Small world displays large scenes

"Miniature art is interesting because it allows someone to put his feelings into such a small place," said Hannah Ramey, an American university student working as an intern on a farm in Lincang County, Yunnan Province. Ramey is one of the many visitors to an international miniature art show held in Lincang, which opened on November 6 and will last two months.

Palm-sized artworks at an international miniature art show held in Lincang County, Yunnan Province. [Photo by Guo Xiaohong/China.org.cn]

Art pieces put together by a country unit at the show offer insights into the relationship between an individual and society. One can understand and tell whether there is a war going on in the country or it is at peace, said Ramey.

Initiated by Italy's Benetton Foundation for Study and Research and China's Kingsight Culture & Art Co., Ltd, the show, Contemporary China: Contemporary Miniature Art Exhibition of China, presents more than 4,000 miniature art pieces, not only from China's ethnic minorities but from 21 countries in Europe, America and Africa, including Italy, Denmark, the United States, Kenya, Japan, India, North Korea and Afghanistan.

Paintings created on such small-sized canvases, miniature etchings, sculptures, engravings or other forms of art at the show are like windows wide open on the contemporary art scene, said Zhu Ping, a professor of art history at Yunnan Normal University, who attended the launch ceremony of the show. Zhu was amazed to see artists express their subject and feeling in such small sizes and with such novel techniques.

Breaking the traditional art exhibition model, which focuses more on larger-sized works, this show opens a new art world, said Zhu.

It's the subject not the size that weighs in the quality of art works, said Luciano Benetton, president of the Benetton Foundation for Study and Research. "Through this exhibition we bring together artworks of established artists and emerging talents of different countries, every background and age."

The show gathered 500 art pieces from over 200 artists from Yunnan and elsewhere in China.

Benetton and Yan Zhijie, president of the Beijing Kingsight Culture & Art Co., Ltd, jointly launched a Sino-Italian project in May 2016 to recruit contemporary art pieces from China's 56 ethnic peoples, aiming to promote Chinese culture and ethnic arts on a global scale. The 3-year project will collect 5,000 10x12 cm miniature arts from China and stage a world tour together with Benetton's Imago Mundi collection, which includes 18,000 artworks from more than 40 countries.