Related Special Report: French Cultural Year

The "New Vogue" collection of contemporary arts of the Centre Pompidou, the world-renowned Paris avant-garde art museum, was kicked off at the China Centenary Altar Thursday (Apr 28th).

The show, an important program of the French Culture Year, is also the first exhibition ever held by the Centre Pompidou in China. Organizers include Fan Di'an, vice-president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in China, and Camille Morineau, a well-known French artist.

Alfred Pacquement, director of the modern arts museum, said "New Vogue" means the new expressions of film that was developed since the 1960s. The new expressions borrowed technique from other kinds of art, such as painting, installation, video and digital.

The show will include 13 films, 10 videos, 26 paintings, 30 photos and seven installations, which belong to different decades since 1960s.

Morineau said the French contemporary arts have offered many reference to the China, as quite a few Chinese painters turned into film director with the help of it.

"The France-China Culture Year advocated by the two countries' leaders, provides opportunities for dialogue," she said. From June to October in 2003, the Centre Pompidou hosted a show on Chinese contemporary arts, the largest ever outside China. It attracted 110,000 people.

Editor: Wing