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Under one sky (group)

Luciano Benetton Foundation

Dianxi Science and Technology Normal University, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province China

November 6 – December 23, 2016

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Imago Mundi, the collection of contemporary art promoted by Luciano Benetton, on a two-years journey across China departed at the beginning of November 2016 and concluding at the end of December 2018. The exhibition will visit thirteen of the country’s major cities. From Lincang in the extreme south to Hohhot in Inner Mongolia, from Urumqi, one of the most important centres on the ancient Silk Road, to Xian, famous for its terracotta soldiers, with a stop, of course, in Beijing: the itinerant exhibition “Under One Sky” is bringing twenty-one collections, which means 4,000 artworks, representing five continents, to the immense Chinese territory and will be hosted in museums, cultural centres and universities.

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Treviso - November 2016. Imago Mundi, the collection of contemporary art promoted by Luciano Benetton, on a two-years journey across China departed at the beginning of November 2016 and concluding at the end of December 2018. The exhibition will visit thirteen of the country’s major cities. From Lincang in the extreme south to Hohhot in Inner Mongolia, from Urumqi, one of the most important centres on the ancient Silk Road, to Xian, famous for its terracotta soldiers, with a stop, of course, in Beijing: the itinerant exhibition “Under One Sky” is bringing twenty-one collections, which means 4,000 artworks, representing five continents, to the immense Chinese territory and will be hosted in museums, cultural centres and universities. As Luciano Benetton notes, “this is a significant extract of Imago Mundi’s global collection that recounts the world as we would like it to be: colourful, in peace and without walls, be they symbolic or real.” The collections on display are from: Afghanistan; Angola; Cameroon; Caribbean; Chile; Democratic Republic of Congo; Denmark; India; Italy; Japan; Kazakhstan; Kenya/Tanzania/Zanzibar; Mongolia; Nigeria; North Korea; Russia; Saudi Arabia; Sweden; Switzerland; United States; Vietnam. The Imago Mundi journey across China is also previewing another exciting venture: an artistic exploration of the 55 Chinese ethnic groups, a project which began in September 2015 and will be completed in 2019, when it will participate in the seventieth anniversary celebrations of the People's Republic. Imago Mundi is an idea of art and the World, as envisaged by Luciano Benetton: artists from around the world, established names and emerging talents, take up the challenge of the 10x12 cm canvas; to date 20,000 artists from 120 countries, regions and peoples have become involved in the project. The result is a mosaic of stories, passions, dreams, actions and contradictions, where each work lives by its own light, but at the same time becomes a piece in a global picture.
Le monde chinois, as the French Sinologist Jacques Gernet entitled one of his books, is a good portion of the globe that has existed for millennia in its proud completeness, a cultural driving force and an important part of the history of civilization. China is that other pole of human experience that has never ceased to arouse the curiosity, the dreams, the desires of Western travellers, from thirteenth century merchants to the Jesuit missionaries of the fifteen hundreds, to the businessmen of today. This is a fascinating and creative journey for Imago Mundi in the name of Art that builds bridges and unites peoples and nations: a travelling exhibition that in two years will touch on as many as 13 regions of the immense Chinese territory. Conscious of the great honour and responsibility this brings with it, we are taking to China, for the first time, the imaginative and collective vision of so many other worlds, large or small, represented by four thousand works of artists from twenty-three countries around the world. With the additional benefit of an important preview of the Contemporary China 1949 - 2019 project: the artistic identikit of 55 different Chinese ethnic groups that compose, together with the Han majority, a mosaic of extraordinary diversity. Overall, this is a significant extract of the global collection of Imago Mundi – we are rapidly approaching the finishing line of 150 countries, peoples and regions - that recounts the world as we would like it to be: colourful, in peace and without walls, be they symbolic or real. Because too often the walls are still there and – in the words of the Italian intellectual Franco Fortini – “we are on one side, the others are on the other: under the right conditions, of course, the doors may well be opened, but in the meantime the wall remains.” With this exhibition, thousands of artists - of any nationality, ethnicity or creed – tell us with imagination and courage that, on the contrary, the great utopia of a borderless world is possible. And that - under our one sky - a new map of Humanity can be built. Luciano Benetton November 2016
Imago Mundi is an idea of Art. Imago Mundi is an idea of the World. Art and the World without borders, as envisaged by Luciano Benetton, creator of the global fashion brand United Colors of Benetton, and art patron by vocation. It is a democratic, collective and global map-in-the-making of human cultures. With a single format, 10x12 cm, the collection brings together artists from every continent: more than 20 thousand from one hundred countries and native communities, a number that will reach over 26,000 by the end of 2017. Established names and promising talents, all side-by-side on the same starting line. And all involved on a voluntary and non-profit basis. Imago Mundi unites: countries where there is wellbeing with countries at war; historically opposed and divided countries; minorities, such as in China where there are 55 different ethnic groups; inviting everyone to join a dialogue in the name of art. The result is an impassioned, creative, visionary kaleidoscope of techniques, colors, currents and inspirations. A mosaic of stories, passions, dreams, actions and contradictions, where each work lives by its own light, but at the same time becomes a piece in a global picture. The Imago Mundi artists are promoted internationally through catalogues, the imagomundiart.com web platform and participation in art fairs and exhibitions in partnership with private and public institutions around the world: from Venice, Italy (Venice Biennale 2013; Cini Foundation in 2015 ) to Senegal (Biennale Dak'Art Off 2014); from Rome, Italy (Museo Carlo Bilotti, 2014-2015) to New Orleans (NOMA Museum, 2014-2015); from Vienna, Austria (Belvedere Museum & Winter Palace, 2015) to New York, U.S.A. (Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 2016). From 6th November 2016, twenty-one Imago Mundi collections (Afghanistan; Angola; Cameroon; Caribbean; Chile; Democratic Republic of Congo; Denmark; India; Italy II; Japan; Kazakhstan; Kenya/Tanzania/Zanzibar; Mongolia II; Nigeria; North Korea; Russia; Saudi Arabia; Sweden; Switzerland; United States; Vietnam) will travel through 13 Chinese cities, hosted in museums, universities and cultural spaces. The first city to open the exhibition, on 6th November, will be Lincang in Yunnan province, home to 23 of the 55 ethnic minorities in China. Lincang will be followed by Guiyang (Guizhou province), Nanning (in the autonomous region of Guangxi), Guangzhou (Guangdong province), Hangzhou (Zhejiang province), Wuhan (Hubei province), Chengdu (Sichuan province), Xian (Shaanxi province), Yinchuan (Ningxia autonomous region), Urumqi (Xinjiang autonomous region), Beijing (Beijing province) and Hohhot (autonomous province of inner Mongolia). The city of Shenyang, in Liaoning province, will be the last leg of this incredible journey, where the exhibition will end on 21st December 2018. Imago Mundi’s tour through China and its diversities is part of the Imago Mundi China project, which began in September 2015 and has involved more than 5,000 artists from 55 ethnic minorities. November 2016
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