Taking modern art to a small rural community

Chinese artist on Taihang Mountains near Xucun

Denise in her corn circle at Xucun

Denise with a sack of corn

Denise with fellow artists at Xucun

Denise with school child at Xucun

Schoolgirl with corn husks at Xucun

Australian artist Denise Keele Bedford continues her account of participating in a unique artistic festival in Shanxi. Yucun village sits in an agricultural valley dominated by the Taihang Mountains. Every two years the village hosts this festival which is a great boost to the local economy. Denise found the village fascinating to explore – some of its houses dated back 700 years.

For the festival, everything has to be taken into the village. There were no proper restaurants so the local people prepared the meals for the artists and visitors. Local corn featured prominently in the meals. The area is also famed for its noodles. Especially set up was a modern bar which served fresh coffee – as Denise explains, it unfortunately closed at the end of the festival.

Although there are no restaurants, like many rural areas such as the mountainous parts of Beijing, villagers often set up dining facilities in their homes – these are very popular with urban residents who enjoy the experience of freshly prepared food straight from the fields.  

A focus for this year’s festival was ‘graffiti art’ – quite different to the locally held views of western art being manly oil painting.

Denise talks of the beauty of the area around the village and how China has so many scenically stunning areas waiting to be visited.