committee:
The Curatorial Committee of the 8th Beijing Biennale (Curatorial Committee for short), composed of directors of the organizations involved, famous international theorists and artists and invited international curators undertakes the academic work of the Biennale’s preparation and exhibition, including recommendation of specially invited artists from home and abroad, selection of artworks, planning for the symposium and editorial work for the catalogue etc.
Counselors(2): Jin Shangyi, Shao Dazhen
Chief Curators(5): Zuo Zhongyi, Feng Yuan,Wang Mingming, Xu Li, Wu Weishan
Curatorial Team(20) (in the order of Chinese surname strokes):
Ding Ning, Ma Shulin, Wang Yong, Lu Yushun, Tian Liming, Bao Lin, Liu Jin’an, Li Xiangqun, Yang Feiyun, Zou Wen, Shang Hui, Zhang Xiaoling, Hang Jian, Hu Wei, Tao Qin, Zhu Di, Chao Ge, Dong Xiaoming, Tan Ping, Xue Yongnian
International Curators(3):
Vincenzo Sanfo(Italy), Beate Reifenscheid(Germany), Miguel Angel Benavides(USA)
Conveners of Curatorial Committee(2): Tao Qin, Wang Yong
The Beijing International Art Biennale Office, as well as the International Department of the China Artists Association will be responsible for all the organizing work.
XII. Contact Information
Address: Beijing Biennale Office of China Artists Association.
Room B1701, Building 32, 1 Beishatan, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China
Postal Code: 100083
Tel: 86-10-59759382 59759383 59759391
Fax: 86-10-59759381
Website: www.bjbiennale.com.cn (in both English and Chinese)
Forms download address: http://www.bjbiennale.com.cn/en/ParticipationWay/
E-mail: bjbiennale@163.com (Please indicate your nationality in the title of your email)
Notes: The artists applying to participate in this Beijing International Art Biennale are all regarded as agreeing with the above regulations and the content of the forms. The Organizing Committee of the 8th Beijing International Art Biennale 2019 has the sole right to explain the regulations. All the items in this regulation are mainly applied to the theme exhibition. The rights and obligations of the Special Exhibition need to be further discussed between the Organizing Committee and the organizer of the Special Exhibition.
The Organizing Committee of Beijing International Art Biennale
August, 2018
Video of the 8th Beijing Biennale
