Japan-Itaty Traditional and Contemporary Arts Exhibition - GEIBUN-ASSOCIATION

5:00 p.m. 
In the evening, when the sky above Piazza del Campo was aglow with the setting sun, an opening ceremony for “Japan-Italy Traditional and Contemporary Art” exhibition was held at the venue inside of the Palazzo Pubblico. 
Representative figures of Siena’s art circles, such as Mauro Civai, the director of the Museo Civico del Comune di Siena, Piergiacomo Petrioli, professor of Università degli Studi di Firenze, and Michelina Simona Eremita, director of Museo d’Arte per Bambini di Siena, attended the ceremony. 
Opening themselves up to the bright and easygoing character of Italians, Japanese artists dressed in kimonos and formal suits gradually relaxed and engaged in friendly conversation. 
The scene of these artists smiling when they received a commemorative key to the city from Civai left quite an impression. 
 
While many members of the media visited the exhibition site, what seized their attention the most was an outstanding live performance by the calligrapher Gyogetsu Akatsuka. Although performance art is becoming popular, Akatsuka’s work, with its elements of improvisation, must have looked fresh even to the eye of the Italian audience, the denizens of the city of arts, for it was different from other theatrical performance and traditional art. 
Being in the spotlight, Akatsuka wrote “beloved horse”, consisting of two Chinese characters “love”, the symbol of peace and exchange, and “horse”, the letter associated with Piazza del Campo (*There is a horse-chasing festival called Palio held biannually at the Piazza). 
 
The reception ceremony was held on the verandas of the palace, which was followed by a courtesy call on the Museo Civico del Comune di Siena. 
Showcased in the museum were masterpieces by representative painters of the Siena Circle like Simone Martini’s fresco pieces “Maestà” and “Commemoration of Guidoriccio da Fogliano at the Siege of Montemassi”, and Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s “Allegory of Good Government: Effects of Good Government in the City” and “Allegory of Bad Government and Effects of Bad Government in the City and Countryside”. 
Unfortunately, Japanese audiences are largely not familiar with Sienese paintings, for most of them are large in size and hard to maintain in good condition, making them difficult to ship abroad. While listening to the commentary by Petrioli, who is also a curator of the museum, the Japanese artists couldn’t help but be struck by the magnificent scale of the Italian art before their eyes.