A slice of Irish culture came to China yesterday with the opening in Beijing of a contemporary collection from the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) as part of the Irish Festival of Arts and Culture.
The festival will be officially opened in the Chinese capital on May 9th by the Minister for Arts, Mr O'Donoghue.
Riverdance and Altan have agreed to perform at the opening ceremony in the Poly Theatre in Beijing at short notice following the cancellation of The Chieftains, due to the unexpected illness of Paddy Moloney.
The festival is part of a major cultural exchange programme between Ireland and China and will run in China in May and June and in Ireland in the summer and autumn. It will involve some of the best of Ireland's established and emerging artists and organisations over a diverse range of art forms.
The festival commissioner for Ireland, Mr Richard Wakely, said in Beijing yesterday that the programme aimed to establish long-term and meaningful relationships with Chinese colleagues and counterparts.
"We would like to see a continuing artistic and creative dialogue that extends beyond our own exchange timeframe," he said.
Among those whose work features at the IMMA exhibition in the Art Museum of the Millennium Monument in Beijing is the internationally renowned sculptor, John Behan, with Bull and Bull's Head, two sculptures reflecting man's close association with nature, the land and agriculture.
Behan has played a major part in the development of sculpture in Ireland in the last 40 years, and his work is included in the private collections of the President, Mrs McAleese, and the late Samuel Beckett.
One of Ireland's best-known artists, Louis le Brocquy, also features with The Táin Tapestries, which incorporate the retelling of an ancient Celtic epic.
There was a huge turnout for the opening of the exhibition, which was attended by the Irish Ambassador to China, Mr Declan Connolly.
In Beijing, Ireland is to be the primary guest nation in this year's Meet in Beijing Festival, an annual month-long international arts event.