The Embassy in Beijing holds culture night

The 7th of July the Royal Danish Embassy in Beijing hosted a combined event of the opening reception of the new “Young Artist Painting Exhibition at the Danish Embassy” and a showing of the movie “Drive” (2011) directed by the Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn.

The event was opened by first secretary at the Royal Danish Embassy, Mr Mads Kjeldsen, who welcomed the new paintings by Mr. Zhao Yan as well as the guests participating in the event.

The Royal Danish Embassy is supporting upcoming Chinese artists with the “Young Artist Painting Exhibition” by giving them a showcase to reach a new and important audience. The new paintings will be displayed in the conference of the Embassy.

“In the Embassy’s big meeting room the paintings will reach a wide audience consisting of business people, politicians, diplomats, students and other people visiting the Embassy,” Mr Mads Kjeldsen said.

The artist Mr Zhao Yan was born in 1984 in Henan Province and graduated from Sichuan Academy of Fine Art, Painting Department, in 2011. He has exhibited his paintings since 2010. The Royal Danish Embassy in Beijing will exhibit two painting by Mr Zhao, both showing Beijing National Aquatics Centre, also known as the Water Cube.

Movie night
After the opening reception of the new paintings the Danish Embassy showed the movie “Drive” (2011) directed by the Danish director Mr Nicolas Winding Refn, who won the Best Director Award for the film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011.

Mr Nicolas Winding Refn - known for his brutal and controversial movies - made his breakthrough in 1996 with his debut movie “Pusher”. His latest film “Only God Forgives” has just won the top prize at the 2013 Sydney Film Festival.

Danish and Chinese guests
More than 50 guests participated in the event, including fans from the Embassy’s Weibo profile, journalists and embassy staff.