“In the West, the visual imaginary of China was, as it still is today, that of the already deceased Mao and the already concluded Cultural Revolution. Son of my times and trained as I was to look beyond stereotypes even at home, I photographed an unseen China and, what is worse, not even imagined, therefore invisible. Things already seen satisfy, console, have to do with memory while the unseen is dry, unfriendly, refractory, sometimes unpleasant. China presented itself to me as an extraordinary bazaar of objects, scenes and behaviors that were not standardized among our cultural clichés. For me it was irresistible: the objects in sight, the total lack of privacy, the human activities staged on an always open stage, a photographer's paradise ”. Andrea Cavazzuti

The MAO Museo d'Arte Orientale is pleased to host the photographic exhibition “稍息Riposo! China 1981-84. Photographs by Andrea Cavazzuti ” , promoted from the Confucius Institute of the University of Turin, curated by Davide Quadrio and Stefania Stafutti, from 9 September to 2 October 2022, in via San Domenico 11 in Turin.The exhibition project inaugurates a new phase of collaboration between the Museum and the University of Turin, which will involve in particular the disciplines of study on Asia, with a wide range of cultural and educational proposals.

"Photography, better than other tools, reflects the climate of China of those years: a country that was still poor, but overlooking a future full of hope and animated by an enthusiasm that makes that period one of the most interesting moments and, in my notice, more beautiful than the recent history of this complex country ”, comments Stefania Stafutti , director of the Italian side of the Confucius Institute of the University of Turin and full professor of Chinese language and literature at the Department of Humanities.