Show explores Rauschenberg's spiritual journey

In June, Beijing-based artist Qiu Zhijie and his students of experimental art from the Central Academy of Fine Arts staged a live performance at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Arts.

The show at the gallery, located in the city's 798 art district, was a tribute to the late American artist Robert Rauschenberg whose works were then on display there. The performers used many props made of traditional rice paper from Jing county in East China's Anhui province that he had visited in the 1980s.

That show, Somewhere Only We Know, is the inspiration for an ongoing exhibition of contemporary art at a Beijing mall. The exhibition has artists showing their paintings, sculptures, installations and other mixed-media works to further explore the idea of Taohua Yuan Ji.