Chinese 'panda artist' puts icon on Paris catwalk

Chinese artist Zhao Bandi never goes anywhere without a panda, and his visit to Paris this week was no exception.

"I have many of them, but this one often comes travelling with me," said the conceptual artist of the hug-sized toy plumped in his lap in the lobby of an upmarket Paris hotel.

"I often wear it on my head," he added, removing his cap and strapping on the black-eyed bear instead.

Known as the "Panda-man" since adopting the bear as a leitmotif in his work a decade ago, Zhao hit headlines worldwide last year by trying -- but failing -- to launch a China boycott against Po, the animated martial arts-loving panda-star of Steven Spielberg's high-grossing movie, "Kung Fu Panda".

Hollywood's Dreamworks, said Zhao, was exploiting a national symbol.

That said, the cartoon panda went on to become a box-office hit in China, where Zhao's own play on the panda has earned the artist both critical and commercial acclaim.

After a much-remarked international art debut in 1999, as one of a score of contemporary Chinese artists showing at the prestigious Venice Biennale, Zhao this week brought his latest performance to Paris for the very first time.

Titled the Zhao Bandi Panda Fashion Show, the one-off performance took place at Paris' temple of modern art, the Palais de Tokyo, for some 500 hand-picked guests, many of them wealthy collectors in town for the ArtParis art show gathering over 100 specialist contemporary art galleries from across the globe.

"People enjoyed the show, we're going to develop his image in Europe," said Marc Pauwels of Belgium's Guy Pieters gallery. At ArtParis, Zhao's posters and lightboxes, estimated at around 20,000 euros, had sold well, he said.

Zhao's recent photographic works often poke fun at state-run campaigns, with he and his toy panda communicating in cartoon speech bubbles to subversively mix propaganda with the glossy-style imagery of the 21st century.

At the performance, a mock catwalk show, the 42-year-old Beijing art school graduate threw out more than 30 models almost exclusively turned out in panda-style black-and-white to "tell the story about what is happening in China."

"China is hot, the centre of world focus," he told AFP. "But I show what is really happening now, a fresh view on the real China."

From prostitutes to lesbians, beggars, property promoters, web celebrities, corrupt officials, Beijing Games gold medallists and fashion addicts, Zhao's portraits of his contemporaries strutted the walkway wearing black fluffy panda ears, white wigs and black rings around their eyes.

"It is a mirror," he said of the show, presented in China in 2007 and 2008.

But was it a critique? "I love my country like I love the panda," he said. "But we must respect reality and show the possibilities of the future.

"In China we don't need romantic artists but realistic artists."

But curator Henry Perier said Zhao was on the rasor's edge with his "critique of society".

And why the panda, which in 1949 was declared a national treasure and later appropriated by the World Wildlife Fund?

"The definition of a panda is very large, almost like China, which is a big territory," he said. "Ever since childhood you have the panda, it's a logo, bigger than Coca-Cola, the logo of a nation.

"When I started with the panda 10 years ago I wanted my art to be accessible to everyone," he added. "There is huge empathy for the panda."