Porsche China and the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (SFAI) celebrated their continuing philanthropic collaboration at the SFAI campus on October 21 2011, at the awards ceremony and exhibition opening cocktails for the second Porsche ‘Empowering the Future’ Art Contest. The contest, which accepted submissions in September and held two rounds of selection in October, provides the young artists of the SFAI the unique opportunity to have their work displayed in Porsche Centres across the country. Ten winners received cash prizes, and Porsche is awarding the top three artists with a trip to Germany, where they will visit some of the country’s most renowned art institutions, as well as the Porsche factory in Zuffenhausen and the Porsche museum in Stuttgart.
Of the 110 works submitted, the top winner was Li Cheng with the painting “Happiness”. Depicting eight children from a mountain village taking their first photograph, it captures the pure joy that springs from the innocence of first experiences. Coming in second was “A pleasant tour” by Yan Meiru. The surreal canvas of a car overflowing with playing children as it floats through an infinite blue sky expresses the dream of a cleaner world for the children of the future. The third place winner, Cong Xuming, painted “Cinderella”, a portrait of a young girl leaning into a car, while looking wistfully into the distance of the mountains around her; she embodies the yearning among rural youth for cinderella-like change.
