BY THE TIME it opened on Friday, this year's Guangzhou Art Triennial had assembled a roster of more than 100 artists, including the likes of Dan Graham from New York, Thomas Baryle from Frankfurt and Gabriel Orozco from Mexico City.
Although only the second show, it's already considered one of the most important exhibitions of contemporary art in China - and the organisers are determined to build on that reputation.
This year's two-month triennial, titled Beyond, is curated by Wang Huangsheng and Guo Xiaoyan from the Guangdong Museum of Art (GDMOA), Guangdong-born, Paris-based Hou Hanru and Hans Ulrich Obrist from Switzerland.
Hong Kong was involved in yesterday's symposium, Trading Places (organised by the Art School, the Asia Art Archive and the GDMOA), the aim of which was said to be to 'foster cultural interchange within the Pearl River Delta by trading and sharing experiences of cultural strategies, tactics and relationships within and between Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou, and exploring contemporary cultural imaginaries of the region as a whole'.
From as far back as 1990, when Hou and Obrist collaborated on Cities on the Move, the two have been examining the interaction of artists and the cities they live in - always with a mind to eventually work in Guangzhou.
'Guangzhou is what Glasgow is to London,' says Obrist. 'There are wonderfully creative spots in Guangzhou, like Vitamin Creative Space, and a much more interesting media.' Vitamin Creative Space, a small gallery amid a labyrinth of open-air markets, is the brain-child of Hu Fang and Zhang Wei. It's presenting Xu Tan: Loose, a social and cultural commentary by the artists using video and installation pieces.