Hollywood director Joel Coen visits Beijing for first US-China forum on arts and culture скачать в хорошем качестве

Hollywood director Joel Coen visits Beijing for first US-China forum on arts and culture

(17 Nov 2011) HOLLYWOOD DIRECTOR JOEL COEN VISITS BEIJING FOR FIRST US-CHINA FORUM ON ARTS AND CULTURE Hollywood director Joel Coen was in Beijing Thursday (17 NOV.) together with a U.S. delegation of about twenty other cultural stars - including famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pop street dancer Charles "Lil Buck" Riley. The delegation's visit is part of the first ever U.S.-China Forum on the Arts and Culture in Beijing. The event, which kicked off on Wednesday November 16th and ends on the 19th, aims to strengthen Sino-U.S. arts exchange. "I think that any exposure to a foreign culture, especially the arts of a foreign culture are (inaudible) by anyone who is aware and awake and watching those things and open to them. So in that respect I'm quite certain it will happen," said Joel Coen at a press conference, when asked if he was interested in working with Chinese filmmakers. Melissa Chiu, director of the Asia Society Museum in New York also attended the press conference. She reacted to Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's statement that the fight between him and China's tax bureau is part of his art practice. "I would say that this is very much in keeping with Ai Weiwei's art practice, which has largely, since the 1980s, been conceptual in nature. Of course, he creates objects, sculptures, installations and now more recently architecture. But really, it is his interest in ideas above anything else that characterizes his art practice, so I am not at all surprised by this recent statement," said Chiu. Ai, an internationally acclaimed conceptual artist, was taken away by police to a secret location for nearly three months earlier this year during a wide-ranging crackdown on tax evasion. He disputes the government's tax-evasion allegations and says he does not even own the company involved, but added that under China's authoritarian government none of that matters. Ai Weiwei deposited a 1.3 (m) million U.S. dollar guarantee late on Tuesday into a government account in a bid to contest tax authorities' claims that his company owed 2.4 (m) million U.S. dollars. The four-day forum is co-hosted by The Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations. Daytime events of the forum will include panel discussions on music, film, visual art, food, culture and so on. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...