ART CAPITAL: Zhang Guohua, Director of the 2012 Beijing 798 Art Festival Organizing Committee, talks about preparations for the upcoming festival at a press coference on August 30 in the Art Zone (YU LINTAO)

The 2012 Beijing 798 Art Festival, an annual arts fair in the city's famous Art Zone, will open on September 22.

The art festival this year will feature the theme of "Images of Art, Lights of Imagination," focusing mainly on contemporary art and cultural activities. Aimed to provide a platform for all varieties of artists and art lovers, the show will  present a series of themed exhibitions, union exhibits, music, movies, art seminars as well as nightly activities.

In addition to the numerous exhibitions of paintings, sculptures and photographs from renowned as well as promising young contemporary artists, the art festival will also highlight a unique light show and an exhibition of a ten-year collection of posters at the 798 Art Zone.

It marks the first time that the 798 art festival will feature artwork in the form of lights, offering viewers a special and interactive show of visual effects to brilliantly light up the night.

After more than ten years of development, the 798 Art Zonehas been transformed from an old deserted factory to a thriving creative cultural industry harbor known worldwide. In the last decade, about 2,000 exhibitions as well as other significant cultural activities have been held annually in the art zone. The selected ten-year 798 Art Zone poster exhibition will give visitors a retrospective of the history and development of the art center.

Moreover, this year the organizing committee also invited Taipei Palace Museum to host a hi-tech digital media art show, enabling visitors to get a close look at art treasures.

The event will last for one month, concluding with an awards ceremony on October 21.