Rêve de lotus︎︎︎
China Academy of Art & BAC Art Community
AD Helena Pallarés
CHINA, 2026 ︎︎︎ Hangzhou
During my second residency in Hangzhou, I designed and created a large-scale mural project at the BAC Art Community in collaboration with second-year students from the Illustration Department of the China Academy of Art.
The mural, composed of three walls measuring between 7 and 10 meters wide and 3 meters high, was conceived specifically for the space and painted collectively over several days in the heart of the art center.
The composition was inspired by my first experience discovering West Lake in Hangzhou the year before. I was deeply moved by the atmosphere of the landscape — something lush, romantic, and almost dreamlike, where reality and imagination seem to blend together.
The figure reaching for a star works as a symbolic self-portrait, representing the feeling of trying to reach something that once felt very distant, like a dream slowly becoming real. The two dancing characters by the lake are a small tribute to the encounter between two worlds — China and France — sharing the same landscape, movement, and moment.
Video of the process
The mural, composed of three walls measuring between 7 and 10 meters wide and 3 meters high, was conceived specifically for the space and painted collectively over several days in the heart of the art center.
The composition was inspired by my first experience discovering West Lake in Hangzhou the year before. I was deeply moved by the atmosphere of the landscape — something lush, romantic, and almost dreamlike, where reality and imagination seem to blend together.
The figure reaching for a star works as a symbolic self-portrait, representing the feeling of trying to reach something that once felt very distant, like a dream slowly becoming real. The two dancing characters by the lake are a small tribute to the encounter between two worlds — China and France — sharing the same landscape, movement, and moment.
Video of the process