Sculpture work Tongtianshu by Chen Wei Photo: Courtesy of Wang Zhigang

A girl interacts with a piece of artwork from young artist, Lin Wanshan. Photo: Courtesy of Wang Zhigang

It was a cinema that accompanied the local people in Fuzhou for decades, many of whom still remember how they started to see their first movies there. Now the old Cangshan Cinema has been renovated into a center of arts. The newly refurbished Yantai Moutain Art Center is expected to hold various art exhibitions. Its opening scene, Xunshan Zaojing, literally meaning "seeking the mountain and creating the atmosphere" has opened its doors to modern art for locals in the capital city of East China's Fujian Province. 

According to one curator Wang Zhigang, neighboring the Yantai Moutain, the center will recreate the atmosphere of contemporary arts with works from 16 artists including Cai Xiaosong, Xu Zhongmin, Zhuma Yujiang and Su Shangzhou. The exhibition features various kinds of works from paintings, installations, videos, sculptures and new media. 

With four sections, the exhibition provides an opportunity for viewers to look back into the past and herald the coming future. One section of historical photos taken at Yantai Mountain aims to explore the art center's history as well as display its cultural values to locals. The Guarding section, displays works from Fujian's local artists, who are known for their adventurous characters. Their works carry memories of their hometowns and their interpretations of modern arts. 

For artist Zhuma Yujiang, the Cangshan Cinema itself was a work of art, which now has been transformed into a center for the purpose of displaying modern arts, with an exhibition curated by Wang and Zhang Changshou. 

As one of the local Fujian artists, Ren Hongwei hoped an increasing number of contemporary exhibitions will be held in Fuzhou, which will help build the ecology of local artistry. 

The exhibition is set to run until February 29.