Chinese painting and sculpture at the 13th town hall in Paris

For the Spring Festival, the Town Hall of the 13 th organizes its Festival from January 20 to February 2.

On this occasion, exhibitions, concerts, conferences, round tables, and debates, exhibitions (No grand closing parade on February 2, following events related to the coronavirus in China) are on the program from the inauguration on January 20 with the exhibition of paintings by Yang Yan on the theme “Let’s be serious” (Galerie Bièvre) as well as the sculptures and paintings by Qixiang Zhou (Galerie Athéna and Antichambre) on that of “Poetic life”. The opening in the presence of Mayor Jérôme Coumet, Councilor Buon Tan, Member of Parliament for the 9th district and the artists will end on February 1.

From January 23, the Spring Festival festivities that have existed for 11 years in the 13th, began with the Dance of the Lions on the forecourt of the Town Hall, followed by the concert of Guo Gan and his Friends mixing Erhu, Jazz, Music World, Hip-Hop, Funk, Rock and Latin Music. The friends of Guo Gan, Grand Master of Erhu and composer are: Frédéric Folmer (acoustic bass), Joran Cariou (piano), Tooméchap (rapper), Luis de Aquino (guitar), Véronique Le Berre (singer, Fumie Hihara (Koto) , Huong Thanh (singer) and Clément Cliquet (drummer).

On January 25, we leave the year of the earth pig to enter the year of the metal rat according to the Chinese zodiac of which it is the first sign and marks a new cycle of 12 years (1 different animal each year). The rat is a sign of vitality, intelligence and versatility, of a curious nature he is a good tactician

The Spring Festival marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring, it is a tradition since Antiquity whose origin is linked to the cycles of agricultural production (the seasons). It begins the first month of the lunar calendar and takes place over 2 weeks, ending with the Lantern Festival.

On January 27, a conference on Traditional Medicine: Yangsheng, the Art of Spring Health, Self Massage and Dietetics, moderated by Ms. Zhu Miansheng, PhD, Doctor of the Universities of Chinese Medicine, Vice-President of the World Federation of Chinese Medicine companies. She is at the origin of DUMETRAC and DUPRAC in Paris 13 and Paris 6.

On Wednesday January 29, a round table and a debate with the public were held on Identity and Transmission.

January 31: Concert 1001 bamboo vibrations (bamboo xylophone, monocord, goong, lithophone f (dozen flat stones struck by a wooden stick), H’mong flute).

Saturday February 1st, the show “13ème Fête” was held for the 3rd consecutive year in order to highlight the richness of the French-speaking Asian culture (music, dance, martial arts, humor and animations, novelties this year placed on modernity and the union of talents on the theme of Asia. Associations linked to Asia and culture were present throughout the show …

Mr Qixiang Zhou, Chinese painter and sculptor is at the center of the exhibition “La poetic life” which is held at the town hall of the 13th from January 20. He is accompanied by a second artist Mr Yang Yan and his exhibit “Let’s be serious II”.

Qixiang Zhou is from Liaoning and was born in Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi Province. Very young, he became interested in painting (he has been painting for 40 years) and bronze sculpture preferably because it is a subject he learned at the Institute of Fine Arts in Xi’an and then at Central Institute of Fine Arts under the direction of several renowned Chinese sculptors. Simultaneously, he completed his training in Chinese painting. He owes his inspiration to the painting of beings (shepherds, peasants and students …) and landscapes (Gobi desert in Xinjiang province, southern banks of the Yangtze river, then from the 80s the wild regions of the southwest from China: Sichuan and Yunan), memories of his many trips through China. He was also inspired by French churches including Notre-Dame de Paris. We find the spirit of his sculptures in his paintings which come to life under his brush and earn him awards for several of his works including “Wheat Harvester” selected at the 10th National Exhibition of Fine Arts which is held every 5 years and “Ansai Belt Tambourine” chosen for the collection of artistic works for the 2008 Olympic Games. Member of the Chinese Committee for the sculpture sector, Qixiang Zhou is the bearer of ten social titles. Some of his paintings and sculptures, including bronze busts, some up to 20 meters high, are sold in the United States, Australia and Japan. He made his first exhibition in France 5 years ago because France is a country where all Chinese artists dream of working and exhibiting. We were fortunate to see him realize in 5 minutes a work with a brush in black and in color.

Yang Yan was also born in Xi’an. A graduate of the Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts, he is a very promising young generation artist who is exhibiting in France in 2018 for the first time. His work is a mixture of eras and generations. In the series “Let us be serious II”, he confronts the current world with that of Imperial China and the warriors of Xi’an. His first work in the first series “Let us be serious 1” was an oil on canvas “Sing” (2016) after a screenprint (2015). In the paintings “I am very busy 1 and 2” (2017), the mobile phone is very present (during meals or on vacation). The same year, he directed “Je passe passe toi toi toi” (2017), a horse with a broken leg that stomps the top of the food chain, and “Je suis très busy 3” (2017). “The leaders” (2018) represents a Chinese stele using Russian stone blocks, “Réunion” (2018) is based on the culture of alcohol through the ages and “Happy Holidays” (2018) related with the funfair. The absurd and the burlesque are found in “Symphony orchestra” (2020), finally, the tragedy of the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral inspired “1964” while showing the relations between China and France which celebrated their 55th anniversary in 2019.

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VERONIQUE YANG

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