The inauguration of Qin Feng’s exhibition was a great success. The exhibition was promoted by the Venice International University with the patronage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAECI).
The event, which took place on Thursday, 19 May, at the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice, was staged for the first time in the two Cloisters and in the Sala del Cenacolo, which hosts a large reproduction of the painting by Paolo Veronese.
The Chinese master, who spearheads this new school of experimental painters, thrilled all the people present.
Qin Feng belongs to the circle of great Chinese artists who use traditional pen and ink techniques to expand beyond the rigid constraints of tradition and reach out to modernity through a new language based on dynamism and matter.
In a live performance held in the Cenacolo Palladiano, underneath Veronese’s painting “The Wedding at Cana”, Qin Feng paid homage to the great Venetian artist whose masterpiece, by will of Napoleon, was cut into three parts in 1797 and taken to the Louvre.
The inauguration was attended by the Deputy Mayor of Venice, Luciana Colle, Prefect Domenico Cuttaia, the Rector of Ca’ Foscari University, Michele Bugliesi, and Prorector Flavio Gregori, the Superintendent to the Galleries of the Paola Marini Academy and the representatives of the city’s most important institutions, including Philip Rylands of the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, the Director of UNESCO, Ana Luiza Thompson-Flores, and the Director of the German Center for Venetian Studies, Romedio Schmitz-Esser.
Attending the event in representation of the Venice International University, which promoted the event, were the president, Ambassador Umberto Vattani, the Dean, Prof. Carlo Giupponi, several professors of Columbia University and students from partner universities.
This conciliatory act is not the only link between the artist’s work and the exhibition venue. Qin Feng intends this exhibition to become the starting point of a new “Silk Road” for cross-cultural exchanges and an opportunity to create an all-inclusive world of art. As an ancient commercial route underpinning exchanges between Asia and Europe, the “Silk Road” proved to be essential in promoting mutual economic and cultural understanding. Venice was the point of departure of the “Silk Road” and Xinjiang, the north-western Chinese province that is home to Qin Feng, was a stop along this ancient route. Indeed, the awareness of the Silk Road’s important role in linking diverse cultures had a great impact on his work.
For the first time, in addition to the Cini Foundation, two more islands in the lagoon, ideally connected to one another, will host some of the artworks of this magnificent Exhibition: San Lazzaro Island, on which stands the largest Armenian Abbey, and San Servolo Island, which hosts the Venice International University.
