UNIQUE FOCUS ON DIFFERENT CULTURES
A photo exhibition brings together the Chinese opera Kunqu and a South American dance form, Liu Xiangrui reports.
After flying across the planet to Argentina twice and visiting Suzhou in East China many times, photographer Zhao Hui has recently completed his project on creating a “dialogue” between China’s age-old opera art Kunqu, which originated in Suzhou, and Argentina’s popular dance form tango, using images.
Altogether 60 of his pictures will be showcased at an exhibition called Kunqu VS Tango, to be held in Buenos Aires from Friday through Dec 10.
The exhibition period also covers the G20 summit, which will be held in Buenos Aires on Nov 30 and Dec 1.
The photos will be carefully arranged in pairs to compare Kunqu and tango, to show both their similarities and their differences, and a small number of pictures that compare Suzhou and Buenos Aires.
According to Zhao, by placing pictures of Kunqu next to those of tango, it is easier to reflect the characteristics of both art forms. Kunqu is graceful and restrained, while tango is passionate and untrammeled — showing the differences in cultures and people’s lifestyles.
“Both Kunqu and tango are important cultural heritage and have great artistic power. So, I want to show their charm and let people love them by telling stories with my lens,” Zhao says.
Although foreign audiences may not understand what exactly the contents are by looking at his images, Zhao says they can still appreciate the atmosphere and enjoy an emotional experience.
Zhao started working on the project a year ago when he was invited by the publicity department of Suzhou, and traveled a lot to complete it.
He visited Argentina twice and managed to take pictures of some of the country’s top tango dancers at important occasions, such as its national tango tournament.
His work was also supported by Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri as part of a cultural exchange program.
Zhao says he had carefully studied the environment before he started shooting to make the images story-rich.
The exhibition will be held at a local tango performing site called Pizzolla Tango. And two Kunqu Opera artists will be performing there along with local tango dancers.
Zhao, who was born in Jiangsu province, graduated from Nanjing Normal University in 1985.
He moved to New York in 1987, where he studied photography and became a commercial photographer.
Zhao, who now lives in Beijing, has built a career capturing the smiling and beautiful faces of ordinary Chinese living in the mountains, on the streets and even in temples.
A few years ago, his vision of China formed the basis for what became the China Story exhibition, a series of striking photographic portraits that aimed to tell the rich and fascinating stories of China through its ordinary people.
The project, which comprised more than 20 series on Chinese culture, its countryside and peo- ple, has been shown in more than 40 countries and regions around the globe.
Zhao has also been invited as a photographer to cover many important events, including President Xi Jinping’s visit to Germany in 2017.
Separately, Zhao has showed his works at many international organizations, including four solo exhibitions at the European Union headquarters in Brussels.