Dongkun Lyu, a philosophy student at DKU, has recently made his mark in the art world as a co-curator of an exhibit at the notable China Shanghai International Art Festival.
The exhibition, dubbed “Fictitious Trade: Duplicating Stories without Bartering,” stood out amidst intense nationwide competition to be the selected finale in the Rising Artists’ Works segment of the festival.
In collaboration with Lingli Chen, the exhibit “Fictitious Trade” offers a modern-day reinterpretation of the Silk Road’s historical cultural exchange. Presenting pieces from six contributing artists—Lihong Bai, Xinhao Cheng, Yixin Tong, Chenyu Mao, Yuling Qin, and Yuhang Wu—the display is segmented into three interpretive segments. “Old Crops and New Piastre” and “Regression and Approaching” delve into the inception points of the ancient trade pathway, delving into the nuanced shifts experienced with material exchanges. “Union of Botanists” introduces an immersive, multi-sensory experience that engages with plant life, whereas “Ethnography of Materials, Minstrels of Spirits” employs a variety of media to narrate a transformative odyssey beyond human-centered perspectives.
Hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China and the Shanghai Municipal Government, the China Shanghai International Arts Festival is applauded as one of the major government-level art festivals in the nation.
Further advancing these creative endeavors, the dKunst Art on Campus initiative of DKU showcased “Around the City with Her Camera: An Exhibition of Films by East Asian Women” on November 3, with an encore event slotted for November 10. The Sunday events highlight back-to-back film screenings and live performances. The screening on November 3 featured artist and filmmaker Luka Yuanyuan Yang’s latest documentary “Chinatown Chacha,” with a post-screening dance performance by its Asian American senior dancers, aged 70 to 80. The following presentation, on November 10, features artist He Zike delivering an explorative lecture on her kin’s saga through China’s 20th century, from cosmopolitan Shanghai to remote Guizhou territories, with a transition through colonial Hong Kong.
The DKU’s artistic direction by Professor Zairong Xiang curates the dKunst Art on Campus program. This program is a collaborative effort between DKU’s Division of Arts and Humanities and the Humanities Research Center, as well as art establishments and colleges externally. Activities like artist residencies, various art events, screenings in the AB lobby, among many others, are part of dKunst’s mission to cultivate a vibrant and critically involved art community both on the university grounds and in wider circles. Their track record of partnerships includes the 14th Shanghai Biennale, the 2021 Guangzhou Image Biennale, and numerous other distinguished projects.
