SVILUPPI DEL CONTEMPORANEO

The residency project “Developments of the Contemporary for the Italian Embassy and the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing” features the works created in Beijing by artists Davide Bramante and Luca Pozzi. The pieces are hosted at the Italy China Council Foundation Academy Art Center inside Raffles City Beijing, as well as on the premises of the Italian Embassy and the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing, based on a curatorial project by Nuova Artemarea.

Conceived by the Italian Ambassador to Beijing, Massimo Ambrosetti, and coordinated by the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing, Federico Roberto Antonelli, the project is curated by Guicciardo Sassoli de’ Bianchi Strozzi, president of Nuova Artemarea, with the co-curatorship of Manuela Valentini and Ren Jingge, and the organization of Caterina Feng from the Italy China Council Foundation Academy.

The initiative, now in its second edition following the Beijing residencies of artists Enzo Cacciola and Vincenzo Mascia in the summer of 2025, develops through a series of selected residencies for Italian artists in Beijing, aimed at fostering promotion and dialogue between contemporary Italian art and the cultural context of the Chinese capital.

With the exhibition of Luca Pozzi and Davide Bramante, the program continues to expand the languages, perspectives, and intensity of the dialogue between the two countries. The photographs of Davide Bramante (Syracuse, 1970)—belonging to the series My own rave—are created using the multiple exposure technique during shooting (non-digital). This modus operandi becomes a tool for capturing the shifting soul of places, from glimpses of Milan and Rome and the geometries of Florence, Bologna, and Noto, to the vertical pulsations of Beijing and Shanghai, which unfold into a single, new perceptual geography.

Luca Pozzi (Milan, 1983) builds an interdisciplinary language fueled by multi-messenger cosmology, theoretical physics, and the heritage of art history, combining traditional media with latest-generation technological devices. Among the works are Supersymmetric Partner (The Wedding at Cana), Wilson Tour Carracci – Story of the Foundation of Rome, and the site-specific installation from the Background Inside Platform through Palladio Influence series. This last piece highlights how Pozzi merges architectural history with physical phenomena; it was specifically created in Beijing as a reflection on the great Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, in tandem with the upcoming celebrations and exhibitions dedicated to Palladio in China, organized by the Embassy and the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing.