Chinese art and tradition: Ancient calligraphy in a free exhibition in Buenos Aires

An exhibition dedicated to the language of line and movement in Chinese visual culture, featuring a selection of calligraphic works by Chinese masters, has opened in Buenos Aires. The cultural event, which combines history and tradition , is titled " Poetics of Movement : Art, Writing, and Calligraphy in China. " It is being held at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Foundation (FICBC ) in downtown Buenos Aires, curated by Verónica Flores.

"The exhibition consists of a selection of calligraphic works and a painting that, in a way, bring together a possible approach to Chinese visual culture and aesthetic thought, and offer us the opportunity to connect with the history, culture, and art of China," the specialist said.

Flores, who holds a PhD in the History and Theory of the Arts and is a great connoisseur of East Asian art and culture, specifically China, added that "calligraphy, its practice, and also painting, have enormous relevance and validity in China today and also in its transmission to the rest of the world."

"They imply contact with traditional culture , but also with the creative gesture that the artist develops through use, and also through the laboriousness that he exerts in contact with materials; materials that are simple, but that give rise to an enormous wealth of possibilities in terms of technique," the specialist explained.

He added that the selected works "emphasize, above all, the value of human contact with nature , the importance of education as a way of accessing knowledge and also of sharing knowledge with others . It is an exhibition that proposes contact with language, but through language also with the thought and aesthetic sensibility of the Chinese people."

The exhibition is supported by the Confucius Institute of the University of Buenos Aires (ICUBA) and is being curated by Agustina Punte.

" It can be visited year-round at the ICBC Foundation Art Space , with free admission , Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.," the filmmaker told this agency.

Those present particularly appreciated the richness of an art that emerges from the flexibility of the brush and reflects the artist's inner self, and they enjoyed the delicate strokes of Chinese calligraphy, its abstraction, and its profound meaning.

"I thought it was a beautiful, attractive, and original exhibition ," Andrea Pappier, executive director of the Confucius Institute at the National University of La Plata (IC-UNLP), told this agency.

The interviewee emphasized the importance of this type of cultural activity in strengthening the relationship between the two peoples, saying she will visit the exhibition again soon with students from IC-UNLP.

The exhibition also provided an opportunity to highlight the relevance of Chinese calligraphy as a visual expression of traditional thought and culture, but also as a practice that recovers and updates the spirit and ethics of ancient painters.

In Flores's words, the early development of ideographic writing in China led to the emergence of a reflective, refined culture attentive to the mastery of the arts of recording through laboriously executed images and texts.

"The display of the treasure made up of simple materials—ink, paper, brush, and inkwell —gave rise to a language that, generation after generation, provided intellectual refinement, sensitivity, and aesthetic enjoyment ," he added.

The proposal includes calligraphic works that combine line and movement and a naturalistic painting by artist Xu Dongqing, who subtly articulates the perfections that sustain and give life to her practice.

In the autumn of Buenos Aires, the tour became a bridge composed of images and written records, an invitation to enter into dialogue with the richness and depth of Chinese visual culture from Argentina.

Flores explained that "calligraphy originates from Chinese writing; it's a system that is both ancient and endowed with a specific complexity and richness. It's a practice of great value, not only for its linguistic value, but also for its aesthetic value."

"In that sense, calligraphy has a richness that allows us to approach the value of the validity of this writing system, but also the enormous intrinsic value it has in terms of aesthetics. It is a form of stylized writing that has a poetic component and a lyrical component that is very interesting as an approach to other expressions, such as visual arts and literature," added the researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research of Argent.

Poetics of Movement: Art, Writing, and Calligraphy in China at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Foundation (FICBC), Bartolomé Mitre 562, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., by appointment at [email protected]

With information from Xinhua.