In the eyes of artists, when the countryside meets the city, the West meets the East, and the ancient meets the modern, the evolution can collide with the spark of artistic creation.

Just imagine, when the countryside meets art, what butterfly changes will take place in the countryside? What can artists do?

Recently, in Dali, Yunnan Province, western Yunnan, an exchange activity which was called "meeting Dali" between Chinese and western famous artists told us that art engineering can help revitalize rural culture once again.

The event was held in Zhonghe academy, Zhonghe village, Dali. On the opening day of March 13, it not only attracted famous artists such as Cheng Dali, librarian of the Central Museum of literature and history, Lu Xiaobo, Dean of the Academy of fine arts of Tsinghua University, Deng Weidong, director of the Chinese Artists Association and former chairman of Xinjiang Artists Association, but also French artist bubnelle and British artist Nair "attended the meeting" in the video on the cloud.

Meet Dali 

The 40 day event, in addition to the Symposium on the theme of "research and creation of ethnic art in western Yunnan" and the Symposium on "research and protection of culture and art in ethnic minority areas in Yunnan", also brought together the works of more than 90 well-known artists from China, France, Britain, Greece, Belgium, South Korea and other countries, involving calligraphy, Chinese painting, oil painting, watercolor, printmaking and many other categories, More than 100 works were exhibited.

Academic discussion activities

"It is conceivable that after 40 days of artistic activities, the appearance of Zhonghe village in Dali will always change." Zhou Jianpeng, a young painter and postdoctoral fellow of the art school of Peking University, told reporters, "through real art activities, we first change the villagers' ideas and their understanding of art, so as to help revitalize rural culture."

Meet Dali

As a practitioner, Zhou Jianpeng has accumulated rich experience in this field.

Zhou Jianpeng is from Yongjia, Zhejiang Province. Before that, he has successively run Yongjia "Nanxi academy" and Beijing "Hongluo academy", and held activities of "when Paris meets Wenzhou" and "when London meets Wenzhou" in 2018 and 2019. Then there will be art exchanges with Rome, Athens and New York.

"We are consumers and creators of beauty." Zhou Jianpeng said, "relying on the interactive sketch creation and exhibition of Chinese and foreign artists, the 'encounter' brand takes the revival, dissemination and promotion of Chinese culture as the spiritual core, and creates a common exchange platform for tourism and trade through cultural and artistic guidance."

Over the years, Zhou Jianpeng has devoted a lot of efforts to the "encounter" series. In order to run the "meet Dali" activity well, his team did not rest during the Spring Festival this year and stayed in Dali to work overtime. His goal is to make the villagers of Zhonghe village in Dali taste the benefits of rural cultural revitalization as soon as possible through the joint efforts of artists.

To this end, Zhou Jianpeng is full of confidence.

This confidence comes from his practice in Yongjia "Nanxi academy". This exploration, which was called "rural art project", successfully promoted the development of local rural economy.

In the plan of "art helps the countryside", his method is to create a comprehensive Academy of culture and tourism, "recreate" the cultural landscape, and use culture to drive the economic development of local rural areas.

International exchange activities of Nanxi Academy

In Yongjia, he planned and held many international activities. "An international seminar is being held inside and cattle and sheep are passing outside." Zhou Jianpeng said that under the contrast of such a rich sense of picture, all changes are going on naturally.

"In fact, what is more important is the arrival of artists and cultural people, which is the most important reason to change the countryside." Zhou Jianpeng said that some international seminars and exhibitions held in Yongjia not only brought the villagers an international vision, but also improved their quality and the living environment here.

"From the perspective of industry, Nanxi academy has explored six projects: Aesthetic forum, art exhibition, study tour, sketch base, art derivatives and art home stay." Zhou Jianpeng said, "Nanxi rural Art Research Institute hopes to explore another model, that is, to drive tourism through culture, so as to drive economic development."

Now in Dali, western Yunnan, "meeting Dali" is leading the economic development of Zhonghe village through culture and art.