Art is a fantasyland. In the increasingly prolific times of today, the world of dreams has become just another reality. Today, the Chinese people need there own fantasyland. They need something to fill the empty gaps in reality. This is not just the human imagination. It is history’s metamorphosis, it is the symbol of the maturation and independence of Chinese culture.

　　The Dashanzi International Art Festival will be held in the Dashanzi Art District from April 30th to May 22nd, 2005. The subject for the first Dashanzi Art Festival, held last year, was “Radiance and Resonance / Signals of time”. This festival emphasized the quest for possible relationships between sound and vision. It was a dialogue between the past and the future.

　　This year’s festival theme will be “Language/Fable.” Language is a “culture-vehicle.” And by exploring our daily interactions with this vehicle, we can expound upon ourselves and upon the very nature of language itself. We commit ourselves to excavating the richness of language. And to exploring the very width and breadth of its vast expanse; in this way exploring how it is used, how it is imagined and how it is misunderstood. Language is the most basic element by which we describe this world. By being present with language and by using this language to describe itself, we enter into a creative process and participation with this world.

　　Since we are the creators of “language” and the audience of “fables,” this year’s theme therefore is the fable to which we respectfully listen within our culture and by which we observe ourselves within our history. Though it does not necessarily contain a conclusion that we have ourselves determined, it does however enrich the experience of our participation in this world. It is a kind of courage and a kind of knowledge. It is also a pursuit of goodness and beauty.

　　And so, throughout the course of the Dashanzi International Art Festival Second Edition, every attending person will find that he or she is a participant in the art event itself- each speaking his or her own “language” while experiencing the “fable” which is the passing of time itself.

2005 Art Festival: One hundred flowers blooming, beauty’s boundless charm;

　　This year’s art festival covers every corner of the art world. Visual arts, film, videography, theatre, modern dance, architecture design, live music, contemporary circus, performance art, story telling, international painting exhibits and open workshops make what you could call an art festival not unlike the “spring bloom of a hundred flowers, clustered around Beijing’s boundless charm.”

　　Based around the program created by festival committee members are over forty events as well as over 200 artists from China, France, Britain, America, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Japan, Sweden and other countries. Following the French Year in China, France’s contemporary circus will perform for the first time in China. A performance by the musician Frikyiwa, and a photo exhibit entitled, “The City in 360 degree” will also bring a bit of French culture here to Beijing.

　　In the Art District’s international gallery, there will be open studio programs. Nearly 60 events will be held within 43 art spaces. There will be no shortage of notable international galleries participating here, including collaborators such as: 798 Space, 20 000 Cultural Transmission Center, Beijing Tokyo Art Project, China Art Seasons, White Space, Yan Club as well as the newest arrival, Galleria Continua, Marella Gallery from Italy, Chinese Contemporary from UK, Chen Xing Dong Contemporary Art Space from France, Dynamic City Foundation from the Netherlands. They are the heart of Art District, representing today’s Chinese art and representing the latest in international culture.

798 Art District: Bringing us back to the future.;

　　We hope that Chinese contemporary art will begin its journey into the future right here from this very plot of land, from our dreams, from April 30th to May 22nd , from the opening of this art festival. This is our past, moving directly into our future.
798 is also our past. A vestige of an unusual past that at the same time represents our newest thoughts. It is the point of contact between our past and our future. It is therefore fitting that the work we engage in here deals with this kind of tension; the addition and multiplication of time is also the addition and multiplication of art. It’s future, therefore, is limitless.


　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 DIAF 2005 Festival Committee 4/19/2005