The Diocesan Commission for the Celebrations of the 400th Anniversary of Father Matteo Ricci has invited artists to reflect on the theme of friendship, just as the Jesuit from Macerata, Father Matteo Ricci, did when he wrote De Amicitia in 1596. This initiative has led to the exhibition InOpera 2010 – In the Footsteps of Father Matteo Ricci, which will be held at the Palazzo Buonaccorsi Museum in Macerata from July 22 to September 12, 2010.
The exhibition is divided into two sections. The first consists of 46 works by artists recognized and established within the contemporary art world, invited to participate with their own work directly by the Scientific Committee chaired by the Director of the Vatican Museums. The second section, made up of more than fifty works, brings together a selection of contemporary artists who joined the initiative independently, with their works selected by a special judging committee also chaired by Director Antonio Paolucci.
InOpera 2010 – In the Footsteps of Father Matteo Ricci does not present illustrative or didactic interpretations of the examined texts, but rather personal elaborations in search of possible correspondences and affinities with Ricci’s writings. The premise is that each artist was encouraged to orient their personal creative practice toward the pursuit of an original synthesis between artistic vocation and dialogical tension. For this reason, every work on display can be seen as a space of encounter between two equally historical themes present in the Jesuit’s treatise: foreignness, as a marker of difference, and hospitality, as its translation into a system of symbols and rituals.
De Amicitia was the first work written in Mandarin by the Jesuit Father Matteo Ricci (Macerata 1552 – Beijing 1610). The text is a key instrument for introducing European culture into Ming Dynasty China, but it is also a treatise that explores the dynamic nature of the “I–you” relationship, which is both the form and the content of friendship between individuals and between cultures. The theme of friendship holds a special place in Chinese culture, being one of the social bonds upon which the functioning of society and the state depends.
