2024 Guilin Art Festival opens, Chinese and foreign artists attend landscape meeting
On October 26, 2024, the Guilin Arts Festival kicked off at the Guangxi Provincial Art Museum, marking an exciting convergence of artists from six countries, including China, Sweden, Australia, South Korea, Italy, and the UK. This year’s festival promises to be a vibrant celebration, featuring 48 performances throughout the event.
During the festival, Guilin’s streets have come alive with colorful flags and artistic visuals that complement the clear autumn skies. The art segment of the festival made its debut this year, showcasing three major exhibitions: the “BETWEEN” Prague Performance Design & Spatial Four-Year Exhibition, the Central Academy of Drama’s Young Designers Exhibition, and the “Passing the Torch—20 Years of the Li River Painting School” Exhibition. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.
Audiences are already captivated by theatrical performances such as the Swedish physical circus play “Nose in the Soil” and the Australian immersive children’s theater “Jungle Adventure,” staged at the tent theater in the Seven Star Scenic Area. A unique stand-up comedy show, “The Sorcerer’s Living Room,” has also moved into the Seven Star Cave, while the “Living City” project in the picturesque Guilin Qingshan Scenic Area has drawn large crowds eager to experience the arts market. The “Shadows of History—Honoring the 80th Anniversary of the Southwest Drama Exhibition” showcases projections on the Li River’s surface at Xiangshan Park, turning the natural landscape into a living canvas for art.
Throughout the festival, Guilin transforms into an open-air theater, featuring a variety of performances—including stage plays, operas, dance dramas, musical theater, environmental theater, children’s shows, puppet plays, visual arts, and music—across 13 different venues, aptly named “Mountain Theater,” “Water Theater,” “Cave Theater,” and “Grass Theater.”
A special moment during the opening ceremony included the segment titled “Inheritance,” where cutting-edge AI technology allowed the first president of the Central Academy of Drama, Ouyang Yuqian, to virtually return to the stage and engage in a remote dialogue with the current president, Hao Rong, honoring the legacy of dramatic arts.
The roots of the festival can be traced back to spring 1944 when iconic figures such as Ouyang Yuqian and Tian Han initiated the first Southwest Drama Exhibition in Guilin. Founded in 2022, the Guilin Arts Festival has rapidly developed a distinct identity characterized by its themes of “Mountains and Water,” “Drama,” “Internationalization,” “Youthfulness,” and “Inclusivity.” As it approaches its third iteration, the festival aims to become a truly international “Chinese-style Arts Festival” grounded in the rich heritage of Chinese culture.
Celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Southwest Drama Exhibition, the 2024 Guilin Arts Festival maintains its focus on drama while expanding into a multidisciplinary festival that merges theater, visual arts, and music.
The opening ceremony, held in the historical site of the former Southwest Drama Exhibition at the Guangxi Provincial Art Museum, echoed the theme “Looking Back and Moving Forward.” It featured three thematic sections: Reflecting on History, Encountering Mountains and Water, and Advancing into the Future, including a special tribute to the 80-year milestone.
In a fitting tribute, the ceremony revived the multi-act play “Drama Spring and Autumn,” co-created in 1943 by renowned playwrights Xia Yan, Song Zhide, and Yu Ling, showcased as the festival’s opening performance. Additionally, the integration of AI technology allowed Ouyang Yuqian to engage in a meaningful dialogue with contemporary drama leaders, bridging the past with the present.
To inspire younger generations to appreciate the beauty of drama, the festival features a nine-day “Art Lecture Series.” Experts from the theater industry, such as Wang Chaoge, Li Dong, and Qiao Shan, will host lectures that are shared through multimedia channels, enabling participants to learn about the natural, artistic, and cultural beauty of Guilin while exploring its heritage. Special sessions, such as “Bringing Drama to Schools Through Cultural Transmission,” will feature acclaimed artists like Chen Li and Ling Ke, promoting traditional Chinese culture and sowing the seeds of theatrical art in young minds.