The Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea presents the exhibition Bounded and Unbounded. Limitato e Illimitato. L’arte di Liu Youju, curated by Anna Balzani and promoted by the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno di Firenze and Fondazione Spadolini Nuova Antologia. The exhibition takes place at a particularly significant historical moment, marking the 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Italy and China, the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the European Union, and the 45th anniversary of the twinning between Florence and Nanjing, established in 1980.
The exhibition brings together a selection of thirty-nine works created with Indian ink and acrylic colours applied to rice paper and canvas, through which the artist, originally from Guangzhou, offers an interpretation of reality articulated through vivid, dense colours, black-and-white calligraphic marks, fluid brushstrokes and swirling constellations of elements that merge into one another.
Cosmic spaces, pristine natural landscapes, majestic trees, rugged mountains, blue lakes, flowers, mythological and memory-laden places, and inner worlds dissolve their boundaries and become one. Enigmatic figures with human features and animals with curious forms observe us, their questioning gazes seeming to urge us to enter into dialogue with them.
Characterised by a powerful chromatic impact and rhythmic, never arbitrary calligraphic gestures, and steeped in both tradition and modernity, the works embody profound reflections on contemporary society, the Human Being, the interaction between the “self” and the “other”, and between individual consciousness and the collective soul. Liu Youju appears to propose an alternative cosmology in which abstraction and figuration cease to oppose one another and instead reshape their boundaries, coming together to offer a unified and circular vision of life. Here, the Human Being, a microcosm in dialogue with the Universe, reclaims a relationship with the cosmic order of which it is a manifestation.
The exhibition itinerary, spread across the four Aldrovandi rooms, gently guides visitors into an “other” space—introspective and intuitive, freed from the constraints and boundaries of rigid mental frameworks and cultural archetypes—inviting us to move beyond traditional oppositions and rigid dichotomies through an essential dialogue with the Other. It is therefore an inward journey of consciousness, in which the real world, as it floats and shifts, merges with the world of the imagination.
“Liu Youju explores the limits of human thought,” says Anna Balzani, curator of the exhibition, “and invites viewers to immerse themselves in his works as though they were mental maps, in order to connect, or reconnect, with the energies underlying life, and to rediscover, also through contemplation, the profound relationship between our body, our intimate spiritual consciousness and the Universe, between the inner and outer dimensions of the Human Being. The goal to strive towards is Harmony, which can be restored only when Human Being and Nature, individual and collective, find themselves in a state of dynamic equilibrium.”
The title of the exhibition, Limitato e illimitato, thus alludes to a relationship between human finitude and the infinitude of nature and the cosmos. Bounded (“limited, enclosed within boundaries”) anchors the viewer to tangible themes, while Unbounded (“without limits”) seeks to represent the ineffable. In Liu Youju’s words, “they are not opposites but intertwined elements in a cosmic dance, whose interaction flows into the third dimension of the mind, where thought floats free from earthly boundaries and limitations, and understanding emerges from the formless through intuition.”
Liu Youju’s works derive from traditional Chinese art, particularly calligraphy, while at the same time revealing Western influences, from Impressionism to Abstraction. His practice underscores the importance of intellectual, intercultural and spiritual dialogue among peoples, with the aim of creating a community founded on shared values, mutual discovery and understanding.
On the occasion of the exhibition, on Wednesday 22 October, a seminar focusing on the work of artist Liu Youju will be held at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea – GNAMC. Participants will include the artist, Anna Balzani, journalist and curator of the exhibition, Tiziana D’Acchille, Director of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Perugia, Marco Brandizzi, Director of the Accademia di Belle Arti L’Aquila, Marco Nocca, Professor of History of Ancient Art and Museography at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, and art historian Andrea Guastella.
