The “Via della Seta: Arte e artisti contemporanei dall’Italia” (Silk Road: Contemporary Art and Artists from Italy) exhibition will be held at the prestigious CerModern Museum of Contemporary Art in Ankara, until 10 October. Organised by the Italian Embassy in Turkey, with the contribution of the Italian Cultural Institute in Istanbul, the exhibition was opened on 23 September by Ambassador Massimo Gaiani.
“Turkey – Ambassador Gaiani stressed on the occasion – is a country with which Italy has deep cultural ties. We are both Mediterranean countries, cradles of millenary civilisations, centres of artistic production of the highest level. We need only mention the example of the Italian “Orientalist” artists, who for many decades were highly appreciated at the Sultan’s court. Or, in more recent times, the many Italian architects and sculptors who have contributed to the beauty of cities such as Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara”.
Postponed last year due to the pandemic, the exhibition offers visitors a broad panorama of avant-garde art in Italy, including such masters as Carla Accardi, Enrico Bay, Maria Lai, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Jannis Kounellis, Mimmo Paladino, Ettore Spalletti, Giulio Paolini, Luigi Ontani and Emilio Isgró, as well as experimental works by some young and very young artists. A total of 38 art works, which, in the last few weeks, have been much praised and acclaimed by numerous art critics in Turkey, also thanks to the wide media coverage of this unique event.
The exhibition will be stopping in five countries along the ancient Silk Road and, after travelling for 30,000 km, will end its journey in China. Like in ancient times, it is making the world aware of the Italian genius, as it is expressed not only in art but also in the excellence of our production and cutting-edge ideas. From Ankara, the exhibition will move on eastwards to China, where it will arrive in 2022, the Year of Italy-China Culture and Tourism.
The exhibition “Silk Road: Contemporary Art and Artists from Italy” was designed by the Garuzzo Institute for the Visual Arts (IGAV) and realised thanks to the contribution of the Foreign Ministry, with the patronage of the Ministry of Culture.
