A painting by Peruvian visual artist Rember Yahuarcani is on display at When Animals Were Persons, an exhibition held at the Cervantes Institute in Beijing. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The main exhibition space of the cultural center is dedicated to 22 paintings created by the Fifth Element, a five-piece Peruvian contemporary art group.

"They are such a blaze of color!" a visitor surnamed Li commented. "Besides the palette, the way they created these paintings also intrigues me".

What intrigued Li is "exquisite corpse", a drawing technique invented by surrealist artists in the 1920s. It is said that when the artists are working on a piece, they listen to music while taking turns to add to the composition, with each being allowed to see only the end of what the previous person contributed.