the Empire of Art? China by Emma Tassy and Sheng Zhimim

French journalist Emma Tassy and the award-winning Chinese filmmaker Sheng Zhimim’s first collaboration, China, the Empire of Art? is a unique voyage into the heart and soul of an artistic movement that is sweeping the Chinese contemporary art scene.

In a country where democracy is nothing more than mere utopia, an elite of visionary artists are not only given total freedom of artistic expression, but are also encouraged to do so by the state, in an attempt to challenge a society still at odds with its new reality.

Covering the change of perspectives from the period of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, a time when an idealism based on western values was flourishing, to the current cultural explosion redefining a new identity for an entire nation, the films attempts to demystify some of the contradictions of modern China.

Nowadays one third of the best-paid artists in the world come from China, making it one of the most culturally productive areas on the planet. Tassy and Zhimim document this phenomenon with both innocence and intent, capturing through it one of the most genuine and truthful portraits of China, its people and, perhaps most importantly, its culture.

This is the story of a movement that promises to re-establish to China some of the past glory that for centuries enchanted the world.

By Fernando Vasquez