Just over a month after the passing of renowned sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro (1926–2025), the Italian Cultural Institute of Beijing hosted a conference dedicated to the great Master at the Chao Art Center, one of China’s leading institutions for contemporary art research and development. Among the most iconic works of Pomodoro’s international career is Sphere Within Sphere (Sfera con sfera), created for the 1967 Expo in Montréal—his first large-scale spherical sculpture, over three metres in diameter—later installed in front of the Farnesina Palace in Rome, the seat of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
The choice of Chao Art Center as the venue for the event is particularly symbolic, as the centre holds works by Arnaldo Pomodoro, alongside pieces by major contemporary artists from Italy, China and the international scene, including Francesco Clemente, Lucio Fontana, and Francis Bacon.
The conference offered valuable insights and personal recollections, thanks to the presence in Beijing of Daniele Crippa, Founder of the MuPa – Museo del Parco in Portofino and former director of the Civic Gallery of Portofino, who met Pomodoro and hosted an exhibition dedicated to him in the Ligurian town in 1983.
The event was introduced by Federico Roberto Antonelli, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute of Beijing, and moderated by Guicciardo Sassoli de’ Bianchi Strozzi, head of the curatorial group “Sviluppi del Contemporaneo”, a residency project for Italian artists in Beijing organised by the Embassy of Italy in Beijing and the Italian Cultural Institute, and coordinated by Nuova Artemarea. The programme also featured an introduction on Pomodoro’s reception in China by Ren Jingge (IULM – Carlo Bo University, Milan).
