On 30 July 2026, representatives of GYDCA attended the opening of Together: The Shanghai–Paris Abstract Art Exhibition at the Shanghai Art Museum. The show gathers artists, scholars and cultural institutions from China and France, marking over a century of artistic conversation between the two cities and underlining how culture continues to build mutual understanding and international cooperation.
Staged as one of the flagship exhibitions for the 70th anniversary of the Shanghai Art Museum and presented within the 2026 Festival Croisements, Together brings together over a hundred works across painting, photography, sculpture, installation and mixed media. Instead of laying out a conventional survey of modern art, it treats Shanghai and Paris as two parallel reference points and traces how abstract ideas travelled between them — translated, reinterpreted and reshaped over more than a hundred years — offering a fresh reading of how a distinctly Chinese approach to abstraction took form.
For GYDCA, the exhibition speaks directly to its own mission. By putting the transformative power of artistic exchange on display, it shows how culture can act as a bridge between people, encourage mutual respect and prompt collaboration across national and cultural lines — the same principles behind GYDCA's work in equipping young people to contribute to global dialogue and sustainable development.
Visitors enter through an immersive introductory space built around the café culture both cities share. Framed by the skylines of the Huangpu River and the Seine, the opening installation stands for the encounters and conversations that have driven artistic innovation in Shanghai and Paris alike. Across the galleries, historical pieces sit alongside contemporary works and archival material, showing how artists in both countries have repeatedly rethought abstraction in response to shifting social, cultural and technological conditions.
One of the exhibition's strongest threads is Shanghai's part in shaping modern Chinese art. Documents and works by pioneering artists trace how the city became a hub for absorbing and reworking modern artistic ideas arriving from abroad. Successive generations did not simply take those influences on board — they filtered them through local cultural traditions, helping form a visual language that is still developing today.
The show also makes clear how traditional heritage keeps feeding contemporary practice. Artists in Paris go on experimenting with colour, material, texture and spatial expression across a range of media, while artists in Shanghai draw increasingly on Chinese philosophy, calligraphy and traditional aesthetics to build forms of abstraction that speak to audiences worldwide. Read side by side, these two trajectories show how exchange can open up new creative ground while sharpening what is distinctive about each tradition.
Alongside the exhibition, the Shanghai Art Museum has put together a broad public programme — expert lectures, curator-led tours, family workshops, creative laboratories, educational sessions and citywide ArtWalk experiences. These invite visitors of every age to approach abstract art through both study and hands-on making, carrying the exhibition's reach well beyond the gallery walls.
GYDCA's presence at the event reflects its view that international cooperation runs further than policy discussion, reaching into art, education and cultural exchange. Working with leading cultural institutions and international partners lets GYDCA keep opening up ways for young people to widen their global outlook, deepen intercultural understanding, and see culture as a driver of dialogue, innovation and sustainable development.
Don't miss it — the exhibition runs until 18 October 2026.
