Maryn Varbanov & Song Huai-Kuei (Madame Song) @cité internationale des arts, Paris, France

Group Exhibition: Displacements and Torrents

BANK is pleased to announce that Maryn Varbanov’s tapestry Composition couleurs naturelles and Song Huai-Kuei’s Composition rouge are featured in the current exhibition Displacements and Torrentsat the Cité Internationale des arts in Paris. Maryn Varbanov, known as the founder and pioneer of fiber art in China, was in residence at the Cité Internationale des arts from 1975 to 1981, where he created his signature large-scale soft sculpture, Column Series, and in 2013, Cité Internationale des arts organized a retrospective exhibition of the legendary couple, presenting their indissoluble bond with France. 

The exhibition Displacements and Torrents, which also celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Cité Internationale des arts, examines the role of artists from so-called "(post)socialist" countries in Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and beyond, in the French cultural landscape, against the backdrop of serious past and present events that lead to the forced displacement of humans and non-humans—animals, plants, material objects—along with cultural practices and creative techniques. The exhibition invites visitors to imagine a place where the waters of the Dnipro and the Elbe rivers, which respectively flow through the cities of Dnipro in Ukraine and Ústí nad Labem in the Czech Republic, merge into one tumultuous current. Like the two rivers that metaphorically come together, the exhibition intertwines multiple narrative threads and different temporalities: the Cold War period, the post-socialist transition and the contemporary era, where unresolved issues from the past resurface.

 

Maryn Varbanov (b.1932, Oriahovo, Bulgaria - d.1989, Beijing, China) enrolled at the Sofia Academy of Fine Arts In 1951.During an exchange with the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1956, Varbanov met and married Song Huai-Kuei, with whom he worked regularly. Back in Sofia, he combined Chinese, Hellenic, Slavic, and Ottoman weaving techniques with modern methods and was influenced by Jean Lurçat. Between 1975 and 1981, he resided at the Cité internationale des arts, experimenting with "soft sculptures". In 1980 he founded the Modern Tapestry Research Institute in Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now China Academy of Art).His tapestry Composition couleurs naturelles is distinguished by the threads that emerge from the stitch creating an effect of volume. Over and above its visual qualities, in the context of the exhibition, for the curators it evokes Varbanov's personal history and a tension between individual trajectories and rigid political structures. It was made in 1977 and probably created during Maryn Varbanov's residency at the Cité internationale des arts, where it was acquired by the Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap).

 

Song Huai-Kuei (b.1937, Beijing - d.2006, Beijing) lived between China,Bulgaria,and France. In 1954, she met Maryn Varbanov at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in China. Their marriage in 1956 was the first mixed marriage in the new China. Song devoted herself to drawing, painting, and tapestry, creating works thatcombined Chinese, Hellenic, Slavic, and Ottoman weaving techniques with modern methods.Between 1975 and 1981, the couple were in residence at the Cité internationale des arts. A close friend of Pierre Cardin, she became the designer's ambassador to China in 1980. The artist left behind a rich artistic legacy that is beginning to be revisited today. Composition rouge depicts a butterfly while also evoking female sex. Beyond the movement, freedom, and liberation from imposed limits it suggests, this piece probably refers to Taoist philosophy and the "Dream of the Butterfly" by Zhuang Zhou, a text that dates back to the 4th century BC: "Once Zhuang Zhou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly, he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuang Zhou. But he didn't know if he was Zhuang Zhou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuang Zhou. Between Zhuang Zhou and a butterfly there must be some distinc- tion! This is called the Transformation of Things." This piece was acquired by the Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap) in 1975.

October 9, 2024
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