The installation "Danser la musique" by Chen Zhen is composed by a square trampoline, four large Buddhist bells with cannon shells hanging in its four corners, hundreds of smaller bells with bullet shells hanging on the trampoline, Children dance on the trampoline and the sound of the music coming from the bells.
In 2000, the Swiss Organization "Art for the World" organized a tour exhibition of 30 artworks on the theme: "Gifts for the Suffering Children of the World". In every place in which the exhibition was held, a jury, which included also some children, voted for their favorite "gift". Chen Zhen's "Danser la Musique" came first in Rome.
“Danser la Musique” aims to combine both the form and the function of dance and music. The work expresses the artist’s concern for the poor children living in underdeveloped countries and poverty stricken regions of the world. The hope is that this gift will help to turn sorrow into happiness, making children still feel the joy and strength of life while facing poverty and war.
The children dancing on the trampoline make the brass bells strike against each other and against the objects placed on the ground, creating a fantastic and happy music. Four men play the big buddhists bells at the corners of the trampoline, giving life to the big dancing musical instrument and intensifying the theme of the work, which exemplifies a material world that is within sight but beyond reach. The "bell tone" of the church and the "thunder" of guns arise one from another, as in the unavoidable reality in which many children of numerous countries and regions of the world live. The brilliant and sweet rings of the little bells, together with the sounds and rhythms of happy dancing, awake their innocence and senses, relieving their little hearts from the despair of poverty and war.
" Danser la Musique " is a place resonating with joy and awareness.
Chen Zhen was born in 1955 in Shanghai where he studied and then taught at the Shanghai Fine Arts & Crafts School and at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. In 1986, he moved to France where he studied at the Institut des Hautes Etudes en Arts Plastiques of Paris. He then worked as professor at the Institut and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts in Paris and at the Ecole Nationale Superieure D'Art in Nancy. Between 1990 and 2000, Chen was awarded six art scholarships from French and American institutions and participated to nearly one hundred exhibitions, where he presented internationally acclaimed installations. He was listed as one of the most influential installation artist of the Nineties. His unrestricted style walks through the Chinese and western cultures, seeking a balance between unifying the senses of the audience and presenting the artist’s unique language and philosophy. Chen’s work brings to the extreme the idea of diversity that pervaded the art world during the last years of his life.
Chen Zhen strongly believed that art has the power to surpass politics and science, bringing people's feelings to consciousness. Using his wise hands and intense mind, Chen has put at the center of his creations the concern for humanity, society, nature and destiny, his vision of oriental and western cultures, a multi-cultural approach, the desire of eliminating odium through an equality-based dialogue.
Venue: Yitian Holiday Plaza, Shenzhen, China
