The International University of Venice on the island of San Servolo is hosting the exhibition Travellers until 18 May. It is presented by MoCA Shanghai under the direction of Miriam Sun and in conversation with Italian curator Giuliana Benassi. Artists and works are brought together, the outcome of an exchange between Chinese and Italian culture. The space hosting them is far from acting as a mere frame. On the contrary, the space is the beating heart of a project deeply desired by Miriam Sun, who has been cultivating this dialogue for years, gradually and continuously listening to the other. The International University of Venice is, in fact, a consortium of 20 universities from all over the world, which Carlo Azeglio Ciampi set up thirty years ago as a centre dedicated to interdisciplinary study, a particularly avant-garde type of research at the time.
“The entire exhibition aims to restore the current ‘symbiotic network’, woven by contemporary artists who, although from China and Italy, seem to be united by a single thread: human beings in the presence of the world”. This aim is stated in the press release. In fact, walking through the exhibition and talking to the curator, we get the feeling that each work forms an organic whole, also existing in symbiosis with the space. In the construction of this inter-cultural dialogue, the curators have also included works that confront the language of technology and its progress in evolutionary science.
The most technological works are imbued with humanity. Fu Tong operates within the contrast between immutable physical forms and fluid consciousness (Flowing Bodies) and in the most delicate moments of humanity, such as that found in the seven sculptures projected on the wall, 3D printed and enlarged 100 times, reproducing tears as they appear in different stages of life (When I think of You).
Vitality is also found in the material of José Angelino’s work. The artist reproduces the physical and aesthetic dynamics of the aurora borealis in his luminous glass works made of argon gas and neon. The same dynamic quality can be found in the work Mosquitos, a series of glass beakers inside which magnets swirl like captured flies, in response to the frequencies of the Schumann resonance, a typical Earth pulsation of 7.83 hertz. The works opposite Angelino’s creations, “The Moonlight” series by Yang Yongliang, are equally vital. Here, cultures and the way they intermingle emerge in the outline of urban landscapes arising from the overlapping of cities such as New York, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Paris, London and Tokyo, all visible through a circular perimeter that makes visitors into spectators of a dream.
The ‘Code’ series by H. H. Lim, with its inscriptions engraved on a group of sculptures that “seem to have plunged into the exhibition space from a temporal journey,” contains indecipherable codes and numbers which suspend the journey’s coordinates. These works are placed in dialogue with ‘The Exception’, a video work by Rä di Martino, where a statue seems about to come to life to the notes of a reworking of the love theme from Flashdance.
The exchange goes beyond that of these two cultures. It becomes an exchange and meeting between man and nature, as in the pictorial series ‘Dialogue in Time and Space’ and ‘Summer Fireworks’, by Shi Chengdong where water is “the surface that mirrors the world, the membrane between two dimensions”. Man is present, embodied in the craft of weaving, as in the works of Matteo Nasini. Here sculpture and tapestry aim to continue in the Calvino’s Invisible Cities. The encounter is also with the non-organic matter which composes Gabriele Silli’s sculpture. The upward-pointing fingers of Oliviero Rainaldi’s sculpture Hands point towards transcendence, not only the transcendence of life but, in particular, that of the journey as existence.
There is more to see. We said that the project stems from Miriam Sun’s strong desire to establish a dialogue between Italian and Chinese culture, but it is also rooted in a strong interest in the confrontation between man and technological progress, starting with technology which is able to ‘rewrite’ life through DNA manipulation.
The exhibition previewed the ‘DNA’ series, created by Michael Levitt who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2013. This is a project that focuses on the profound impact of gene editing and AI on the future of humanity. The work consists of light installations, live performances and sculptures, and is produced by Miriam Sun with a team of Chinese scientists including professors Luo Zhen and Yin Tengfei, audiovisual artist Guo Fei and composer Jin Wang.
And it is the small church inside the University where each evening of the project’s inaugural days Jin Wang’s compositions and Guo Fei’s visualizations met in an improvised performative dialogue with pipe organs and modular synthesizers. Notes and images and environment resonated throughout the spaces and celebrated the symbiosis of the works into one pulsating body.
The 700th anniversary of Marco Polo’s death, and the proximity of the exhibition’s theme with that of the ongoing Venice Biennale 2024, form the basis of the project’s framework, rooted in the drive towards an encounter that is, first and foremost, human. The project will travel to New York and other cities where it will find new contexts for continuing dialogue and exchange.
Travellers, curated by Miriam Sun and Giuliana Benassi
Venice International University, San Servolo, Venice, 19.04 – 16.05.2024
images: (cover 1) Qiu Anxiong – Tian Zhi Xiu Yue-邱岸雄 .photo credits MoCA, Shanghai (2) Fu Tong, «When I think of you-付彤 », ph: MoCA, Shanghai (3) H.H. Lim, «Percorso circolare-林辉华», ph: MoCA, Shanghai (4) Guo Fei&Jin Wang, «DNA-郭飞&金望»,ph: MoCA, Shanghai (5) Yang Yongliang, «The Moonlight», ph: MoCA, Shanghai (6) Guo Fei&Jin Wang, «DNA-郭飞&金望»,ph: MoCA, Shanghai
