China Now Brings Chinese Contemporary Art to Brescia

The exhibition 'China Now' at CARME in Brescia presents over 30 works by Chinese artists from the Uli Sigg collection, many shown in Italy for the first time. Sigg, a Swiss businessman and former ambassador to China, North Korea, and Mongolia, amassed around 3,000 pieces, donating many to Hong Kong's M+ museum. The show includes Ai Weiwei's three-legged table (2005), Fan Shao's ink-on-rice-paper figures, Liu Wei's fluorescent landscapes, an installation made from boiled Coca-Cola residue, Changwei Gu's macro photographs, and Kin-Wah Tsang's video. The venue is the restored ex-church of Santi Filippo e Giacomo, made available by the municipality and supported by associations Carme and Bellearti, the latter founded in 2019 by veteran gallerist Massimo Minini. Brescia is co-capital of Italian Culture 2023 alongside Bergamo. Minini describes the exhibition as emblematic of China's cultural resurgence after centuries of Eurocentric neglect.