A performance art work by Austrian artist Tone Fink captivated audiences on the first day of the Second Beijing International Art Biennale, which gives the priority to painting and sculpture.

On Tuesday morning, the throng that had just attended the exhibition opening ceremony was walking slowly or standing still before the items exhibited in the art hall of the China Millennium Monument when a Western old man suddenly knelt down to knock on a washbasin-sized and UFO-shaped disc.

He was mobbed by audiences soon and then made the disc rotate before standing up to separate another two upright discs with man-tall diameters, roll one around the hall and then make it revolve on the ground. He also carried a smaller one on his head.

The artist repeated his performance as more and more eyes and flashlights focused on him and his articles.

The work, titled "Lens Turn Disc" according to the indication card on the ground, consists of two big and two small discs that are made of iron, wire, fabric, papermache and lacquer and originally mutually prop up or lie on the ground -- just like a piece of sculpture.

Many audiences said the performance is as challenging as it is impenetrable. Song Yucheng, a student of the Chinese Academy of Arts, also tried to rotate a disc. "It's not so easy to make it circle well and it's also hard for me to tell the intent of the artist," he said.

"These discs look like annual rings with a strong sense of movement. Many kinds of material make up the discs as if the entire world has gathered in the work," Ms. Li Ying has a unique feeling about it.

The artist, Fink, said he conveys the circle and spirit of life, love and thinking by the image of carriage wheels, the making of which is his father's job in Austria. In addition, the spokes inside a wheel represent the blood vessels inside a person while the surface of a wheel represents a person's skin.

"Movement forms life. I love movement and love to express something that is connected with other people," he said.

The biennale sponsors determined that painting and sculpture would dominate the exhibition to distinguish it from other international art exhibitions since the first one two years ago.

Liu Dawei, vice chairman of the Chinese Artists Association, one of the exhibition sponsors, showed his tolerance over the welcomed but "bizarre" work.

"The dividing lines among modern art styles are increasingly vague, so it's hard to tell whether it's a sculpture or a piece of performance art," Liu said.

A Norwegian artist broker, Bjore Li, however, said audiences need explanation from the artist besides a performance to understand a work of this art style, which does not own the theoretical eternal value of paintings and sculptures.

(Xinhua News Agency September 21, 2005)