A visitor admires an artwork at the 2024 Olympic Fine Arts Exhibition on Thursday. Photo: Li Hao/GT

More than 120 artworks, including China's time-honored Ru porcelain, made their debut at the 2024 Olympic Fine Arts Exhibition in Paris on Friday, conveying peace and friendship through the power of art and promoting global cultural exchange and understanding during the Paris Olympic Games.

Media reported that the exhibition, themed "Building Peace," was unveiled at the La Seine Musicale on Friday. Ji Lianbin, director of the China National Society for the Promotion of Arts and Culture, said at the opening ceremony that this year's Olympic Fine Arts Exhibition has collected more than 120 pieces of art, including Chinese calligraphy, oil paintings and sculptures, created by 90 artists from China, France, Spain, Uzbekistan, and other countries and regions, with the aim of reflecting the integration of world civilizations.

Li Keming at the exhibition Photo: Li Hao/GT

Li Keming, an inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Chinese Ru porcelain firing skills and founder of the Rushanming brand, expressed his excitement about the exhibition at the event.

He told the Global Times on Friday that he was very honored to see the Chinese-French version of the Tianqing tea cup produced by Rushanming at the exhibition hall.

Li believes that the exhibition has built a platform for Chinese and French artists to engage with more diverse cultures amid the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France.

"The Olympic spirit of 'moving upward and forward and never giving up' shares similarities with the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage -- how to keep the memory of intangible cultural skills alive and refine related techniques," he said, adding that the biggest gain from this exhibition for him is that China's intangible cultural heritage and excellent traditional culture will have "an international perspective."

The 1,000-year-old Chinese Ru porcelain is known for its smooth glaze and elegantly innovative shapes, and has won numerous awards in the field of Chinese ceramics. 

Media reported that International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach sent a congratulatory letter on Friday, praising the event for adding rich artistic colors to the ongoing Paris Olympics, while also affirming the development of the Olympic Art Conference over the past 16 years and expressing expectations for the future.

The Olympic Fine Arts Exhibition, founded by the China National Society for the Promotion of Arts and Culture during the Beijing 2008 Olympics, is an international cultural exchange platform centered on Olympic art. Over the past 16 years, it has been held in Olympic cities such as Beijing, London, Rio de Janeiro, and Nanjing, involving approximately 17,000 artists.