Teams from China Academy of Art Seeking Mutual Learning of Civilizations in Europe

HANGZHOU, China, Dec. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — In preparation for the core academic event of the 95th Anniversary of China Academy of Art, Inter(World)View2023: Mutual Learning of Civilizations, 12 teams from CAA traveled around the world in search of the history of civilization and anthropological meaning behind art at 12 core sites, including Amazon Jungle, Silicon Valley in San Francisco, and Leonardo da Vinci’s residence in Milan.

Of the 12 teams, three respectively traveled to Iceland, Athens, and Romania. Instead of restricting themselves to narrow “cultural studies”, they construct mutual learning between thoughts and actions in all directions. In the intertwining of modern and ancient civilizations, they rethink the inter-nature of the total human civilization.

Iceland, as the “set” of today’s biggest science fiction, is intriguing. One of 12 teams, led by three teachers Liu Tian, Yu Zheng, and Zhu Changquan of CAA, was attracted to here. Apart from interviewing 10 individuals, including Ragnar Agarsson, the Sagafilm founder and Örlygur Hnefill Örlygsson, a notable filmmaker, the team also visited 39 sites of civilization and natural monuments in total, such as the National Museum of Iceland, the National Gallery of Iceland, Skógafoss, one of the biggest waterfalls in Iceland, and a large glacial lake Jökulsárlón. The team tries to break through the narrow concept of Sci-Fi and push it into a multi-disciplinary study covering economy, society, politics, culture and space.

Meanwhile, guided by Mr. Luo Xiaoran from the School of Art and Humanities of CAA, his team came to Athens. They delved into the remnants of ancient Greece, actively engaged in contemporary exchange and learning in present-day Greece and met with contemporary local artists, poets, and scholars including Ada Dialla, the director of the Academy of Fine Arts of Athens, Stelios Virvidakis, the chairman of the council of the Center of Chinese and Greek Ancient Civilizations. The outcomes of this visit emphasize not only material inheritance, but also the transmission of ideas, philosophy and culture.

In the history of CAA, art education has always been the integration at all times and in all over the world, and broke through the encirclement in the meantime to create the art of The Times. Based on this discipline, Ma Nan, the director of the Department of Research, Planning and International Affairs at the Art Museum of CAA, headed another team to Romania, especially visiting Bucureşti and Săvârșin to seek the like-minded fellows in education, understand civilizations and transmit the spiritual forces.

After exploring the civilization, all 12 teams regrouped in Liangzhu, Hangzhou in east China’s Zhejiang Province, launching the film actions via “Reports from the World” forum and the “Starplex” exhibition in the newly-opened Liangzhu Campus, sharing and exchanging what they have asked and thought around the world.

Inter(World)View (IWV) is a long-term project of actions of CAA, through which the Academy tries to decode the history of civilization through art, and understand art from the vantage point of civilization history.