Editor’s note: Themed on “Chasing the Light”, 2025 CAFA Graduation Season kicked off at CAFA Art Museum in early summer. Surrounded by diversified creations, visitors may find that some of graduates chose performance to burst their inner impulses, some chose to interact with the space to build their visual tension, and some got inspired from traditions to bring about more contemporary creative appearances. More young creators are paying their attention to drawing materials from the life around them, trying to capture the multiple realities of emotions, experiences and thoughts...
In these cases, the collisions between individual experience and the external world, between new and old media, as well as between virtual life and real life have repeatedly inspired their creativity that may not be perfect but fresh. In the poster of 2025 CAFA Graduation Season, a symbolic apple is outlined in a constantly changing form under the illumination of light. CAFA graduates who believe in “light”, follow the light in their hearts and present their initial explorations of “what art is” that have been honed for several years at their degree shows. Featuring interviews with graduates, “CAFA Graduates Who Believe in ‘Light’”, invites graduates to talk about their creative stories from a more microscopic and in-depth perspective, and we would like to share and convey the “light” in the hearts of young people through these candid and vivid narrations.
Dačice Sugar Cube Refinery
By Mu Yunting, School of Experimental Art and Sci-Tech Art
I majored in calligraphy and got my bachelor’s degree from the CAFA Department of Calligraphy which was not an independent school at that time. I have pursued my postgraduate study at the School of Experimental Art and Sci-Tech Art where I was exposed to more abundant ways of artistic creation and I have learned more diverse modern and contemporary theories. As I had a deeper observation and thinking about the realistic world, it made it possible for me to re-examine Chinese calligraphy from the outside and realize the unique feature of Chinese calligraphy compared with other writing arts in the world. Therefore I have been trying to explore the potential power and value of Chinese writing in the current Chinese society through my creative experiments, and I believe that it can be a bridge between modern Chinese and the essence of Chinese local thought and culture.
Exhibition View of Dačice Sugar Cube Refinery
Generally speaking, “Dačice Sugar Cube Refinery” is a double metaphor and contrast between two internationalism in the current world: one is the hypocritical internationalism led by the global expansion of capitalism based on colonial activities, which is referred to by the title of my work and the sugar cube boxes that keep sliding on the track; the other is the spiraling track of the Tower of Babel, the extension of the lyrics of “The Internationale” written in various languages on the outside of the work, with the background melody of “The Internationale” symbolizing the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind that transcends barriers of communication and realizes “the unity of the world”.
The Sugar Tower Spontaneously Built by Visitors
Exhibition View of Dačice Sugar Cube Refinery
Paintings by a Child around Dačice Sugar Cube Refinery
I hope to borrow the image of Tower of Babel, the connotation of “The Internationale” and the unique Chinese form of calligraphy rubbing, to symbolize the continuous spiral progress of true internationalism advocated by our country to transcend the barriers of languages. In my opinion, this true internationalism is particularly precious in today’s de-globalized world, and it represents the possibility of a new globalization. Although the world we live in has changed a lot if it’s compared to the era when “The Internationale” was born, but I believe that it can still awaken and unite our ideals, so that we cannot forget to look up to the stars while keeping our feet on the ground.
The Creative Process of Dačice Sugar Cube Refinery
Comments Left by Vsitors on Dačice Sugar Cube Refinery
In this work, the true internationalism that symbolizes the ability to unite people transcending the barriers of languages and writings is spiraling upwards along the melody of “The Internationale”, while the sugar cubes in the wooden boxes printed with the advertisements of the Dačice Sugar Cube Refinery continue to slide down the tracks, alluding to the global expansion of capitalism based on colonial activities symbolized by sugar cubes, and the hypocritical internationalism under the hegemony that it leads to is now declining.
Comments Left by Vsitors on Dačice Sugar Cube Refinery
Truth is light, ideals are light, and inner tenacity is also light . When I had finished the work, I breathed a sigh of relief, which was not the excitement I imagined, but more the confidence to be able to face any challenge. The process of creating this work is a process full of continuous experimentation, trials and errors, but new challenges and new problems have made me understand that true growth occurs in countless unprepared failures. I think that it’s unnecessary for me to deliberately seek light outwardly, as long as I experience life as much as possible, I will find the thing that I have to do, or that must be done by me. This strong sense of mission is that light.
Mu Yunting's Practice
Portrait of Mu YuntingText and Image Courtesy of Mu Yunting, edited (EN) by Sue/CAFA ART INFO.
