The famous Chinese colored painting, A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains revived by digital interactive technology exhibits in Lijia Smart Park, Liangjiang New Area of Chongqing, on August 22.

A Dream Journey through A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains, the digital art exhibition sponsored by the Palace Museum, Pheonix Television, and the Liangjiang New Area, announces the opening in pavilion A of Lijia Smart Park, as a part of significant events to the Smart China Expo 2021.

The central hall of the exhibition pavilion presents a dynamic image of mountains. (Photo by Kenny Dong)

Wang Ximeng was a Chinese painter during the late period of the Northern Song Dynasty. He was widely recognized as a genius in painting, learning skills directly from the Emperor Huizong of Song in his court. At the age of 18, he finished the painting of A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains, where he showed meticulously fishing boats, Chinese pavilions, bridges in fishing villages, and typical mountains and rivers one can see in  Jiangnan, "South of the Yangtze," which was the most populated and the richest area during his time.

The exhibition revives this famous painting by creating a thirty-meter long and five-meter high digital scroll to dynamically present the painting, with boats, birds, and winds moving vividly inside. Apart from the original green hue to show the noon scene, artists create four other different hues to present the scenes of painting at different times of the day, along with subtle distinctions in the scenery.

A visitor is standing in front of A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains. The light flows on the ground converges at her feet as she stands. One of many interactive technologies that you can experience at the SCE. (iChongqing/ Kenny Dong)

The exhibition also creates an interactive district to express the mindflow of the painter when he learned to paint as a child, where visitors can touch the waters and the drops on the screen. Besides, a unique cyberpunk-style Chongqing skyline is created to chorus the "mountain" theme of the exhibition. "This digital exhibition is a gift for Chongqing people, who live in a beautiful city of mountains and rivers," said Yan Hongbin, the deputy curator of the Palace Museum.

A visual mountain presentation uses bends and angles to create a 3D illusion. (iChongqing/ Kenny Dong)

Chongqing is recognized as a city with a Cyberpunk style. Perhaps because of that, the buildings are constructed on mountains which creates a magical visionary feeling. (iChongqing/ Kenny Dong)

"We cooperated with Pheonix Digital Technology once in 2018. At that year of the exhibition of Ascending the River at Qingming Festival in Beijing, we found the great interest of people to the digital presentation of traditional arts, especially young people," said Guan Qi, the general manager of Forbidden City Culture Co., LTD.

Besides promoting cultural education among the general public, digital technology can be used to preserve traditional arts. "Some old art legacies like paintings are more vulnerable than arts like sculptures. For better preserving it for our descendants, digital technology is beneficial. And scholars are pleased to have a digital copy of our cultural treasures for them to conduct research," Guan said.

The formal exhibition will open to the public from August 27 to August 21 of 2022. The tickets can be purchased by all online events dealers.