China will see in 2007 with sangria when it bids arrivederci to
"The Year of Italy."
Spanish artists, chefs, singers and supermodels will be jetting
out for "The Year of Spain in China" next year.
It follows the Italian year of 2006, and 2005's French
theme.
"One will soon find that the Spanish possess a unique charm
among the Europeans," the Spanish Cultural Minister Carmen Calvo
Poyato told China Daily on Wednesday.
"The spirit of Spain parades in a mix of cultures the Spanish
culture bridges European, Asian and Latin American
civilizations."
Among the scheduled delegation of hundreds of artworks and
dozens of performances, the highlight will be "Guernika" by
Picasso, considered by many to be the greatest painting of the 20th
century.
Picasso took the aerial bombing of the Basque town of
Guernika-Lumo during the Spanish Civil War as inspiration when he
created the piece in 1937. After travelling around the world, it
resides at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid.
More than 40 of Picasso's best works will be taken from museums
in his hometown of Malaga, and also from Madrid and Barcelona, to
go on display in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong in a solo show of
the artist next year, according to Gregorio Laso, press and
information counsellor of the Spanish Embassy.
Along with Picasso will come works of Goya, Greco and Velazques.
Art of the three masters will feature in an exhibition of
collections of the El Prado Museum in Madrid. Rated as one of the
best art galleries in Europe, the museum has accumulated more than
9,000 pieces of classical art in its extensive collection since it
opened in 1819 as one of the world's earliest public museums.
Besides art, there will be culinary delights as well. Spanish
chefs will serve cured ham mousse, duck breasts, peach tarts, squid
rings, and cheese ice cream with honey.
Ahead of the cross-continent event, the Spanish will open its
46th Cervantes Institute in the world this June in Beijing. About
80,000 people learn the Spanish language at the institutes around
the world each year.
(China Daily February 16, 2006)
