Postscript of 2009 Guanlan International Print Biennial

Two years ago, the Frist Guanlan International Print Biennial in 2007 was a great success. From 1976，223 works by 1145 artists of 57 countries were selected for the Biennial. This reflected the internationalization and diverse orientation of the Biennial from many aspects. Since then, the influence in international fine arts of Guanlan is having further development tendency. On the basis of the success of the first Biennial, the 2nd Guanlan International Print Biennial in 2009 will achieve a higher level. We have received 2804 works from 70 countries by 1604 artists in total. After strict procedures of mark and vote by a printmaking authoritative jury committee that consisted of experts come from Korea, Japan, Belgium, Argentina and China, 587 works passed the first round, on April 3, 253 works selected for the exhibition finally, including 11 works which won a “Guanlan International Print Prize”.

“Guanlan International Print Biennial” is an international academic communication project aiming at printmaking creation, which includes two parts----works exhibition and academic seminar. The exhibition is held once every two years. It is a high-end exhibition focusing on the importance of academic component, artistic quality and technique. It provides an important platform and window for mutual understanding between China and the rest of the world. “Guanlan international Print Award” is an academic award of International level.

The assessment of this Biennial includes evaluation and re-evaluation and the jury is composed of experts from both at home and abroad. The voting rule is a strict, standardized and scientific process. The whole process was a process of exchanging academic views and cultural clash. Mr. Wu Changjiang has been invited as director of the jury; Mr. Liu Jian, Guang Jun and Dong Xiaoming as deputy director; Mr. Ding Jie and Sui Zigeng as supervisors. The assessment was characterized by a combination of evaluation and discussion. According to the rules, jury members exchanged their opinions on the works before voting by ballot. Jury members voted independently so the votes were tallied transparently.

Mr. Wu Changjiang, director of the Jury, pointed out that the organization of this Biennale is quite remarkable, the scientific organization of the staff ensure a smooth progress of the assessment. The high quality of the works and a wide range of participating countries demonstrate that the organizing committee did a great deal of detailed work.

Moreover, the foreign jury members gave a good comment of the assessment. Mr. Youn Myeung-Ro from South Korea said that the assessment was very compact and of high-quality, because all the jury members are well-known print artists, which guaranteed the professionalism of our assessment. It was pleased to be able to compose this Jury of so many renowned artists both at home and abroad and exchange various professional opinions.

"Concerning the assessment, I think the whole team is very professional, and methodically implemented the job step by step. Finally the eleven award works are excellent and they are a combination of all the views of the jury members. This shows that the works of this Biennial are quite wonderful and excellent.” Japanese jury Mr. Tetsuya Noda said.

Referring to this year’s Biennial, the jury members from Belgium, Mr.Maurice Pasternak, can not conceal his excitement: “There are many kinds of works in Guanlan International Print Biennial, and also a lot of work reflecting the combination of modern and traditional techniques, or using the modern technology to perform a number of traditional things. This selection is a big challenge, because we have to select the best works and select the award works among them. Ultimately, after several rounds of selection and deliberations, we selected eleven award works. I am looking forward to the exhibition, 253 selected works will be displayed on the exhibition that are excellent. I am surprised that your country and government have made a great effort on the development and publicity of cultural industries and that is not an easy job. Under the support of the government, I believe that Guanlan International Print Biennial will go further, more people will know Guanlan and printmaking, which is also conducive to allow more people around the world to understand Chinese culture. I believe that with the government's support, the next Biennial would certainly be even more perfect!

One of the jury members, Mrs. Alicia, from Argentina, said the Organizing Committee of Guanlan International Print Biennial is a group of top elites. Each of the jury members use their professional artistic sight to screen out the most outstanding works, and then make professional opinions through the discussions, after having selected the works. Each process is according to the international process, with the principles of openness, fairness, and justice and the organizing committee completed the assessment, as required, on time. This Biennial has a variety of works not only with the different printing technologies, meanwhile, collecting the works of different cultural concepts around the world.

The evaluating work was tense and serious. It was especially hard for a 70-year-old jury to walk several times through the exhibition hall to evaluate every piece of work. The staff was diligent and responsible. They must wear white gloves while moving the exhibited works. They had no time to go out for lunch, because they had to tally the votes at break. This impressed the jury a lot. Guanlan International Print Biennial in 2009 has become the largest national print exhibition held in China with a maximum of foreign works, participating artists and countries. The local government is determined to make more efforts, to set up a special office and to transfer some experts to do the specific work. The China Artists Association also appointed some professionals to assist the exhibition. Compared with the first Biennial, the current exhibition has its bright spot----it is located in the east area of print base, transformed from the Hakka Houses with a 300-year history, and the picture frame, hanging wire, lighting and so on are all new equipped. With the common efforts of various departments, this exhibition was a complete success.

Therefore, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to every institutions and individuals for their efforts on this exhibition. Hope we can get-together again in Guanlan in 2011.