NELLA LINGUA DELL’ALTRO - GIUSEPPE CASTIGLIONE GESUITA E PITTORE IN CINA (1715-1766)

EXHIBITION
IN THE OTHER’S LANGUAGE
LANG SHINING NEW MEDIA ART EXHIBITION
GIUSEPPE CASTIGLIONE
JESUIT AND PAINTER IN CHINA (1715-1766)
Thirty works by the 18th-century artist proposed through modern multimedia language.
The art of Giuseppe Castiglione (Milan 1688-Peking 1766) is being brought to Italy for the first time by the Opera di Santa Croce and the National Palace Museum of Taipei in an exhibition entitled In the Other’s Language. Lang Shining New Media Art Exhibition. Giuseppe Castiglione, Jesuit and Painter in China. The exhibition, set up in the premises of the Memoriale of Santa Croce in Florence, will run from 31 October 2015 to 31 January 2016 and is intended to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the arrival of the Jesuit missionary in China. Castiglione lived in China for over 50 years, and became a highly esteemed artist at the courts of no less than three emperors of the Celestial Empire.
Thirty of the most important works by the maestro are displayed in replica along a route in which contemporary languages also play a lead role, offering a topical reading of the great paintings executed by Castiglione during his long sojourn in China.
In a richly-evocative multimedia art itinerary, flowers and animals, the central subjects in the Jesuit artist’s works, come back to reinvigorated and animated life thanks to special projections.
Technology and art merge to stimulate and draw in the visitor, inviting him to immerse himself in Castiglione’s world.
This is an extremely evocative multimedia artistic itinerary in which the colours, flowers and animals which were the main subjects of the Jesuit’s paintings are animated and take on a new lease of life. They become more clear-cut, captivating the visitor’s attention as a result of backlighting with a high-definition beam of light, which becomes the leitmotif of the exhibition. Technology and art come together to stimulate and engage the visitor, who is able to become part of Castiglione’s world in all its facets.
The innovative exhibition itinerary has been conceived to appeal to the whole family, offering the opportunity to become acquainted with the story of this Italian missionary. Not only did Castiglione contribute to the introduction into Chinese art of European elements such as linear perspective, but he was also a precursor of the cultural relations between Italy and the Chinese world. There is nothing casual about the choice of the museum complex of Santa Croce for the exhibition venue, since it has always been a political and cultural crossroads in Italian history and a benchmark for intellectuals all over the world.
This exhibition illustrates an artistic adventure of the highest calibre; beyond this it also tells a thrilling tale of the encounter between different cultures and of a model of dialogue and openness that is anything but outdated. This event is indeed emblematic of the charisma of the sons of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, which we are admiring in all its rich abundance during the pontificate of Francesco, the first Jesuit pope in history.
The exhibition is not an ‘art show’ in the traditional sense; rather, it is a means for giving visible, tangible form to the exemplary experience of a man who desired - with admirable success - to speak ‘in another’s language’. In this sense, it is anthropological, a study of the history of ideas and the evolution of international relations. The multimedia installations create an emotive introduction, for the contemporary spectator, to the sense of wonder experienced by the 18th-century Chinese spectator before a painting alive with unusual details and such then-innovative elements as linear perspective. The aim of the exhibition is to replicate that same sense of reverent amazement that arises, today as yesterday, when significantly different cultures meet to understand one another.
---------------------------------------
EXHIBITION
IN THE OTHER’S LANGUAGE
LANG SHINING NEW MEDIA ART EXHIBITION
GIUSEPPE CASTIGLIONE
JESUIT AND PAINTER IN CHINA (1715-1766)
31 October 2015 - 31 January 2016
Opening hours: 9.30-17.00
Florence, Santa Croce, Sale del Memoriale, entrance from Largo Bargellini
Entrance free
Information from: Opera di Santa Croce ph + 39 055 2466105 Press Office Studio Maddalena Torricelli + 39 02 76280433 [e-mail]
‪#LangShiningExhibit