Shadow arts exhibition discloses Chinese culture to Italy
- Source: Xinhua
- [13:40 April 15 2011]
- Comments
An exhibition of shadow arts collected by the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) opened Thursday in Italy's art city Alessandria.
Part of the exchange plan in the ongoing China Culture Year in Italy, the "Playing Shadow Shadow Puppet Treasures from the NAMOC collection" displays 340 shadow puppets artworks from the only national museum of fine arts in China, which houses 100,000 pieces art works.
The exhibition highlighted the static beauty of shadow puppets as well as the close relationship between shadow and opera through representative classical shadow puppet plays.
At the opening inside Monferrato historical palace, in the heart of the northern Italian city, the plays fascinated the audience with brilliant colors and interleaving of light and shadows.
Visitors and journalists were also interested in exploring what was going on behind the shadow wall, where all puppet characters, including figures, animals and weapons were controlled and voiced by the Changli Xiangdong Shadow Puppet Troupe of Hebei Province.
"Watching such an astonishing performance for the first time in Italy is a precious opportunity for our citizens," Mayor of Alessandria Piercarlo Fabbio told Xinhua.
The exhibition, which will last till June 30, follows a presentation of the Italian Futurism (a global art movement at the beginning of 20th century) organized last year at the NAMOC.
"Despite its small size, Alessandria has many cultural exchanges with China, which makes me honored," the mayor said.
In fact, Alessandria is renowned for its vivid attention to art, and particularly to contemporary art, which is one of the reasons why the shadow arts exhibition is being held here, the director of NAMOC, Fan Di'an, told Xinhua.
