Creative China Festival 2018

CREATIVE CHINA FESTIVAL

-- China Future: New Era

September 2018 through March 2019
New York, Boston, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle

Innovation incubator and platform for in-depth collaboration in arts and culture between China and the US

Dynamic and creative space for a new generation of artists

BEIJING and NEW YORK, Oct 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation (BCAF) and Creative China Center in New York (CCC) are proud to announce the 2nd annual Creative China Festival (CCF) that will take place from September 2018 to March 2019 in New York, Boston, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh,  San Diego, and Seattle.

Supported by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism, CCF is committed to becoming a platform to nurture innovative creators and foster in-depth collaborations between China and the US in the fields of contemporary arts and culture. Compelling works from a new generation of Chinese artists will provide an infusion of vitality to America's cultural diversity. Governments, cultural institutions, and businesses will jointly explore ways of fostering multi-layered cooperation in public culture as well as in the creative industries.

With the theme "China Now! New Era," CCF shares the influential and dynamic works of Chinese contemporary arts and culture through forms including discussions, films, dances, theater, music, design, art, youth program, artist talks, workshops, fellowships, family programs, publication grants, US arts delegations to China, and arts study tours. In addition to the two key areas of films and discussions, CCF2018 launches new initiatives for dance, theatre, and youth programs.

Presenting new works and performances with a dozen world and US premieres, the festival features trailblazing artists including theater directors MENG Jinghui, LI Ning, LIU Chang, performer HUANG Xiangli, and Black Cat Theatre; film directors WANG Bing, HUANG Ji, YANG Mingming, YANG Lina, LI Xiaofeng, LIU Jian, Pema Tsedan; dancers WEN Hui, WANG Yabing; and musicians WU Na, CHANG Jing, CAI Jindong, TIAN Bonian, GUO Wenjing, QIN Wenchen, LI Binyang, CHEN Xinruo, JIA Guoping, TANG Jianping, CHANG Ping, ZHOU Long, CHEN Yi, and YE Xiaogang, among many others. Leading Chinese entrepreneurs from Tencent Group and iQIYI will also share their vision with their American counterparts. The festival aims to showcase Chinese artists' observations and attitudes toward the current world and culture.

Throughout 18 months of preparation, BCAF has worked with over 40 prominent institutions and organizations to curate, organize, and promote more than 80 events. The collaborating institutions include: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Smithsonian's Freer and Sackler Galleries, Carnegie Hall, Asia Society, Asian Cultural Council, Harvard Film Archive, UCLA Film & Television Archive, Museum of the Moving Image, Anthology Film Archives, Parsons School of Design at The New School, Bard College, Wellesley College, New York University, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Brattle Theatre, Metrograph, Modern Sky Festival, New York Foundation for the Arts, James Cohan Gallery, Pace Gallery, China Onscreen Biennial, California Institute of the Arts, San Diego Asian Film Festival, WEGET, Global China Connection NYU, REDCAT, UltraStar Mission Valley Cinema, Seattle Central College, Fort Mason Center, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Irondale Center, Back Bay Events Center, Liberty 28, Beijing Municipal Commission of State-owned Assets Supervision, Wuzhen Theatre Festival, Beijing Fringe Festival, Meng Jinghui Theatre Studio, Wen Hui Living Dance Studio, Yabin Dance Studio, and Aphrodite Art Education.

Moreover, CCF2018 has received sponsorship and strategic support from the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Oracle Corporation, Tencent Group, iQIYI, Meitu Inc, The Long Foundation, Beijing Dongfangjun Charity Foundation, Shanghai Huidiji Psychological Care Center, BCAF China Art Film Fund, and Creative China Center.

CCF was initiated in 2017. It featured collaborations with 28 Institutions and a series of 56 dynamic events (film, music, art, design, forums and city programs in New York, Boston, LA, San Francisco), that attracted over 230,000 visitors. US Ambassador to China Mr. Terry Branstad hailed the Creative China Festival as "top-level, highly acclaimed and overwhelmingly successful, promoting friendship and good will between the US and China."

On May 21, 2018, during the preparation for the CCF, the US Embassy in China sent an official letter to the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism and BCAF, expressing its support: "Numerous top-level American and Chinese institutions will bring together a combination of highly-acclaimed and emerging artists, designers, film directors and intellectuals. This is an opportunity to emphasize the importance of cultural exchanges between the United States and China. We would like to thank BCAF for showcasing contemporary Chinese art and culture in the United States during this international festival promoting friendship and good will between US and China."

"We believe in and support the power of the arts to encourage open-minded thinking, encouraging actions that lead to a better world, characterized by the shared values of creativity, vitality, truth, and strength. We believe that art can inspire people regardless of nationality, race, language, politics, or ideologies. It can bring about dialogue and conversations, evoking emotions, challenging norms and encourage understanding," said CUI Qiao, President of the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation. "We hope that audiences will engage with the range of cultural programs on offer at CCF2018 and come to a greater understanding of contemporary China, a country of diverse stories with a rich, varied and exciting range of young artists, creators, and makers."

About CCF2018

China-US Cultural Forums
October 2018

In collaboration with the Asian Cultural Council, La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, Asia Society, and New York Foundation for the Arts, CCF2018 will organize two China-US cultural forums, focusing on two topics -- "China-US Cultural Investment" at Asia Society on October 28 and "International Artist Residencies" at La Mama Galleria on October 12.

Co-organized by the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation and Asia Society, the "China-US Cultural Investment" conference will discuss how to promote the development and investment in cultural fields, foster global innovation, cultivate talents, and carve out vision for the future of art and technology. Leading innovative Chinese companies including Tencent Group and iQIYI will deliver their keynote speeches and hold discussions with their American counterparts regarding China-US cultural investment. Both countries continue to increase the scope and depth of their collaborations in the culture and entertainment industries, such as film and television, tourism, art, architecture, and fashion. The investment and development of cultural and creative fields in the US are at a mature stage and Chinese companies are looking for international collaborations while preserving their own cultural identities.

The "International Artist Residencies" conference is co-organized by the Asian Cultural Council, Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation, and La MaMa E.T.C., with academic support from the New York Foundation for the Arts. The organizers are committed to providing support and resources for artists and arts professionals. By covering three stages of artist residencies -- "artist residencies and community engagement," "the experience of the residency," and "after the residency," the conference will highlight the importance of artist residencies for fostering international cultural exchanges. Confirmed panelists include Jamie Bennett, Jay Brown, Ping Chong, Jane DeBevoise, David Diamond, Ursula Early, Susan Hapgood, René Lorenceau, Jennifer Wen Ma, Li Mu, Fito Segrera, Karen Wong, and Mia Yoo, among others.

Film
October 2018 to March 2019

CCF2018 Film Program is composed of two sections -- "Chinese Art Film Festival" (HUANG Ji, LI Xiaofeng, LIU Jian, Pema Tsedan, YANG Mingming, YANG Lina) and "Retrospective of WANG Bing." The collaborating institutions are the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Harvard Film Archive, UCLA Film and Television Archives, Wellesley College, Museum of the Moving Image, Anthology Archive Films, Asia Society, Metrograph, Smithsonian's Freer and Sackler galleries, China Onscreen Biennial, California Institute of the Arts, REDCAT, San Diego Asian Film Festival, UltraStar Mission Valley Cinema, Pacific Arts Movement and Brattle Theatre.

BCAF China Art Film Fund supports WANG Bing, one of the most influential Chinese filmmakers and artists, to organize his first major career retrospective in the US. WANG will attend film screenings and Q&As in New York City, Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington D.C., and Boston, etc. The retrospective covers the director's significant and latest work: Mrs. Fang, winner of the Golden Leopard Prize at the 2017 Locarno Film Festival; 15 Hours, video installation exhibited at Documenta 14; Dead Souls, included in the Official Selection at the 2018 Cannes International Film Festival; Three Sisters, the Best Movie in the Horizons section of the 2012 Venice Film Festival; 'Til Madness Do Us Part, winner of the Montgolfière d'or at 2013 Festival des 3 Continents; West of the Tracks, WANG's groundbreaking work in 2013; and Beauty Lives in Freedom, his latest work filmed in the U.S. in 2018.

WANG's films are about important moments in Chinese history, focusing special attention on the stories both small and great of those who personally suffer from the tragic consequences of specific historic events. He has garnered awards and international praise at several leading international film festivals, including the Venice International Film Festival, the Cannes International Film Festival, the Berlin International Film Festival, and the Locarno International Film Festival.

Aiming to introduce a new generation of Chinese filmmakers' independent work and thinking, the festival presents a lineup of young Chinese directors with different styles and unique characteristics. These directors have received awards at festivals such as the Cannes International Film Festival, the Venice International Film Festival, the Berlin International Film Festival, and the Busan International Film Festival. The featured filmmakers are HUANG Ji, YANG Mingming, YANG Lina, LI Xiaofeng, LIU Jian, and Pema Tsedan. The film program will be showcased at Asia Society in New York City from October 20 to 21, Metrograph from November 2 to 4, and will tour to Brattle Theatre in Boston.

The festival will present rarely-seen works by four outstanding young Chinese female filmmakers: The Foolish Bird, directed by HUANG Ji, offers a peek into the life of small-town in China through a girl's story. The film premiered at the 67th Berlinale Generation 14plus and has received rave reviews in several international film festivals. Girls Always Happy is the first artistic feature written, directed, and performed by YANG Mingming. It premiered at Panorama of 68th Berlin International Film Festival and won the Firebird Award and FIPRESCI Award at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, as well as Best Director at the Seoul International Women's Film Festival. YANG Lina's first film, Old Men, about the daily life and loneliness of her elderly neighbors, was critically acclaimed internationally. Her first feature film Longing for the Rain was selected for the competition section of Rotterdam International Film Festival and the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

In addition, the promising film director and critic LI Xiaofeng's second feature, Ash, will be presented at Asia Society. Have a Nice Day is the latest animated dark comedy from writer and director LIU Jian. It premiered in the main competition for the Golden Bear at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. Depicting a journey of awakening on the road to the future, Pema Tseden's breathtaking feature Jinpa won Best Screenplay in the "Horizons" section at the 75th Venice Film Festival. He will be invited to present his latest feature at the beginning of 2019.

Theater
November 2018 to February 2019

As CCF launches its first Theater Section in 2018, the Meng Jinghui Theatre Studio will kick off its grand tour across the US. MENG's four productions will be presented at Asia Society in New York, the Broadway Performance Hall in Seattle, the Cowell Theater in San Francisco, the Tom Bradley Theatre in Los Angeles, the Irondale Center in New York, and the Back Bay Events Center in Boston. Moreover, in collaboration with the Wuzhen Theatre Festival, CCF invites leading theater professionals from the US to view the latest productions of Chinese contemporary theater. In 2019, together with La Mama E.T.C. , CCF will organize "Chinese Experimental Theater Week."

CCF2018 will collaborate with the cutting-edge Beijing Fringe Festival, Meng Jinghui Theatre Studio, WEGET Magazine, to present four productions directed by MENG Jinghui: Nine and a Half Love, Rhinoceros in Love, I Love XXX, and Head without Tail. These four works will be performed by the avant-garde Black Cat Theatre and the acclaimed stage actress HUANG Xiangli. Introducing the range of styles in Meng's contemporary classics, the tour will inaugurate a wave of Chinese contemporary theater in the US.

As one of the most influential and celebrated Chinese theater directors, MENG Jinghui has become the touchstone for contemporary play production with his incisive wit and critical style, bringing new vitality to the theatre. Since the 1990s, he has put more than 40 works on stage, garnering widespread recognition from the public. He is also the founder and the Artistic Director of the Beijing Fringe Festival, Hangzhou Contemporary Theatre Festival, Shenzhen Biennale Theatre Festival and the Beijing Bee Hive Theatre, as well as co-founder of the Wuzhen Theatre Festival.

MENG Jinghui's latest production, Nine and a Half Love, will be run from December 14 to 16, 2018 at Asia Society in New York. The play combines a true Chinese story, Homer's epics, Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the memories of Duchamp, and Krzysztof Kieslowski's Blind Chance. The story shifts among different literary forms, different spaces, and different eras throughout HUANG Xiangli's one-person performance.

Rhinoceros in Love is one of the most internationally recognized Chinese plays. Since its premier, it has been performed more than 2,500 times and seen by more than a million people. Re-interpreted by the Meng Theater Studio's Black Cat Theatre, the audience will experience a different rendition of the show. In addition to the performance, the theater group will also host after-parties, a poetry reading, classes, and a Thanksgiving dinner.

Billed as "China's first anti-plot play," I love XXX was written by SHI Hang and directed by MENG Jinghui in 1994. Devoid of narrative, the play mixes high culture with mass culture through Meng's unique linguistic experiment. Performed by the Black Cat Theatre, the work will be presented in a fresh new way.

In Head without Tail, the Black Cat Theatre employs media such as electronic music, dazzling lighting, and innovative stage settings, transforming the stage into a post-modern geometric space. The bizarre lighting effects, murky stage design, abstract performances, and multi-media installations showcase MENG's neo-futuristic work.

From October 18 to 28, 2018, on the occasion of the Wuzhen Theater Festival, BCAF and the festival committee will invite leading theater professionals from the US to experience the latest works by a new generation of Chinese theater makers. The visiting institutions include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Theater, Under the Radar Festival, La Mama E.T.C., Asia Society, and Mana Contemporary.

In February 2019, together with La Mama E.T.C., CCF will organize "Chinese Experimental Theater Week," premiering three pieces of work -- The Dictionary of Soul, My Black Cat, and The Story of Xiaoyi. The first two works are introduced by the Beijing Fringe Festival which was founded in 2008  and aims to nurture young Chinese theatre talents. Directed by LI Ning, The Dictionary of Soul is a pioneering socially-engaged performance in terms of its structure, script, and concept. Blending multimedia projection, photography, and body movement together, LIU Chang's My Black Cat explores the infinite possibilities of men in parallel universes. The interactive psychodrama The Story of Xiaoyi, produced by Shanghai Huidiji Psychological Care center, focuses on the social issue of left-behind children in China.

Dance
November, 2018

Together with Asia Society, New York University, and the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts, CCF presents its Dance Section, shedding light on prominent choreographers and dancers WEN Hui and WANG Yabin. WEN's documentary performance Red and WANG's theatrical dance The Moon Opera will have their US premiers.

Hailed as "a pioneer of dance and a miracle," WEN Hui is a choreographer, dancer, and maker of documentary films and installations. In 1994, she formed Living Dance Studio with WU Wenguang in Beijing, and has participated in curating and organizing numerous arts projects. For twenty years, WEN Hui has insisted on using theatre as an intervention in the society. Since 2008, she began to research the ways bodies form the archive of personal social documentation, using personal means to demonstrate how bodily memories catalyze at the intersection of between history and reality.

Red (2015), choreographed by WEN Hui, is one of the most recent works from the Beijing-based Living Dance Studio. The documentary dance draws inspiration from the iconic ballet The Red Detachment of Women and individual memories of performers and interviewees. From November 15 to 17, the performance will premier in the US at Asia Society, offering a critical examination of the past through dance, oral histories, and videos. New York University will host related academic talks, documentary screenings, and workshops on November 10.

Invited by the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts, Chinese dancer and choreographer WANG Yabin will present her original theatrical dance The Moon Opera in Pittsburgh on November 3, 2018. Based on a contemporary Chinese novel by BI Feiyu, the dance drama integrates Chinese traditions with contemporary dance, tracing a Peking Opera performer's winding spiritual journey. WANG is the founder and artistic director of Yabin Dance Studio. She has worked with numerous renowned choreographers including Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Mark Haim, Tamara Rojo, and composers including Pulitzer Prize-winning composer ZHOU Long and Tony Award-winning composer Jocelyn Pook.

Visual Art
September to December, 2018

In the Visual Art Section, CCF will work with the Asian Cultural Council, Asia Society, James Cohan Gallery, Pace Gallery New York to facilitate further collaborations through art salons, exhibitions, publication support, and art residency fellowships.

In collaboration with James Cohan Gallery, Pace gallery, and WENG Xiaoyu, the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Associate Curator of Chinese Art at Guggenheim Museum, BCAF supports the book release event of the renowned art critic Barbara Pollack's new book: Brand New Art from China: A Generation on the Rise. Barbara Pollack is an award-winning journalist, art critic, and curator who is one of the world's leading authorities on contemporary Chinese art. Pollack's writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, and the Washington Post, among many others. She has also written several ground-breaking monographs on young Chinese artists, including the first published artist profile of Ai Weiwei for Artnews in 2005. Her new book will be published by I.B Tauris and its Chinese version will be published by Imaginist. BCAF will support Pollack's new publication.

Starting in 2018, BCAF will collaborate with the Asian Cultural Council to launch a 5-year China-US Artist Residency Fellowship Program that further supports communication and collaboration for a younger generation of artists from the US and China. The Asian Cultural Council works to advance international respect and understanding between people and cultures through transformative cultural exchange. ACC awards fellowship grants to artists and scholars in three categories of cross-cultural exchange: Asia to the US, US to Asia, and intra-Asia.

Music
September 2018 to February 2019

CCF 2018 Music Section offers a highly eclectic tastes of Chinese music from traditional style to contemporary music genres such as rock, hip hop, pop, electronic dance music, and experimental country, and others, connecting the East and the West, the classical and the novel. BCAF and the Metropolitan Museum of Art will co-curate a program, featuring two young female musicians of Chinese ancient instruments -- award-winning guqin player WU Na and acclaimed guzheng player CHANG Jing -- to present an unusual medley of classical scores and modern improvisations. With the promotional support of CCF, the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music announces the inaugural season of the China Now Music Festival. With the world premiers of new works by seven Chinese contemporary composers at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, the festival is dedicated to promoting an understanding and appreciation of music from contemporary China. Moreover, CCF will continue its partnership with the Modern Sky Festival. This seminal Chinese independent music festival will bring an exciting lineup of artists to New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto.

On the occasion of the Chinese New Year 2019, Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation and the Metropolitan Museum of Art co-curate the music concert "Sound and View" on February 5, featuring the musicians WU Na and CHANG Jing. Hailing from China, WU Na and CHANG Jing elicit the sounds of nature -- mountains, water, wind, and moon -- on traditional Chinese instruments through the artistry of zither. The feeling of sonic scenery will capture the audience in this Lunar New Year celebration. This program is presented in partnership with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. WU Na is an award-winning guqin player. WU's dual education in both Chinese and Western music has inspired her to seek a new voice for guqin in contemporary music. She has performed and recorded with jazz, rock, experimental avant-garde, and classical musicians. Wu has made several brief performance tours in Asia and Europe. Having performed at the Beijing Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in 2008, CHANG Jing is a virtuoso and nationally recognized guzheng performer. CHANG has created her own style, which breaks down the boundaries between Chinese and Western music. Through her unique performance style, mixing vocal and instrumental work, Chang introduces ancient Chinese culture and guzheng music to the world in a brand new way.

With the theme "facing the past, looking to the future," the inaugural season of the China Now Music Festival, organized by the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music, unveils a series of music concerts and academic activities from October 19 through 22, 2018 in New York. The festival is part of Bard's partnership with the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and its five-year Chinese Music Development Initiative. Under the guidance of the festival artistic director CAI Jindong, the festival program includes world premieres of two works by composers from the Central Conservatory of Music, plus the US premieres of CHEN Yi and ZHOU Long's symphony Humen 1839, and YE Xiaogang's My Faraway Nanjing for cello and orchestra. Seven composers including GUO Wenjing, QIN Wenchen, LI Binyang, CHEN Xinruo, JIA Guoping, TANG Jianping, and CHANG Ping have been commissioned to compose new works that will receive their world premieres during the festival. China Institute will also host a panel discussion featuring composers YE Xiaogang, ZHOU Long, CHEN Yi, and Tony FOK, writer SU Wei, and festival Artistic Director CAI Jindong.

As a promotional partner, CCF has supported the Modern Sky Festival for performances in Rumsey Playfield at Central Park in New York on September 22, 2018 and Santa Anita Park in Los Angeles from November 10 through 11, 2018. The festival brings together a diverse lineup of artists including Edison CHEN, LU Guangzhong, CHEN Li, SONG Dongye, Tizzy T, Bohan Phoenix, Yao 13, Sunset Rollercoaster, BewhY, Se So Neon, P08, G0$H, and more. Musicians from a diverse array of genres, from hip-hop to pop to folk, will allow local audiences to experience Chinese contemporary music.

Design
November 2018

The CCF will collaborate with the New School University, Parsons School of design to launch a designated fellowship "BCAF-Parsons International Fellowship" to facilitate international collaborations and offer entrepreneurial opportunities among young design talents. Parsons School of Design has offered students innovative approaches to education since its founding in 1896. The New School was founded in 1919 as an institution dedicated to intellectual and artistic freedom. Today it is a leading university offering some of the nation's best-respected degree, certificate, and continuing education programs in design, the social sciences, liberal arts, management and public policy, and performing arts. Parsons School of Design enables students to develop the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in a rapidly changing society. Students collaborate with peers throughout The New School, industry partners, and communities around the world and in New York City, a global center of art, design, and business. Parsons School of Design at The New School has been ranked the best art and design school in the country according to QS World University Rankings.

Youth Program
January to February 2019

Art education is an essential element of international cultural exchange. BCAF and Aphrodite Art Education. in New York will co-curate the overseas youth art trip to the US in an effort to spark kids' imaginations and nurture their appreciation for the arts. On the occasion of 2019 Chinese New Year, together with Asia Society and Liberty 28 of Fosun Group, BCAF will co-organize family programs and a Chinese cuisine tasting event.

BCAF and Aphrodite Art Education are launching the "US East Coast Art Trip" for Chinese teenagers. Aligning with CCF's mission of cultural exchanges, the youth art trip promotes the cultural understanding across continents with a special focus on art education. Participating groups will visit New York City, Washington DC, and New Haven. Under the guidance of professionals with art education degrees, the visiting group will experience dynamic and authentic American art education practices by visiting top universities, seeing world-class museums, and participating in diverse art-making activities.

In a celebration of the Chinese New Year 2019, CCF and Asia Society will co-organize a series of family programs. Together with Liberty 28, CCF will bring open-air cultural events and food tasting parties to Liberty 28 Plaza in New York. The event "Taste of China" will invite New Yorkers to explore Chinese cuisine, lifestyle, wine, and spirits under a festive atmosphere.

CCF2018 Schedule (More info rmation: www.bcaf.org.cn)

About the Organizers

Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation (BCAF)

www.bcaf.org.cn

Officially registered in 2008 with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Civil Affairs, and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Affairs, Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation (BCAF) is the only publicly-funded foundation and cultural think tank in China focusing on the development of contemporary humanities and the arts. BCAF is dedicated to discovering cultural innovation and advancing the public welfare of art. Through extensive and dynamic public programs in three major fields (including cultural innovation, art public welfare, and think tank research), BCAF hopes to share the arts and culture freely and equally with the public to develop a civil society based on the concept of "Creative China."

CUI Qiao is the president of Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation. Previously, CUI was the director of the Public Relations Department and Cultural Projects Department of the Goethe Institute (China), vice director of UCCA, Chinese consultant of the Mercator Foundation in Germany, and the China Representative of the BMW Foundation. CUI has participated in the China-EU cultural research project as official "Senior China Expert" and non-governmental cultural exchange policy research between China and India/Japan/Germany etc. She has attended high level international official Summit as keynote speaker. She has curated the China Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2015, touring exhibitions of Wim Wenders and Abbas Kiarostami in China., etc. She has also translated and published books including Einmal: Bilder und Geschichten and Beijing Parkour.

BCAF collaborated closely with a range of international platforms including UNESCO, UNDP, documenta, Venice Biennale, Venice Architecture Biennale, Cannes International Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, and New York Fashion Week, etc. BCAF has curated a series of high-leveled governmental projects including Sino-Euro/Sino-US/Sino-France High Level Cultural Exchange Framework, Sino-Germany Cultural Year, etc. Supporting creators with global vision and working with outstanding artists as well as scholars, BCAF is committed to presenting Chinese contemporary culture to the international stage for further cultural collaboration and exchanges.

From May to November in 2015, BCAF curated and organized the China Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and received rave reviews from international media and professionals. From September in 2017 to January in 2018, BCAF successfully initiated "Creative China Festival" in four cities in the United States, supporting the international collaboration and exchanges of the new generation in China. The festival has also explored a new way of Chinese non-governmental cultural diplomacy as part the official "Sino-US Social and Cultural Dialogue," the highest level of Sino-US governmental exchanges. The films, supported by BCAF China Art Film Fund, have won the Golden Leopard in Locarno Film Festival in 2017 and the Short Film Palme d'Or at the 70th Festival de Cannes in 2017. Moreover, BCAF supported artist Wang Bing to participate in documenta 14 in 2017. Overall, BCAF has organized international cultural exchange and think tank research programs in over 11 countries. For example, Sino-France Cultural Forum, Euro-China Transcultura Forum, China- EU Metropolis Think Tank Summit, Sino-India Cultural Connections, Sino-Japan Cultural Connections, and Asian Art Festival, etc.

BCAF's collaborating institutions in the U.S. include: Asia Society, Asian Cultural Council, Amherst College, Asia Contemporary Art Week, Brattle Theatre, Brooklyn NYC, Chambers Fine Art, Central Park, China Institute, Creative Artists Agency, Government of New York City, Hampshire College, Harvard University, Mana Contemporary, Metrograph, Modern Sky Festival, Mount Holyoke College, New Museum, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York University, NYC X Design, Parsons School of Design,Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts, Smithsonian's Freer and Sackler Galleries, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Schwarzman Scholars, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, UCLA, University of Massachusetts, University of Virginia, University of Washington, Wellesley College, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 3LD Art & Technology Center, etc.

Creative China Center (CCC)

Creative China Center is a nonprofit arts and cultural organization dedicated to advancing the understanding and appreciation of Chinese contemporary arts and culture to international audiences. It provides cultural exchange platforms for artists, organizations, and individuals in China and the U.S. to gather, collaborate, and create. CCC organizes the annual"Creative China Festival"across the United States, with participating artists and industry intellectuals from the fields of film, literature, design, and the visual and performing arts to showcase the identities and creative forces of modern-day China.

Media Contact:

Tel.: 1-646-460-1906

SHAO Yixue
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Collaboration Contact:

HU Fei
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SOURCE Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation