Feature: Exhibition in Rome offers insight into China's new media art

by Alessandra Cardone

ROME, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- A collective exhibition of Chinese contemporary artists opened in the Italian capital on Wednesday, offering people here a refined insight into China's new media art.

Titled "Flowing Time", the exhibit was inaugurated at the ancient monumental complex of Rome's San Giovanni Addolorata hospital before a mixed audience of Italians and Chinese, and will run until Dec. 9.

Along the long room, adults, children, and youths wandered and curiously perused the many art pieces on display.

The space selected, a fourteenth century building, provided a further inspiring element to the event, for its being a very unusual framework for such an experimental expression as the new media art.

As its title suggested, the event focused on "time" as a constant and relevant theme of art.

"The concept of time varies according to culture, and the perception of time according to different persons," the organizers wrote in the presentation. "The expression of time in different visual art forms differs from man to man in different artistic practice."

Curated by professors Chuan Li and Gang Song from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, the selection of works was indeed the most varied, including multimedia projects, video installations, photographs, oils on canvas, and ink paintings on rice paper.

"The exhibition is comprised of two parts," Song told Xinhua. "One includes works dealing with major events concerning Chinese society nowadays, while the second is more focused on art pieces blending the Chinese traditional (figurative) art and modern art," the curator explained.

The exhibit was organized by China-Europe cultural association and "Angeli in Volo" non-profit group (both Rome-based), under the supervision of president of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute Pang Maokun.

It also comprised works by other accomplished Chinese artists who are well known internationally, such as Qiu Zhijie, chief curator of the last edition of Shanghai Biennale in 2016, and of the Chinese Pavilion at Italy's Venice Biennale this year.

Besides its inherent artistic value, the event was also marked by a broader aim: building a further intercultural bridge between Italy and China.

The location selected for the exhibit -- the Celio neighborhood, which hosts Rome's Colosseum -- was in fact not randomly chosen. As local authorities pointed out, this is in fact the area where the Chinese community of Rome -- about 23,700 people, according to the 2017 census -- has long settled down.

"Our borough is interested in boosting such cultural exchanges, because we are one of the most multicultural areas in Rome," councillor Daniela Spinaci said at a debate following the opening.

"Such initiatives would benefit Italy overall, considering the process of transformation our own society is going through," the official added. Enditem