First foreign artist invited by JIMEI UNIVERSITY in China
The JIMEI UNIVERSITY Academy of Art and XUNARTGALLERY have taken the initiative of creating a brand new studio in the Art Zone in Jimei (Xiamen, Fujian province).
The aim is to encourage exchanges between European and Chinese cultures, and to welcome European artists to the university professors’ studios.
Silvia Bauer was the first foreign artist invited, and so the inauguration took place after her first month in residence in the presence of dignitaries from the Academy of Arts, Xunartgallery managers, journalists and local television on March 27, 2013.
Silvia Bauer’s creativity abounded in China, and was no longer limited to cardboard and tires, while remaining true to her credo of using recycled materials to create her sculptures and installations.
Quantities of tubes containing fireworks for the New Year festivities were used for her installation “Year of the snake”, an installation with a double meaning: on the one hand, the burn marks on each tube as a reminder of the festivities, and on the other, the snake-shaped installation as a tribute to the Year of the Snake that had just begun !
In his sculpture “Celebration”, using these same used tubes, the artist played on fullness and emptiness, on the visibility of the terracotta base on one side and the emptiness of the tubes on the other.
The overarching theme of “New Sun for China” inspired Silvia Bauer to combine ventilation grilles with cardboard in typical Chinese prints, turning them into diverse bas-reliefs and creating paintings with colorful reliefs.
With the “Progress meets Tradition” series, the artist aims to draw attention to the problem of the widespread use of express mail in China, causing a daily avalanche of ultra-resistant plastic waste that is harmful to the environment. A face-to-face encounter with the classic Chinese porcelain fragment was in order.
Clearly, the impressions made during this stay are indelible and will also be reflected in Silvia Bauer’s future work. Her innovative artistic approach has inspired local artists, and the human contacts forged on site have confirmed the positive and enriching side of such an artist residency.
Chen Xiaochun, an English teacher at JIMEI UNIVERSITY, was particularly moved by Silvia Bauer’s creations, and wrote a poem to express her feelings:
Poem written to echo my artwork (layers = strata) by Mrs. Chen Xiaochun, professor at Jimei University in Xiamen, China