Art Field Nanhai is an international contemporary art festival that wants to differentiate itself from the urban art exhibitions typical of large cities, also referring to the claim “by the water”. In the words of its curator Sun Qian from Art at Qiaoshan, the event aims at exploring the heritage of regional cultures, discovering rural values and revitalising agricultural areas. The initiative focuses on local culture, telling the story of Nanhai in combination with international experiences in order to explore Chinese innovation. This year’s edition, which follows on from the success of two years ago, will involve more than 150 artists, designers and collectives from 26 different countries, with a total of 94 works spread between the festival’s main venue in Xiqiao Town, Nanhai, Foshan and 8 other locations in Xiqiao Mountain, Tingyin Lake, Pingsha Island, Taiping Hui, Songtang Village, Ruxi Village and Huanggang Village, which will complement the permanent installations already in place and cover a total area of 174 square kilometres.
The exhibition Fashion to Reconnect – Nanhai.
Fashion to Reconnect, the behind-the-scenes
Cittadellarte and Michelangelo Pistoletto will be directly involved in two projects in China desired by director Paolo Naldini. The first is an exhibition celebrating the universal language between art and fashion, set in a country rich in tradition and history, and strongly oriented towards global inclusiveness with an eye to the future. The reference is to Fashion to Reconnect – Nanhai : A celebration of Chinese and European fashion designers engaged in sustainability¹, running from 16 November 2024 to 12 February 2025 as part of the event Art Field Nanhai, hosted by the Nanhai District’s People’s Government and organised by HUBART (Artfield China). Fashion to Reconnect in China has been made possible thanks to the special collaboration of three unique institutions that promote creativity, research, the aesthetics of beauty and sustainability in the broadest sense: in addition to Art Field Nanhai, Cittadellarte Fashion B.E.S.T. and the National Chamber of Italian Fashion are in fact behind the scenes. “From the partnership between these three internationally important institutions,”say the organisers, “comes a special project that celebrates the universal language between art and fashion”. On the occasion of Art Field Nanhai, the exhibition Fashion to Reconnect, curated by GuardiniCiuffredaStudio under the supervision of Olga Pirazzi and the coordination of Rebecca Mazzù, will rely on the collaboration of Zoe Chenzhuo from the Nationa Chamber of Italian Fashion and of five Chinese designers selected by Cittadellarte Fashion B.E.S.T. as promoter of the exhibition.
The exhibition Fashion to Reconnect – Nanhai.
Fashion to Reconnect, the exhibition
Fashion to Reconnect was inaugurated in June 2023 in Biella, on the occasion of the 25th edition of the annual event Arte al Centro, and subsequently presented at Milan Fashion Week in February 2024; in China, it will be proposed in a new version dedicated to Art Field Nanhai to celebrate and support the values of sustainable fashion. Specifically, the exhibition conceives clothes and fashion objects as works of art, which become tools for raising awareness towards a responsible social change: designers, entrepreneurs, brands and artists offer perspectives and paths to reconnect with nature and create a harmonious relationship where the choice of materials and processes, and the changing perceptions of creation itself become the driving force behind a virtuous transformation of fashion. The items on display are selected by Cittadellarte Fashion B.E.S.T., sponsored by the National Chamber of Italian Fashion and set up by Guardini Ciuffreda Studio (part of the Fashion B.E.S.T. collective). The exhibition features “not only a selection of unique pieces accompanied by a certificate of authenticity as works of art,” said the curator, “in Fashion to Reconnect, the designers/artists become sensitive bearers of a new civilisation in which the dialogue between opposites and between different species is at the basis of creation, inviting us on a meditative journey towards clothing as the first home to inhabit, the chosen home in which to feel reconnected”.
The Third Paradise and details of the installation.
The Third Paradise at Qiaoshan
The second element in the spotlight will be a Third Paradise at Qiaoshan, curated by the coordinator of the Rebirth ambassadors Francesco Saverio Teruzzi with graphic design by GuardiniCiuffredaStudio, and production and set up by Art at Qiaoshan (full details in a previous article). It is a monumental and permanent installation of the symbol of the Third Paradise as a global landmark in Asia, positioned right at the entrance of the new national museum to accompany the ambitions of this region, the so-called Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay area, whose socio-economic and cultural development plans place art and culture as a strategic asset. The installation of the Third Paradise makes significant use of the agro-ecological material Biochar, indicated by many scholars and by the FAO as a potential ‘medicine’ capable of healing and regenerating the planet’s soils, rescuing them from the destiny of sterility to which more than 50% are headed (according to recent studies by the United Nations organisation). The study will be followed by a programme that will accompany the life of this installation, which can be defined as a “monument and contemporary temple”, in the use that different communities will want to make of it. According to Teruzzi, the Third Paradise in Qiaoshan “will be an attraction, a symbol and a path to walk together. An attraction, because it will be the first permanent installation by Michelangelo Pistoletto in China. A symbol, because by representing the formula of creation 1+1=3, it reminds us that everything is the result of the encounter between different and distinct elements, which added together create what was not there before and is there now, and that life itself is only possible through difference. A path, because it shows us the way of preventive peace, of responsible transformation of society,” specified Teruzzi, “where the circle of nature is no longer attacked by the opposite circle of artifice and technology, but they are seen living together in harmony and balance in the great central circle that we must build together”.
The Third Paradise
Paolo Naldini, director of Cittadellarte, interviewed by national media.
The words and participation of the director of Cittadellarte
Cittadellarte will also be busy in the capital, Beijing: Paolo Naldini, in the dual role of director of Cittadellarte and president of Accademia Unidee, and Armona Pistoletto, head of Cittadellarte’s Food Office, will meet the Italian embassy in Beijing and hold a series of lectures at Tsinghua University and at contemporary art academies. “As always, with the Third Paradise we do not just bring a symbol and a concept, but devices and methods that allow public and private organisations to co-create common initiatives in different fields, starting with sustainable fashion, an industry that has ancient and important traditions and economic dimensions in this region;” explained the director of Cittadellarte Paolo Naldini, “the partnership with the National Chamber of Italian Fashion continues also along these lines that attest to the Made in Italy, on the wavelength that unites the Renaissance with the Bel Paese, combining them in the most advanced research on the contemporary by interweaving local, interlocal and global. Here, the Third Paradise proves to be a welcoming space where, as in a temple, people can come together to celebrate and forge new alliances;” emphasised the director of Cittadellarte, “thanks to the formula that this symbol brings us, it is time to continuously establish the alliances that are necessary and urgent to face the challenges we are confronted with. The alliance is celebrated through this installation, which invites us to walk it, to live it, to animate it. And in the centre is a black circle, which looks like a mystery, but instead contains a medicine. A medicine made of charcoal,” he concluded, “obtained from the oxygen-free burning of the wood itself, thus becoming Biochar, which, according to FAO, can help us face the great danger that threatens our survival: the sterilisation of soils due to the cultivation methods we have adopted over these millennia and even more so in recent centuries”.
