Where ancient Chinese beasts come to life
“The Mythical Animals in the Forbidden City: A Multimedia Exhibition of ‘Album of Beast’” debuted on Sunday at Art Tower, a new artistic and cultural landmark at the West Bund in Shanghai.
Presented by the Palace Museum, China Merchants Cultural Industry Co Ltd and produced by LinkA Exhibits, the exhibition integrates ancient Chinese animal study, classic mythology and aesthetic art by digitizing 25 ancient fabled beasts into multimedia interactive installations, making it possible for visitors to immerse themselves in a world of ancient Chinese creatures.
The exhibition’s digitized galleries
Wandering through 11 separate galleries, visitors learn about the legends, history, folk customs and symbolism of 25 mythical beasts in ancient China. Visitors can scan the QR code and use the mini app specially designated for the exhibition. The mini app provides audio guide with wonderful storytelling and leads visitors to explore the exhibition by collecting beast icons and completing missions.
Wandering through 11 separate galleries, visitors learn about the legends, history, folk customs and symbolism of 25 mythical beasts in ancient China.
The first zone — “Baize Awakens” — invites visitors to accompany the character Baize in search of missing creatures in a multimedia scroll. In the next zone — “Magic Painted Screen” — the “dream eater” Mo awaits guests while the third zone — “Inked Creatures” — comprises eight imaginative “natural spaces” of fundamental substances, namely Heaven, Wetland, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain and Earth.
These eight natural spaces have their own guardian beasts: Longma, Yiji, Yi, Kui, Lu, Bingfeng, Xiezhi and Nine-Tailed Fox. Encountering 25 mythical beasts in total, visitors learn about their legends and related history, folk customs, medicine and ethics in ancient China. This exhibition manifests the cosmology of ancient Chinese and their conception of “animal,” a gem of wisdom from ancient times.
Qilin depicted in “Album of the Beasts”
The exhibition also presents works from the “Album of Beast,” an illustrated catalogue of animals in the court of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), which took 11 years to complete. It has six volumes, each with 30 illustrations of various beasts, making it a high-value masterpiece of Chinese animal art.
The interactive installations add a sense of fun and frivolity to the exhibition. Visitors can touch walls with scores of ancient beasts for descriptions of the different creatures in the Zone of Mountain. What's more, they can press on a rock to make the ancient beasts run faster in the LED projector in the Zone of Wind.
Visitors can press on a rock to make beasts run faster in the interactive projector in the Zone of Wind.
“This year marks the 95th birthday of the Palace Museum and the 600th anniversary of the Forbidden City,” said Yan Hongbin, deputy director of the Palace Museum, at the opening ceremony. “This immersive exhibition isn't just a masterpiece combining academic studies and cutting-edge technologies, it also boosts ancient Chinese culture.”
The exhibition “The Mythical Animals in the Forbidden City” is a special project of Art & Design Education FutureLab. With digitized imaginary galleries and fascinating multimedia interactive installations, it provides an ancient Chinese journey of “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”
Exhibition info
Dates: Through January 10 (closed on Mondays), 10am-6pm (Tuesday-Thursday), 10am-8pm (Friday-Sunday)
Tickets: single ticket 70 yuan, double-ticket 130 yuan
Venue: Art Tower
Address: 2/F, 8 Longyao Rd
龙耀路8号西岸艺岛2楼
