"The World of Han Meilin": modern art and Chinese tradition in Venice

"Il Mondo di Han Meilin a Venezia – The World of Han Meilin in Venice" Exhibition was inaugurated on October 27, 2016 with the participation of the curators, VIU President Umberto Vattani and Prof. Zhao Li, the Ambassador of the P.R. of China – Wei Ding, the Rector of University of Venice Ca' Foscari – Prof. Michele Bugliesi, and Maestro Han Meilin.

The Exhibition, organized by Università Ca' Foscari, Venice International University, the China-Italy Dialogue Association and The Han Meilin Foundation, is open to the public until February 28, 2017:  200 works are on display in the courtyards and halls of the main Palace of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Dorsoduro 3246.

Han Meilin has chosen Venice as an evocative point of departure for a world tour that will take him around Europe and then on to the Americas, the Middle East and India.

"The Exhibition is a fine representation of the world on which Ca' Foscari has focused much of its research and teaching - underlines Michele Bugliesi, Rector of Ca' Foscari - and demonstrates how knowledge must not remain crystalized in theoretical studies, but must open its doors to a broader audience, of students, families, the world of business and work, and the general public, making its teaching accessible to all".

"Han Meilin - affirms Ambassador Umberto Vattani, Curator of the Exhibition together with Prof. Zhao Li - has adeptly created his own fantasy universe, populated by alluring creatures, and animals interpreted according to the positive or negative characteristics attributed to them in the Chinese tradition, or even, using objects, engraved woods, fabrics, bronzes, all realized with an artistry that has deep roots in the past and is yet projected towards the future.

“We have brought to Venice - continues Ambassador Umberto Vattani - over 200 of his works, from the expansive collections in the three Museums dedicated to him by the government of the P.R. of China, in Beijing, Hangzhou and Yinchuan. In all of the works there is an unmistakable imprinting, typical of the Maestro: a defence of the incompleteness of a world that is yet to come. Han Meilin himself, in his art, bears witness to this concept, citing Leonardo Da Vinci who evoked: "Iron rusts from disuse; (...)... even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind"; an aphorism that brings him, at the age of 80, to engage in a world tour because, as he prefers to say, he is just four times twenty years old".
For the visitor, the Exhibition is an experience which captures all of the senses and reveals the multiple talents of an artist who refutes the confines of individual forms of expression.

In so doing, the Maestro is inspired by the extraordinary, long history of Chinese civilization which he revisits with a modern eye. The exhibition is an exploration of the never-ending horizons of this multi-faceted artist and includes paintings, drawings, sculptures, artefacts of design, fabrics, ceramics, engraved wood, tools and utensils.

"Han Meilin's visit to Venice - highlights Ambassador Vattani - represents a further challenge for the artist and an opportunity to nourish his inexhaustible intellectual curiosity, by experimenting with a material that as yet he has not had the opportunity to try: blown glass."
The Exhibition enjoys the patronage of the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Tourism and the Comune of Venezia.

The Exhibition is open to the public from 28 October 2016 to 28 February 2017.
Free entrance, from 10am to 6 pm. Closed Tuesdays.
Ca’ Foscari Esposizioni, Dorsoduro 3246 – Venezia
Boat Line no. 1 – stops Ca’ Rezzonico or San Tomà

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