Giving modern art a push

Visitors attend the ongoing Beijing International Art Biennale that features more than 600 paintings, sculptures and installations from more than 100 countries.[Photo provided to China Daily]

He says that when he produced the work, he envisaged a situation where people who toiled along the ancient Silk Road faced dangers and misunderstandings when trying to link the East and the West.

Damdinsuren also says that there is another level of meaning in his work. "The marmot represents any animal that is being slaughtered and dying out because of men's lust for money. Nature should not fall victim to the expansion of human activities."

Some other works on show review traditions being threatened by a commercial culture that has been prompted by globalization.

In his oil painting Exchange, Indonesian artist I Putu Edy Asmara depicts a snail that has a man's face, and with an empty red soda can as its shell, while its old coiled shell is abandoned on the side.

Asmara says that easily accessible digital networks are giving a boost to the exchange between people living in different corners of the world.

He says that while pop and commercial cultures are widely spread, traditional cultures are less favored by people, especially the youth.

"The situation now is unlike that of the Silk Road that promoted the intersection of different cultures but didn't make local cultures extinct," he says.

"Technology unites people but should not unify us. It's still important for people to have their own lifestyles and to remain distinctive."