The opening ceremony of the first Jinan International Bienniale took place on 12 December 2020. VUB professor Hans de Wolf is part of the curatorial team, with Fan Di’An, president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts of Beijing (CAFA), the main curator. De Wolf: “As one of three foreign curators in a team of 10, I had the opportunity in the middle of the corona pandemic to have some of our artists, who were facing very hard times, produce new work financed by our Chinese host.”
Jinan is the capital of Shandong, one of the most dynamic provinces in China. The Biennale brings more than 150 big names to Jinan, including several Belgians. Emmanuel Van Der Auwera and Song Dong created new installations for this exceptional exhibition, and there is an impressive series of paintings by the Congolese artist Géraldine Tobe.
The Biennale has so far not had to close because of the pandemic and has been an enormous success. On an average Sunday, 15,000 people visit and there are long queues of visitors. De Wolf: “This is the first comprehensive project in the visual arts in the post-corona era in China. The thousands of visitors a day make it clear that people need art to give meaning to their lives again. It illustrates that artists are the first to understand that after corona nothing will ever be the same again. And it shows that the inventiveness and daring that characterise their commitment will always prevail. Art always works.”
The Jinan Biennale runs until mid-March.