The "2005 Guangzhou Photo Biennial", themed as "Re(-)viewing the City" and hosted by the Guangdong Museum of Art, co-organized by the Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts will be held from January 18 to February 27, 2005. The main exhibition venues are the Guangdong Museum of Art and Art Museum of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts; the other exhibition venue is Times Museum of Guangdong Museum of Art.

The Curatorial Committee is composed by the Chief Curators: GU Zheng (Photo critic, Fudan University professor), Alain JULLIEN (Independent Curator), AN Ge (Photographer, Curator) and the Curators Associated: CAI Tao (Curator, Guangdong Museum of Art), LIU Duanling (Curator, Guangdong Museum of Art).

Since the 2003 exhibition "Humanism in China: Records of the Contemporary which was a large-scale photographic exhibition, the Guangdong Museum of Art consider collecting and researching the contemporary photography works as a principal research direction. This 2005 Guangzhou Photo Biennial will give the Guangdong Museum of Art a help to work widely in the Photography.

The main part of this photo biennial is arranged in four thematic exhibition spaces: "Cities of Dream and Urban Remembrance", "The Significance of Scene Perspective", "Marginality and Dissimilation - City as Reality" and "The View of the Flaneurs". The four units will show the works of 38 Chinese photographers and 14 international photographers. We have invited the Chinese and international photographer who work in the urban photography to ask the questions on urbanism and urbanization with the different views.

The 38 Chinese photographers are: XIN Danwen, HAN Lei, HAI Bo, ZHENG Nong, CAI Weidong, HONG Hao, SHAO Yinong and MU Chen, MIAO Xiaochun, WANG Ningde, HONG Lei, XUE Ting, LUO Yongjin, YAO Songxin, ZHU Feng, WENG Fen, ZENG Yicheng, MO Yi, SHI Guorui, WANG Yaodong, LIU Lihong, DAI Mouyu, ZHU Hao, LI Lang, ZHANG Xinmin, CHANG Qing, WANG Qingsong, BAI Yiluo, LU Yuanmin, CHEN Shaoxiong, WANG Yishu, Aniu, QIU, HU Yang, JIA Yuchuan, ZENG Han, XU Peiwu.

The 15 international photographers are:  Lisette MODEL, Marc RIBOUD, Klavdij SLUBAN, Edward WEST, Elliot ERWITT, Bruce DAVIDSON, Martin KOLLAR, LAU Pokchi, Claude DITYVON, Jean Pierre FAVREAU, Francois FONTAINE, Bodgan KONOPKA, KOIE Makiko, MORIYAMA Daido¡£

2005 Guangzhou Photo Biennial present also five special international group exhibitions: "Paris of the Photographers" -- Photo Collection from the Centre Pompidou curated by Alain SAYAG will show 166 works of the 32 famous artists known well by the public. We'll find the works of MAN RAY, BRASSAI,Henry CARTIER-BRESSON, Andre KERTESZ, William KLEIN etc. "Western Time -  Eastern Time" -- Israel Photo Exhibition curated by Yael KATZ BEN SHALOM will present 5 Israel photographers.

"City on the move" is offered by the Institut pour la Ville en Mouvement PSA Peugeot Citroen, the works of 7 Chinese and international photographers will be exposed in Times Museum of Guangdong Museum of Art. The International Photographers Group "TANGOPHOTO" includes 10 photographers who work together by the Internet. "Lights on France" is realized by the AFAA, the French Ministry of Foreign Affaires, Culture Ministry and the EDF Foundation.

Scholarly Conference -- "Social Change and Visual Representation"
A major international scholarly conference including domestic and international curators and scholars will be held to accompany the opening of the exhibition. The theme is as follows:

Scholars from China are invited: GU Zheng, CHEN Danqing, HUANG Ping, YIN Jinan, FENG Yuan, LI Gongming, AN Ge, HANG Jian, DENG Qiyao, CHEN Weixing, LIU Shuyong, GUO Lixi (Taiwan), LI Jianqiang (Hongkong), LU Xinyu, LUO Gang, YAO Daimei, CAI Tao, HU Fang.

The scholars form the other countries: KASAHARA Makiko (Janpan), Andreas MULLER-POHLE (Germany), Alain SAYAG (France), Alain JULLIEN (Fance), Christopher PHILIPS (USA), Yael KATZ BEN SHALOM  (Israel).

In the evening of Jan. 19, there will be a slide show "Perfect Journey" which focus on the landscape change of Pearl River Delta. It's organized by the Guangdong Museum of Art and the Vitamin Creative Space and will present the works of 8 photographers, architects and artists.

Theme of the event: "RE(-)VIEWING THE CITY" Since its very inception, photography has remained intimately connected to urban development and transition. Urbanization has markedly altered the lifestyles, ethics, senses, and psychologies of city-dwellers. Through photography, people discover not only the essence of the metropolis and unconscious of the moment, but also the essence of photography itself. And the self-consciousness photography, with the city as its referent, grows ever stronger. In fact, photography and the city belong to just this state of mutual dependence, mutual necessity, mutual stimulation, mutual competition, and many other complex interactions. In the midst of these interactions, photography and the city have formed a "symbiotic" relationship. In the rich realm of urban photography, artists look through the window and lens of urban social space; through it they can see, against a background of globalized culture that is particularly strong in cities, the theatricality of all manner of human problems and social contradictions. They give form to them. They confirm, in this manner, the role and status of photography in contemporary urban life; at the same time, they assert the status and identity of the artist himself in modern urban society. In their dialogues with the city, artists discover themselves, discover the metropole, and go on to share these discoveries with us. The modern metropolis is both a massive social experiment, and a stimulus to all human senses. It has both enriched human cultural creativity, and enabled a state of limitless loneliness and alienation. It presents problems for the visual representation of the social, the political, the economic, and the cultural, just as it creates a space for dialogue between the past and future, between one's particular city and all the cities of the world. As for the artists who inhabit the stage of the contemporary metropolis-particularly the artists from around the world now working in China-how do they present the modern city and the problems it connotes? How do they refresh their critical insights toward the city? This is a major dilemma in cultural history; it is also a grave social responsibility. The 2005 Guangzhou Photo Biennial encouraged its curators apply this scholarly topic when selecting works. Through the curatorial decisions, artists are allowed to take the theme of "Re(-)viewing the City" and use it as a springboard for serious visual consideration. We stress that the idea of "representation and critique" is the central focus of this year's Biennial. Any and every photographic representation based on an individual position ensures that this kind of re-consideration of role of the city in the contemporary consciousness will be successful in creating new possibilities. Through richly imaginative images of the city, the 2005 Guangzhou Photo Biennial will display, from the perspective of urbanization, the multivalent nature of social development. And just as contemporary photography, by nature open and vibrant, embraces the richness of contemporary life, it will transcend the inherent limits of the photographic genre itself, open up the breadth and depth of human experience, and give photography-this special visual power of humanity-a new world of meaning and substance.

(Source: Guangdong Museum of Art)

Editor: Catherine