Jingge Dong's 'Senza pietre non c’è arco' at Libreria Minerva, Padua

Chinese artist Jingge Dong (Beijing, 1989) presents the exhibition 'Senza pietre non c’è arco' (Without Stones There Is No Arch) at Libreria Minerva in Padua, curated by Roberto Nardi, running until September 27, 2020. The show draws inspiration from Italo Calvino's 'Invisible Cities', specifically the dialogue between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo, highlighting the connection between China and the West. Dong has lived in Italy for five years, studying at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice, which he chose on the advice of a teacher in Beijing. He loves Venice for its blend of past and present. The exhibition features a new series titled 'Dreamland', which merges his Chinese heritage with his current Italian life, combining ancient Chinese myths with everyday sensory experiences, deconstructed and recomposed into dreamlike compositions. Dong discusses his evolving use of color: initially limited, now more vibrant, with colors, lines, and dots acting as 'stones' that form the 'arch'—a skeletal structure supporting the work. He emphasizes a subjective vision of reality, questioning its uniqueness and essence. The literary reference to Calvino was a long-awaited opportunity to translate words into forms and images, with each viewer interpreting the text differently. The exhibition space, a bookstore, influences the works, with some pieces in the crypt resembling books.