Inter(World)View: Mutual Learning of Civilizations -- Seeking VKhUTEMAS & Eisenstein

HANGZHOU, China, Dec. 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In preparation for the core academic event of the 95th Anniversary of China Academy of Art(CAA), 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, Icelandic Caldera, Leonardo da Vinci's residence in Milan, Petroglyphs of Dalmatian, Katsura Rikyu Shrine of Japan, etc.

During the project, there are 2 teams traveling to Russia. One, under the leadership of Zhang Chunyan, the director of China Design Museum at CAA, traveled to Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Sochi, etc., visiting 23 academic institutions and historical sites, including Moscow Institute of Architecture and Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, interviewing a total of 43 people, co-organizing 2 seminars and 1 cross-border salon with the Russian side. These materials have also become an indispensable part of the archive of avant-garde studies, following the exhibition called "From VKhUTEMAS to Visions of the Future" hosted by China Design Museum in 2022.

The other was led by Fu Fan, Vice Dean of School of Film Art at CAA. Taking  "Eisenstein" to be the clue, the seeking for Sergei M. Eisenstein, the notable director, and his work Bronenosets Potemkin, which marked a significant advance in cinema and the further improvement of Montage, kicked off the seeking for "Soviet Montage Theory". Covering the State Central Film Museum and Russian State University of Cinema Tography n.a. S. Gerasimov(VGIK), the team visited 6 sites, met some experts and scholars. Through the seeking, the team gained an insight into how the concepts, technologies and techniques of cinema have imitated 20th century literature, painting, architecture and other art forms, and the worldview significance of cinema as a narrative medium or method.

After exploring the civilization, these 2 teams with other 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, sharing and exchanging what they have asked and thought around the world.

Inter(World)View (IWV) is a long-term project of CAA, through which the Academy tried to decode the history of civilization through art, understand art from the vantage point of civilization history, transcend existing notions of art history and professional perspectives, reopen the vistas of art and the concerns of the Academy.