On March 18th, the second round of “Beijing-Berlin Project” jointly created by Tan Ping, Kang Jianfei, Andreas Amrhein and Ruediger Schoell was opened at Alexander Ochs Galleries, Beijing. The “Beijing-Berlin Project” is a large series of etchings originally presented by Alexander Ochs in a well- praised printmaking exhibition in 1996, held at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany. Carrying on its motif, this exhibition in Beijing belongs to a series of activities in commemoration of Deutschland und China 40 Jahre Diplomatische Beziehugen and will last until April 1st, 2012.

The Beijing-born artist, Tan Ping studied at the HdK (University of the Arts in Berlin) in the early 1990s, where he met two Berliner artists of the same age, Andreas Amrhein and Ruediger Schoell. They were fascinated by each other‘s work and formed the “Project” together, which was later reinforced. For their first series, they produced etchings where Goethe‘s line from the 1819 published poem series “West-Eastern Divan” springs to mind: “He who knows himself and others / will also recognize / Orient and Occident / are no longer separable”.

The artists, who usually work as abstract or figurative painters and graphic artists, etched motifs individually, and later printed these randomly on top of each other. The repeated printing of different motifs makes the authorship of the individual no longer visible. Through this, the works appear to come from the hand of one artist who has a very extensive understanding of both Asian and European culture.

The group met for their cooperation a second time, this time continuing with the woodcut technique. As etchings originate from Germany and woodcuts from China, Tan Ping, who is currently vice president of CAFA – Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, invited the artists to Guanlan, a small town in South China. The cooperation between the now experienced artists – including the addition of Kang Jianfei – continued in the same manner. However, it should be noted that in the past 20 years each artist has developed in a very individual and different way, which is clearly recognizable.