Chinese artists likely to attend US version of Documenta

Emerging Chinese artists will be invited to take part in an art event being held in the industrial city of Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States in 2018, the organizers said during their visit to Beijing on Saturday.

The event, Front International: Cleveland Exhibition for Contemporary Art, is a three-month citywide triennial planned to open in July 2018.

It will display works by more than 55 artists across the world in various public spaces in the city, including art museums, churches and markets.

Preparations for the new triennial began in 2014 and the organizers then started to tour the world to meet artists and invite them to produce works for the Cleveland event.

Jens Hoffmann, an artistic director of the triennial, says that the invited artists will include both established and emerging ones from across the world.

Chinese artists are definitely on the list, he says.

"Chinese artists are playing a very important role on the global art scene. You would miss a part of the world if you don't include them, given that the triennial is global in scope," says Hoffmann, adding that the organizers plan to invite five or six emerging Chinese artists.

The Cleveland organizers held an event at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing's 798 Art Zone to promote the show.

Fred Bidwell, who came up with the idea of the triennial in the "rust-belt of the US", says that it is inspired by Documenta, a famous art exhibition held every five years in Kassel, a city in Germany.

A once wealthy industrial city, Cleveland used to have many businesspeople and philanthropists who loved to collect art. But the city has suffered a decline and population loss in recent years.

The city now needs a boost and the triennial is one such effort, says Bidwell.

"Our mission is to generate new economic activity and opportunity through cultural tourism. We hope people from in and outside the country fly to the city to enjoy the art," says Bidwell.

He says the art event is scheduled from July to September, as it is the best time of the year in Cleveland.

He says that with the show the organizers want to hold an art event in a relatively small US city instead of New York, Los Angeles or Chicago, where major exhibitions are frequently held.

To an extent, the Cleveland event is expected to be the US' Documenta, adds Bidwell, saying that the inaugural show will be titled An American City.

Meanwhile, art museums and institutions in Cleveland are also participating in the project and a series of related activities will be held, including an art residency project, and public education.

Separately, Michelle Jeschelnig, deputy president of the triennial, says some museums in Cleveland have large collections of Chinese and Asian art.

The Cleveland Museum of Art owns lots of Chinese art donated by philanthropists in the city.

Jeschelnig says she is sure that the participation of Chinese artists in the triennial will offer a good opportunity for a dialogue between China and the US city.

dengzhangyu@chinadaily.com.cn

The Cleveland Museum of Art (left) is one of the venues to host the triennial. Jens Hoffmann (center) and Fred Bidwell are two major figures behind the art event. Photos Provided To China Daily

(China Daily 03/28/2017 page20)