Following Marco Polo’s path: Italian artists paint Hangzhou
5 Jun. 2012 | Hangzhou Cultural Brand Promotion Organisation Gallery – Hangzhou (China)
19 Nov. 2011 | Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation – Piazza San Marco Gallery – Venice
catalog by Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation
Sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Veneto Region, Province of Venice
and the Venice City Council and City of Hangzhou (China).
Promoted by Confesercenti National Assoartisti, Confesercenti Venice, Venice committee Expo,Hangzhou Cultural Brand Promotion Organisation.
Francesco Petrosillo
From 19 to 30 November the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation in Venice will host the show: Following Maco Polo’s path:Italian artists paint Hangzhou, focusing on the richness of the visual culture of the province of Hangzou.
The aim is not so much to recite once more the Italian artistic influences, but rather to document with an European eye, one of the most traditional Chinese landscapes. The initiative meets Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation choice which proposes contacts with artists from “The Silk Route” for years now. The objective is to relate young artists who orbit the Triveneto with a wide geographical area and also a geographical route which is directly linked to the History of Venice and as such it is part of its deepest cultural identity. The idea of this exhibition was born form a collaboration between National Assoartisti Confesercenti and Confeserceni Venice, Venice Expo Committee and Hangzhou Cultural Brand Promotion Organisation. It has seen 100 painters (including 11 Venetians) visit for a week the city of Hangzhou, to study, admire and then to narrate the charming and enchanting landscape through two works which were made upon arrival in Italy. With the well succeeded meeting between the organisations, the Year of China in Italy has become, therefore, an occasion to recognise the value and the role that Chinese and Italian culture have played and still play in the world. Within 100 Italian painters lay the responsibility and the honour of interpreting and bring back the atmosphere and the enchants of Hangzhou landscapes. There was a great concern to ensure the presence of painters from all Italy divided by their rich style variety and wide range of languages in order to fully grasp with specific expression the suggestions of the “Venice of the East”. Certainly the result of this fruitful meeting, the first exhibition of the works, one for each artist, could only take place in Venice, the whereabouts of Expo Venice Committee – the initial chapter and starting point of this adventure. In spring, the exhibition will be taken to Hangzouh, an opportunity to donate to the city, of which Marco Polo has been governor, a gondola that will be located in a museum. The Memorandum of Understanding, signed this morning between the two cities, is another step forward to bring them together culturally, economically and touristically. Cities which are so distant, but with very similar problems such as being water cities and calling every year tens of millions of tourists.
