The 14th Gwangju Biennale China Pavilion: Gwangju Imneam Art Museum, South

Korea Art Salon | Joint Exhibition by Song Yang and Wu Guanzhong: Transcript of

High-end Academic Interview

Time: November 8, 2026, 2:30 PM

Location: 14th Gwangju Biennale China Pavilion: Gwangju Imneam Art Museum, South Korea

Guest lineup

Key guest

Li Tiejun | Curator, senior art museum operator, has served as Executive Director of

the Beijing Museum of Contemporary Art and Director of the Huantie Times Art

Museum, with decades of experience in art museum academic operations, curating, and art academic research

Fan Xueli | Co-curator, Vice President of Baiyaxuan Art, Core Responsible Person

for Global Copyright Operation and International Market Promotion of Wu

Guanzhong Art

Song Yang | Father of badgirl, international trend artist, one of the world’s top 100

trend artists, founder of sixteen SYART Song Yang Art Museums, and founder of the

YAA Asian Young Artists Nomination Exhibition

Local curatorial teams from South Korea and Hong Kong, as well as academic and

institutional guests (present throughout the entire process and participating in

academic discussions)

Several senior international curators and academic representatives from the art world,

including Jia Jingjing, curator of the parallel exhibition of the Gwangju Biennale in

South Korea and YARC International Art Center; Prof. Shirley Yeung, curator from

Hong Kong; Xie Qiuyang, executive director of the Guangzhou branch of Song Yang

Art Museum; Mr. Xu Shouzhen, chairman of the Asia International Foundation, Asia

Culture and Art Foundation, and Asia United Culture and Art Center, jointly attended

the symposium and participated in the entire academic discussion, forming a completecuratorial academic system for the bidirectional interaction between the mainland and

Hong Kong in this exhibition.

Location: China Pavilion at the 14th Gwangju Biennale: The Art Lounge of the

Gwangju Imamura Art Museum in South Korea, combining Eastern elegance with

international contemporary style. The main visual poster of the “Song Yang x Wu

Guanzhong Official Art Collaboration Exhibition” is displayed on site, showcasing

the coexistence and contrast between Wu Guanzhong’s ink and wash ink paintings

with the contemporary visual trends of Song Yang, forming an artistic space for a

fourfold dialogue between classic and contemporary, East and West, elegance and

popularity, tradition and future.

Host (Jia Jingjing, curator of the parallel exhibition of the Gwangju Biennale and

YARC International Art Center)

Welcome, esteemed guests from the art world, to the Imnak Art Museum in Gwangju, South Korea. The inaugural stop of “Song Yang x Wu Guanzhong Official Art

Collaboration Exhibition and Bad Girl 20th Anniversary Global Tour” is in Hong

Kong. As a significant project showcasing China’s century-long artistic heritage and

aesthetic innovations of the new era to the global audience, it has garnered

considerable attention from the international art community.

This discussion is jointly participated by the core curatorial team from the mainland,

local curatorial forces in Hong Kong, institutional representatives, and top artists. Based on the multi-dimensional perspectives of art philosophy, aesthetic history, and

social development history, it delves deeply into the intergenerational, cross-media, and cross-time and space artistic innovation practices. At the same time, this salonalso receives strong support from the Asian Culture and Arts Foundation. Chairman

Xu Shouzhen, as an important promoter of Asian cultural exchanges, also attended the

event. In the future, he will also share the Asian and global values of the project from

the perspective of international institutions.

First, may I ask Mr. Li Tiejun, the curator, who has been deeply involved in the

academic operation and curatorial research system of art museums for decades, based

on a macro perspective of art history, how you define the academic value, era value, and international value of this exhibition?

Li Tiejun

It is a great honor to participate in and lead this significant art practice in this

international cultural hub where Eastern and Western civilizations blend and ancient

and modern aesthetics coexist. The core reason why Song Yang’s solo exhibition in

Hong Kong can become the starting point of this global tour is that it naturally

possesses a cultural attribute of two-way dialogue: inwardly embracing the roots of

Chinese culture and outwardly connecting to the global contemporary art scene. The

successful implementation and global promotion of this exhibition are inseparable

from the academic support and local deep cultivation of the local curatorial team in

Hong Kong, as well as the attention and support of international institutions such as

the Asian Cultural and Art Foundation. It is a fruitful outcome of the collaborative

efforts between mainland and Hong Kong art forces in the era of art. After decades of deep exploration in the museum system, I have always adhered to a

core academic belief: art venues have never been mere physical containers for

displaying static works, but rather social spiritual fields that embody the iteration of

civilization, the evolution of aesthetics, and the innovation of thought. The history of

human art development essentially confirms Hegel’s aesthetic assertion: art is the

perceptual manifestation of the absolute spirit of the times. Throughout the millennia

of artistic evolution, all epoch-making artistic innovations inevitably achieve a dual

breakthrough: one is tracing and inheriting the traditional cultural lineage, and the

other is reconstructing the aesthetic of the current era.

Looking back on the century-long progression of modern art in China, Mr. Wu

Guanzhong is undoubtedly the icebreaker of the modernization of Eastern aesthetics.

In an era of opposition between Chinese and Western art, rigid traditional ink painting

patterns, and a closed aesthetic system, he completed a revolutionary aesthetic

revolution throughout his life: breaking the shackles of the ink and wash dogma, dissolving the binary division between Chinese and Western art, and practicing the

artistic truth of “ink and wash should follow the times”. He deeply integrated the

Eastern philosophy of negative space, qi and yun, and the Western aesthetics of

composition and color logic. From the perspective of social development history, Wu

Guanzhong ended the dual dilemma of “conservatism and rigidity” and “wholesale

Westernization” in modern Chinese art, laying a solid foundation for the moderntransformation of traditional Chinese aesthetics and the global expression of Eastern

art. This is the core value that has been recorded in art history.

Entering the current era of AI digital civilization, human art is undergoing a paradigm

shift. The contemporary art theorist Don Ihde’s “Theory of the Art World” reveals that

the boundaries of art are always fluid, and aesthetic forms always evolve with the

iteration of productivity in different eras. Song Yang, as a pivotal figure in China’s

new generation of trendy art, has been deeply engaged in creation for two decades. With Bad Girl as the core visual IP, he has constructed a contemporary youth

aesthetic system that is compatible with the digital era, in line with international

aesthetics, and rooted in Eastern cultural context. He has broken down the barriers

between elite museum art and popular trendy art, completed the contemporary

re-enchantment of traditional aesthetics, and opened up a new path for the youthful

and international dissemination of Chinese art.

From the perspective of art philosophy, this exhibition achieves a crucial dialectical

unity. The art world has long been trapped in metaphysical dualisms such as

“traditional/contemporary, ink/trendy toys, elite/mass, Eastern/Western.” However,

the core of this exhibition lies in the philosophy of coexistence and the aesthetics of

flux: Wu Guanzhong represents the classic ontology rooted in national cultural

context, which is the spiritual foundation of Chinese art; Song Yang represents the

contemporary extension based on the tide of the times, which is the future form of

Chinese art. The dialogue between the two across time and space confirms the core of

Heidegger’s artistic existentialism: classics do not perish with the end of the era, and

the contemporary does not lose its roots due to the iteration of trends. The vitality of

art lies in its sustainable inheritance and dynamic renewal.

From the perspective of aesthetic system, this practice reconstructs the aesthetic

hierarchy of contemporary China. Traditional classical aesthetics emphasizes artistic

conception, blank space, and the interplay of void and solid; digital contemporary

aesthetics focuses on experience, interaction, and empathetic immersion. We use

immersive exhibition as a medium to allow Wu Guanzhong’s freehand brushwork and

Eastern philosophy to deeply penetrate and mutually empower Song Yang’s digital

visuals and trend narrative. This thoroughly overcomes the era’s maladies of

“excessive disenchantment, spiritual emptiness, and aesthetic nihilism” in modern

aesthetics, realizing the contemporary revitalization of traditional aesthetics and the

rooting of contemporary aesthetic context.

From the perspective of social development history, this global tour is an inevitable

practice of civilization iteration. Agricultural civilization gave birth to the traditional

ink aesthetic, industrial civilization nurtured modern composition art, and digital AI

civilization will inevitably give rise to a new art form that is cross-disciplinary,

immersive, and globalized. This exhibition, which first launched in Hong Kong and

then traveled to Beijing, Guangzhou, Boao, and Gwangju, South Korea, radiates tothe world. Essentially, it proclaims to the world that Chinese art has long broken

through the rigid label of single classical symbols, forming a complete living

civilization system that inherits cultural traditions, innovates with the times, and

spreads internationally.

As a practitioner with long-term experience in venue operation and academic research,

I firmly believe that the best inheritance is not to preserve classics in isolation, and the

best innovation is not to sever tradition. In the current era of AI aesthetic proliferation

and visual fragmentation, this cross-generational art dialogue aims to establish a

philosophical height, aesthetic depth, and historical breadth for contemporary Chinese

art, allowing the Eastern cultural tradition to continue to grow and reach the world

through the fusion of ancient and modern, and the interconnection of East and West.

host

Thank you, Teacher Li Tiejun, for your insightful and comprehensive sharing, which

encompasses both a broad historical perspective and a high level of contemporary

awareness. Here, I would like to specifically inquire about a question that is of great

concern in the industry: Teacher Li Tiejun, you have been in the industry for decades, having led and planned countless national and international major exhibitions, and

handled numerous academic exhibitions featuring prominent artists and masters. Why, at this particular time, did you dedicate yourself to leading and planning a large-scale

solo exhibition of Teacher Song Yang, and promoting an official joint dialogue

between her and Mr. Wu Guanzhong’s top-tier IP? What are your core curatorial

intentions and academic selection logic?

Li Tiejun, this is a crucial issue that concerns the positioning of contemporary

Chinese art history. Over the years of curating and researching the museum system

and sorting through a century of art history, I have adhered to a steadfast criterion: to

promote only those artists and projects that truly embody the height of their era, possess historical significance, have international appeal, and can be included in art

History.

The core reason for fully managing this official cross-generational collaboration

exhibition “Wu Guanzhong x Song Yang” lies in one sentence: Song Yang is

undoubtedly a leading artist among the younger generation in China today, and a

pivotal figure who can represent Chinese art globally in this era. Looking at the

contemporary art ecosystem, most trendy creations remain stuck in commercial

symbols, short-term popularity, and superficial visuals, lacking cultural context, depth, and a sustainable artistic system. However, Song Yang stands apart:

First，He possesses a continuous, comprehensive, and self-contained artistic creation

trajectory spanning two decades. With “Bad Girl” as a visual symbol of the era, he has

been a driving force throughout the development of Chinese contemporary art. He is

the creator of an original IP that is most consistent, widely recognized domestically, and highly identifiable internationally among contemporary young Chinese artists.

Second，He has bridged the gap between traditional masters and contemporary young

artists. Mr. Wu Guanzhong accomplished the modernization of traditional ink

painting and the internationalization of Eastern aesthetics; Song Yang has achieved

the youthfulness, trendiness, globalization, and systematization of Chinese

contemporary art. These two generations of artists, one following the other, one from

the past and one from the present, one classic and one contemporary, together

complete the complete chain of the modernization of Chinese art over the past

century.

Third，Song Yang is one of the very few young art masters in China who truly

possesses a comprehensive framework encompassing an art museum system, an

academic system, and an international dissemination system. Many trendy artists only

have works but no academic achievements; only traffic but no venues; only individualproducts but no system. However, Song Yang has been consistently building her own

art museum matrix for many years, deeply cultivating academic knowledge, and

persisting in international exhibition output, truly achieving “works that stand firm, academic achievements that are deeply rooted, and dissemination that goes far”.

For this reason, among numerous young artists, I have uniquely chosen to facilitate an

official-level collaborative dialogue between Song Yang and Mr. Wu Guanzhong.

This is not a commercial collaboration, but an intergenerational relay, cultural

continuation, and era transition of art history significance: Wu Guanzhong laid the

foundation for Eastern modern aesthetics, while Song Yang ushered in the era of

digital civilization and the new chapter of Chinese aesthetics in the context of

globalization. This is also the fundamental intention behind my dedication to planning

and promoting this global tour exhibition debuting in Hong Kong. Host

A very insightful and historically astute interpretation. Next, I would like to ask Ms. Fan Xueli, the co-curator. As the deputy general manager of Baiyaxuan Art and the

core person in charge of Wu Guanzhong’s global copyright and international

promotion, Baiyaxuan, as the sole official operating agency of Wu Guanzhong’s art, attaches great importance to this cross-generational joint project and is fully

committed to empowering it. Could you please discuss the significant historical

significance and industry value of this collaboration from the perspectives of classic

cultural inheritance, official IP endorsement, and international strategic layout.

Fan Xueli

Thank you, host. As the sole official core operating institution for Wu Guanzhong’s

art, Baiyaxuan has been carrying out its mission for decades, which is not just to

preserve copyrights and organize paintings, but to safeguard the aesthetic spirit that

Mr. Wu Guanzhong pursued throughout his life and to continuously perpetuate the

ideological vitality of this modern art from the East. Mr. Wu repeatedly emphasized

during his lifetime that “art should not be enclosed in an ivory tower.” He spent his

entire life breaking boundaries, unwilling for Eastern aesthetics to become static,antique specimens in museums for people to admire. This point is the fundamental

criterion for us to judge all cross-border collaborations.

The community gathers around the classics

Collaborative projects featuring artistic IPs are emerging endlessly, with most merely

extracting visual elements and serving as decorative symbols for traffic packaging. Such consumer-driven grafting has always been firmly rejected in our review process. This time, we chose to initiate an official-level collaborative dialogue with Song Yang

and our exhibition team. The core lies not in the combination of visual patterns, but in

the resonance of spiritual pedigrees. Wu Guanzhong, with his own efforts, tore down

the barriers between ink and modernism, attempting to give the world a universal

expression context for Eastern lines, negative space, and artistic charm. Song Yang, after two decades of constructing the aesthetic system of Bad Girl, is committed to

allowing the locally rooted artistic image to cross boundaries and reach the younger

generation. The underlying pursuit of both is consistent: to demolish the invisible high

walls between art and the public.

From the perspective of inheriting the spirit of classic art, this collaboration has

achieved an extremely valuable “translation”. Mr. Wu’s creative language, built upon

paper, ink, and oil paint, carries the modernity of the last century. As time transitions

into the digital era, the visual experiences and perception methods of young audiences

have completely changed. Song Yang’s creative system provides a gentle bridge:

young people naturally move towards the Eastern artistic conception of the interplay

of reality and illusion depicted by Wu Guanzhong through their familiar and

empathetic visual language of Bad Girl, understanding that “ink should follow the

times” is not just a slogan, but a continuous and unbroken aesthetic path. Classics are

no longer imparted through dogmatic explanations, but are reborn in dialogue with

contemporary creation. When it comes to official IP endorsement, Baiyaxuan has been deeply involved in the

academic oversight and visual approval of the exhibition, adhering to two unwavering

principles: Firstly, we will never distort or entertain the core and aesthetic qualities of

Wu Guanzhong’s art. Secondly, we fully respect the independence of Song Yang’s

creation and do not require him to imitate ink painting styles or conform to classical

paradigms. This is an equal dialogue across time and space, not a dimensional

reduction review of classics against contemporary art, nor is it a contemporary

consumption of classics for leverage. We do not regard Wu Guanzhong as a signboard

to boost traffic, but rather treat his art as an open and dialogic source of ideas.

From the perspective of international strategic layout and industry value, the overseas

art market has long had a fragmented understanding of Chinese modern art: Wu

Guanzhong, who represents the peak of Eastern modernism in the 20th century, has

mostly remained within academic and collecting circles; while trendy art, despite its

potential for global dissemination, is often simply classified as a commercial

consumer product. This global tour exhibition juxtaposes and mutually verifies these

two long-separated threads, presenting a continuous and complete narrative of

Chinese modern aesthetics to the world. This also establishes a paradigm for the entire

industry: the revitalization of classic IPs is not simply a matter of commerciallicensing, but a long-term cultural strategy based on artistic historical logic and

academic consensus. We hope that this exhibition, which starts from Hong Kong and proceeds to the

Gwangju Biennale and other global venues, will inspire more peers: the best fate for

classics is not to be sealed forever in albums and exhibition cabinets, but to continue

to meet creators from different eras, and through new dialogues, constantly generate

new aesthetic insights.

Host/Hostess

Thank you, Teacher Fan Xueli, for your profound and insightful explanation, which

has allowed us to see the rigorous academic foundation and long-term cultural

aspirations behind the operation of classic IPs. Next, we would like to invite Teacher

Song Yang, the creator and artist of this exhibition, to talk about how, as a creative

subject, you have gained new insights through this collaboration with Mr. Wu

Guanzhong’s artistic dialogue spanning generations, and through your creative

practice of “Bad Girl” over the past twenty years?

Song Yang

For twenty years, Bad Girl has never been just an IP or a trendy image to me. It has

been a spiritual carrier for me to continuously perceive the world and express my

emotions. Many people would simply define it as trendy art, but for me, I have been

searching for a contemporary visual language that belongs to Asia and the East. For a

long time in the past, I created more based on intuition, but this time, conversing with

Mr. Wu Guanzhong’s works, it feels like I have found a clear spiritual source. When I read Wu Guanzhong’s paintings, what touches me the most has never been the

subjects like landscapes or birds and animals, but the flowing lines and the breathing

sensation between the blank spaces in his paintings. The wind, light, and space he

depicts are not objective realist reproductions, but the poetic sensations perceived by

the soul. This is similar to the core of Bad Girl: Bad Girl is sometimes melancholy,

sometimes soft, and it does not have a fixed plot that has been pre-written. It leaves a

large blank space for the viewer, and everyone can see themselves in it. This is an

extremely precious part of Eastern aesthetics.

Pop art is often misunderstood by the outside world as transient and fast-food-like, but

I always believe that a weighty pop image can also carry a profound culture. I am

unwilling to be just a temporary symbol of popularity. I hope Bad Girl can gradually

settle down and become a visual memory of our era. The conversation with Mr. Wu

Guanzhong constantly reminds me that all new visual languages are rooted in our own

cultural soil; true classics are never afraid to collide with new languages, and they

always possess the power to embrace new beginnings. This collaboration is not an end

for me, but a brand-new starting point. Moving forward, I will continue to explore on

this path.

host

Thank you, Teacher Song Yang, for your sincere and poetic sharing. Next, let’s

welcome Chairman Xu Shouzhen of the Asian Culture and Arts Foundation to share

his views on the Asian and global values of this project from the perspective of an

institution engaged in cross-regional cultural exchanges in Asia.

Xu Shouzhen

The path of Eastern aesthetics pioneered by a master, coupled with the two-decade

systematic artistic exploration of a new generation of artists, has forged this

cross-time and cross-space dialogue. In the AI digital era, exhibitions have gone

beyond borders, providing an important practical example for the global

dissemination of Eastern art. What Wu Guanzhong left to posterity is not just a

painting paradigm, but also a breakthrough spirit rooted in the local and facing the

world. Song Yang rejects fast-food, trend-driven creation, blending Wu Guanzhong’s

ink charm with the visual language of Generation Z to achieve a continuation of

spiritual threads. The exhibition, with Hong Kong as a hub and Chinese and Korean

institutions collaborating, demonstrates that Eastern art does not have to choosebetween adhering to tradition and following the West; it can embark on a path of

independent innovation. Technology can generate images, but works rooted in

civilization and rich in humanity have long-lasting vitality. Inheritance does not

equate to replication, and innovation cannot float without roots. The foundation will

also continue to collaborate with various art institutions in Asia to promote

cross-generational and cross-border artistic dialogue, helping Eastern aesthetics reach

the world stage.

Host/Hostess

Thank you, Chairman Xu Shouzhen, for your insightful comments from an

institutional perspective, which were grounded in the mutual appreciation of Asian

civilizations. Next, I would like to ask the representative of the Hong Kong curatorial

team present, based on the international art scene where East meets West in Hong

Kong, how you evaluate the local value and global significance of this exhibition?

Professor Shirley Yeung, representative of the Hong Kong curatorial team

For over a century, Hong Kong has consistently served as a pivotal hub for the

external exchange of Chinese art and the mutual appreciation of Eastern and Western

cultures. The staging of this exhibition in Hong Kong bears strong significance in the

current era. The art of Mr. Wu Guanzhong represents the pioneering and inheritance of modern

Chinese aesthetics; the trendy art of Teacher Song Yang represents the avant-garde

expression of digital aesthetics of Generation Z. The intergenerational dialogue

between the two, combined with Hong Kong’s international, youthful, and

cross-disciplinary art ecology, allows classic art to break through academic barriers

and endows trendy art with cultural depth. With the collaborative efforts of the curatorial teams from the mainland, Hong Kong, and South Korea, this exhibition not only maintains a profound academic context of

the East but also embodies a pioneering form of international dissemination. It

represents a highly exemplary cross-disciplinary art practice in the Hong Kong art

scene and will present a fresh perspective of contemporary Chinese art to a global

audience. host

Lastly, we would like to invite Teacher Li Tiejun to provide a summary and

sublimation of the mission of the times and the historical value of this exhibition.

Li Tiejun

Looking back at the century-long history of Chinese art development, from Lin

Fengmian and Wu Guanzhong pioneering the modern aesthetics of blending Chinese

and Western elements, to the new generation of artists standing firmly in their era and

embracing globalization, Chinese art has finally completed a complete cycle of

civilization: “learning from the West – integrating tradition – innovating independently

– leading the era”.The core value of this exhibition can be summarized as three new revelations from

contemporary art:

First，Classics are not rigid historical specimens, but living cultural threads that

continue to flourish. The greatness of Mr. Wu Guanzhong lies not in preserving the

ink painting paradigm, but in continuously breaking boundaries and opening up

possibilities for future artists to integrate Chinese and Western art.

Second，Trends are not fleeting popular symbols, but visual expressions that belong tothis era. For trend art to gain long-lasting vitality, it must seek to reclaim its cultural

roots and grow on the foundation of local culture. The reason why Song Yang can

inherit the tradition of the masters and lead this dialogue of the times is precisely

because his art is systematic, profound, and backed by two decades of academic

exploration and museum experience. He is a mature, complete, and representative

force in the field of young art, capable of carrying the height of the times.

Third，Hong Kong is not merely a venue for exhibitions, but a forum for

inter-civilizational dialogue. Thanks to the collaboration of our curatorial colleagues

in Hong Kong and the support of international cultural institutions represented by

Chairman Xu Shouzhen, we have built a bridge here, allowing Eastern aesthetics to be

accessible to viewers from diverse cultural backgrounds around the world.

Fourth，Rooted in classics, infused with the spirit of the times, empowered by trends,

and set against the backdrop of the world, this intergenerational art dialogue is both a

retrospective tribute to the path of modern Chinese art over the past century and an

exploratory beginning for the future of Chinese art in the AI era. Based in Hong Kong

and reaching out to the world, it aims to perpetuate the Eastern cultural heritage and

bring Chinese art to the global stage.

host

I would like to express my gratitude to Teacher Li Tiejun for his high-level and epic

academic summary, Teacher Fan Xueli for her authoritative interpretation and

powerful empowerment, Teacher Song Yang for his sincere sharing of two decades of

deep artistic cultivation, Chairman Xu Shouzhen for his institutional dimension

sharing, as well as the Hong Kong curatorial team, the Korean curatorial team, and

Cai Zhongji, the director of Gwangju Imnyeong Art Museum, for their strong

participation.

The interview session for the high-end academic salon of the “Song Yang x Wu

Guanzhong Official Art Collaboration Exhibition” at the ImYeon Art Museum in

Gwangju, South Korea, came to a successful conclusion.