Exhibition News

The 9^th Beijing Biennale, themed “the Light of Life”, eulogizes the value of life and highlights the dignity, power and glory of life. It is a continuation of the 3^rd session, themed “Colors and the Olympics”, and highlights the visual charm of “power and beauty”. To facilitate your understanding, we provide 14 keywords related to the theme.

Kang Jianfei(China)

New Olympic Gymnasium / 2007 / print / 100cm×180cm×2

Work from the 3rd Beijing Biennale

Key Word: Olympic Stadium

Olympic Stadium, a venue where some competitions are held, is one of the focal points of the modern Olympics. Always featuring unique charm, the Olympic Stadium attracts world-renowned designers. They consider the design of this building as a great opportunity to show the whole world their ability and thus make great efforts to surpass stadiums of previous sessions, so that it would become a milestone in their career. As a result, functions, styles and ideas of the Olympic Stadium have changed a lot, which makes it an important part of the Olympic history and a landmark of the host city.

Summer Olympic Stadiums

Winter Olympic Stadiums

Some examples are as follows:

1896: Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, Greece

To hold the first modern Olympic Games, the Panathenaic Stadium was built on the site of a stadium that dates back to ancient Greece. With a sense of history, it is the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble excavated from the ancient venue.

Panathenaic Stadium of the Athens 1896 Olympic Games

1968: Estadio Olímpico Universitario in Mexico City, Mexico

This stadium, together with the whole University City, was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2007. Built on an ancient solidified lava bed in Coyoacan and combining modern architectural and local style, the National Autonomous University of Mexico is one of largest prestigious universities in the world. The stadium, like an erupting volcano, is built of volcanic rocks. Its outer wall is decorated with mosaic relief created by famous Mexican fresco artists.

Estadio Olímpico Universitario of the Mexico City 1968 Olympic Games

1972: Olympiastadion in Munich, Germany

Inspired by tent structure, the Olympiastadion has a cone-shaped roof stabilized by steel cables. The sweeping canopy integrates the stadium and natural landscape, bringing fresh feelings to fierce competitions.

Olympiastadion of the Munich 1972 Olympic Games

2004: The Olympic Athletic Center of Athens is known as the most elegant stadium. It has a roof structure composed of two 45-meter high arches, making it an elegant building of European style.

Olympic Athletic Center of Athens of the 2004 Olympic Games

2008: National Stadium, Beijing, China

Often dubbed as the Bird’s Nest, the Beijing National Stadium was jointly designed by Chinese architects and famous architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron .The design, different from that of other stadiums, implemented steel beams directly, making the stadium look like a nest built of branches, hence the name “Bird’s Nest”. It has a capacity of 100,000. Another landmark building of the 2008 Beijing Olympics was the Water Cube, namely National Aquatics Center. Covering an area of 80,000 cubic meters, it used ETFE cladding, a transparent cladding that looks like bubbles and allows more light. Inspired by the natural pattern of bubbles in soap lather, Water Cube was a breakthrough in the world architectural history. What is noteworthy is that with the help of advanced technologies, China has turned its iconic aquatics center Water Cube into the Ice Cube for curling at the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, meeting its commitment of Green Winter Olympics and High-tech Winter Olympics.

Beijing National Stadium (also Known as the Bird’s Nest)

National Aquatics Center (also Known as the Water Cube)

2012: London Stadium

The London Stadium was the centerpiece of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Also dubbed as “the London Bowl”, it had 80,000 seats. After the Olympics and Paralympics were finished, the larger top tier of seats were lifted off to reduce it to a 25,000-seat sports venue.

London Stadium of the London 2012 Olympic Games

2022: National Speed Skating Oval, Beijing, China

The National Speed Skating Oval, also known as the Ice Ribbon, is a speed skating arena which is the only new venue built for the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Its saddle-shaped roof is designed to minimize the use of material, with the use of steel only one quarter of that of traditional roof. Many separate light strands flow up and around the Oval, hence the name “Ice Ribbon”. According to its chief designer Zheng Fang, “the design of the Water Cube turns soft water into a hard cube, whereas that of the Ice Ribbon turns hard ice into soft ribbon. This is in line with the Chinese philosophy of coupling hardness with softness, reaching balance of the nature.”

National Speed Skating Oval

By the end of 2020, the construction of all venues of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games has been finished as scheduled. This picture shows hardworking workers. (Photo credit: Jiao Liyue with Video China)

The 14 key words will be published one by one. Look forward to your interest and participation in the Beijing Biennale.

(Notes: Please strictly follow copyright laws and relevant regulations in and outside China when referring to captions, photos and other information in your creation. Plagiarism is unacceptable. Copyright-related legal issues should be taken care of by artists themselves.)

Exhibition News

Olympic Stadium-- Reference for the 9th Beijing Biennale Theme-based Creation Ⅵ