A closing ceremony for Argentine conceptual artist Leandro Erlich's solo exhibition The Confines of the Great Void took place Friday at Beijing's CAFA Art Museum, wrapping up one of the capital's most intriguing and successful shows of this summer.

The exhibition, a retrospective that teamed up 20 of the artist's internationally sought-after works such as Building and Swimming Pool, has delighted and wowed nearly 200,000 visitors throughout its 45-day run, making it the most high-profile exhibition held thus far in China for the Argentine artist.

Born to an architect's family in 1973, the Buenos Aires-based artist is also known to the world as an architect of the uncertain for creating optical illusions that tantalize his curious viewers to explore while never failing to bend their minds.

The architectural environments Erlich created are merely inspired by everyday objects and places like elevators and hair salons, but they are ingeniously laced with mystery and magical realism that visitors can recall from reading Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges' works.

Entering the museum, visitors are soon lost in Erlich's parallel universe, where an uprooted building hangs in midair, clouds float in a dark room, and fully clothed people chat and walk underwater in a pool.

Wandering in this universe with wide-eyed amazement and full awareness, visitors may try to steel themselves against more deception, but finally find their all-time preconceptions challenged and shattered through each of the exhibits.

"By design, there is no complete work without the audience. In my work, the audience temporarily becomes an element of the work itself. Their individual participation and experience are a level of involvement that makes them essential to the process," said the artist.

After walking out of the upside-down reality with a head full of ideas, visitors are likely to question what on earth reality is, and begin to relish the newly gained perspectives on daily scenes and objects, which is roughly the Erlich impact on each viewer.

As the first-ever exhibition where the CAFA Art Museum dedicated its entire display space to a non-Chinese artist, it took the museum two months to consult with the artist and his team to modify the drafts and learn the expertise needed for staging his landmark pieces in Beijing. Then it required another two months for constructing all those pieces before they were unveiled to the public on July 11.

"Right now at the Latin American Art Museum in Buenos Aires, another Leandro Erlich exhibition is also underway, showcasing exactly the same work that is displayed here," said Diego Ramiro Guelar, Argentine ambassador to China, at the ceremony.

"This is like a wonderful mirror game held at the earth's both ends, obliterating the distance between us. Such is the miracle created by art," the ambassador added.

"Erlich's works, brimming with unrestrained drama, are like lighthearted games that invite people's participation. It is these peculiarities in his work that help broaden people's access to viewing or experiencing art," said Zhang Zikang, curator of the CAFA Art Museum.

Yang Xiaoyu contributed to this story.