Imago Mundi: The Art of Humanity - Treviso

A journey through contemporary Afghan art. 142 paintings, the work of established and emerging artists. Painters, graphic artists, miniaturists, writers, filmmakers, musicians, poets, who together bear witness to the extraordinary strength and freedom of artistic expression even in the uncertainty of a tormented country, struggling with the old and new devastation, both material and psychological, of a conflict that prevents the design of a future. Suggestions, inspirations, creative allusions that alongside the traditional symbols - the burqa, the sport of buzkashi, poets and saints, the Buddhas of Bamiyan, landscapes, scenes of the markets - inspire new energetic, colourful, vital visions, opposing an unstable future and, as such, still Untitled.

Two hundred small canvases like two hundred windows – real, not virtual - wide open on the Chinese contemporary art scene. A reality in which themes, aesthetic codes, formal solutions and expressive techniques, even the materials used, express a world in ferment, capable of offering extraordinary insights and reflections on the acute tensions in the relationship between individuals and society. An overview that brings together the works of established and emerging artists, of every background and age, not only from Beijing, the epicentre of the immense and explosive Chinese figurative scene, but from every region of this great country.

Elegance, refinement and emotion in a mosaic that reflects a country where the harmonious wellbeing of the whole is more highly valued than individual affirmation. The small format of the works created for this collection by 207 established and emerging artists reflects a peculiarity of Japanese culture: the recognition of beauty in small things - in bonsai and haiku, just as in hi-tech - and the ability to extract the essence of things, compacting their form.

143 works by artists from every corner of the country that takes its name from the ice: women and men of all ages, with very different careers behind them, but all citizens of one of the world’s most cultured and advanced societies. Imago Mundi captures and reveals the cultural vibrancy of the island of bubbling volcanoes and geysers. Spontaneous artistic movements express themselves in a figurative language that places nature at its heart: snow-capped mountains, glaciers, volcanoes, waterfalls, birds, flowers, constantly changing skies, together with material elements, particularly Icelandic wool, which disrupt the two-dimensionality of the small canvases and evoke a harsh rural, pastoral civilization.

A window on the creativity of an art that expresses the magic of nature. A story in pictures, colours and impressions of a people who have always lived in close contact with their land, where there is no rift between man and nature. The artists’ paintings reflect a desire to represent the extraordinary beauty and tranquillity of Mongolia, the poetry of the Gobi desert and the steppes and mountains in the four seasons, but also, the infinite horizon, the blue skies, and the traditional costumes of the nomads and their herds. A collection of works by artists of all ages who can help us to understand a country that aspiresto modernity yet conserves solid roots in its past.

A creative wave of expressive connections: landscapes, cartoons, ideograms of ancient Asian cultures alongside the new symbols of the most advanced technology. A vital force, announcing the art of tomorrow. The works of more than 200 South Korean artists in this volume not only express the spirit of the time of one of the countries with the fastest growth rates (cultural, social, economic), they also explore new and original figurative paths.

Multiculturalism, coexistence, overlapping influences, mediation, contrasts and integration are all elements running through this creative account of the new art of Azerbaijan. A story that spans East and West, Islam and Christianity, ecology - environmental and moral - and the race to success, colours of the memory and materials in everyday use. The works of over 200 artists collected in this volume are a reflection of the great political and cultural change in this country at the very tip of Asia, of its intense and dynamic dialogue between the past, tradition, modernity and the future.

A kaleidoscopic journey into the heart of Cuba via its art. 144 works by world-renowned maestros of colour and emerging young artists who, together, encompass every region of the Isla Grande, "the most beautiful land that human eyes have ever seen," according to Christopher Columbus. A beauty that is reflected in the overall mosaic created in this collection: paintings, engravings, photographic and relief works. A beauty that expresses a culture of images, the ideological pillar of contemporary society that emerges alive, strong and dynamic, able to dialogue with others, to communicate with the world, to connect with the best of universal codes without losing its identity.

The more than 200 canvases in this volume, collected not only in India but also in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, offer a current and lively synthesis of the contemporary figurative poetics of the subcontinent, of its eclecticism and ability to assimilate and take ownership of these influences, cultures and schools, in a clear refusal to conform to a single, specific style.

An enlightening, wide-ranging and coherent snapshot of contemporary art in Romania, the historical and geographical crossroads of Europe. Nearly 150 paintings created in 2013 by established and emerging artists of all generations, who together bear witness to a moment of extraordinary creative vitality in the country, interweaving its archaic past with its present as a European laboratory. A pictorial narrative constructed of many different styles, colours, studies of light and shadow, perspective illusions, techniques and materials that come together in a multiform story: from socialist aesthetics to tradition, from the classical to the acutely experimental.

An extraordinary collection of small paintings created by both established and emerging artists in the name of openness to new horizons and the coexistence of diversity of expression. The exhibition in Treviso marked the ‘homecoming’ of Imago Mundi, a project that aims to construct and pass on to future generations a visual map of human cultures at the beginning of the third millennium.

“The art of Imago Mundi is art that creates connections. Echoing the aspirations of the great German artist Joseph Beuys, I believe this collection to be an expression of “unity in diversity”: our goal, in fact, is to connect, bring together and promote artists around the world, overcoming geographical, political, ethnic and psychological boundaries".
Luciano Benetton