Artists bring history to life in Pingyao

The Sculpture Projects Ping Yao, an international sculpture festival held in Pingyao, aims to identify sculptures and their relationships with their geographical and historical dimensions. The city of Pingyao with its long history, rich culture and its ancient identity is the perfect starting point for this new artistic project.

Sculpture as an artistic form that wants to analyze history and create a dialogue between the past and future. Sculpture, due to its existential characteristic tends to a dilatation of time. The role of sculpture can be investigated from the point of view of the different techniques and disciplines.

Pingyao's characteristics therefore make it the ideal stage for the sculpture project. Its great artistic heritage allows people to look to the future with a trajectory that comes from a distant past, mixing technologies with traditional references. Both sides will be analyzed by the artist: from the newest scanning techniques to the typical traditional use of clay in the Pingyao region.

Two different generations of artists are confronted with the themes of contemporary sculpture. The materials used are witnesses of our society. Through technology people can more easily open a dialogue with the ancient world. The works present a dialogue between the physical and the conceptual, according to Lorenzo Benedetti, a curator of Sculpture Projects Ping Yao.

We Are Not One Way Trip To Mars People, a 3D painting by Swiss sculptor Raphael Hefti in front of the south gate of the Ancient City of Pingyao [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Sounding roots made of clay in Pingyao by sculptors Domenico Mangano and Marieke Van Rooy [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]