傅文俊 Fu Wenjun

The “Lush and Bountiful: Contemporary Small-scale Art Collection and Promotion Program of Chongqing 2023” opened on August 5, 2023, at Jinshan Yiku Cultural and Creative Industry Park in Chongqing. As a resident institution of the park, Fu Wenjun Art Studio is a participating venue in this initiative and has launched a special exhibition titled Fu Wenjun: Re-reading Art History in its own gallery space.
As a cultural and creative park that grows alongside the urban public, Jinshan Yiku—developed by China Merchants Shekou—has long focused on clustering art, culture, and design, integrating high-quality resources to offer the public a platform for close engagement with the arts and a taste of a refined lifestyle. The “Contemporary Small-scale Art Collection and Promotion Program of Chongqing” now in its fifth successful year, is an annual initiative aimed at fostering a diverse art ecosystem in Chongqing and cultivating its local art market. Since its launch, Lush and Bountiful: Contemporary Small-scale Art Collection and Promotion Program of Chongqing 2023 has garnered wide support from artists, institutions, collectors, media, and art lovers. It has attracted participation from over 30 art schools and expanded its influence across the art world and beyond.
This year’s edition also marks a breakthrough in scale and setting. In addition to nine art and aesthetic spaces within the Jinshan Yiku park, special urban exhibitions have been set up in venues such as the Jintai Integrated Circuit Design Industrial Park, China Merchants Manvilla, and Chongqing Contemporary Plastic Surgery Hospital—further bridging art and everyday life. The initiative aims to make art consumption a popular means of experiencing, understanding, and collecting art, bringing artistic appreciation closer to the public.
As one of the featured exhibitions, Fu Wenjun: Re-reading Art History presents over 20 works from Fu’s multimedia series of the same name. With an innovative perspective and a diverse range of media, the series delves into a deep reinterpretation of traditional art history. Traversing time and space, Fu reimagines and reconstructs representative artworks from different periods, regions, and schools to highlight the richness of human creativity and the continuity of art’s historical evolution. At the same time, modern technological methods are employed to challenge and reframe art history, revealing the cultural, political, and philosophical meanings behind it.
Lush and Bountiful: Contemporary Small-scale Art Collection and Promotion Program of Chongqing 2023 and the Re-reading Art History exhibition will remain open to the public—free of charge—until October 8. All are welcome to visit, explore, and purchase works they love.

From June 10 to July 14, 2023, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Cultural Heritage Photography Exhibition was held at the China Millennium Monument in Beijing. Co-hosted by the China Artistic Photography Society, Cultural Relics Photography Committee of the China Cultural Relics Society, Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Foundation, Beijing Museum Society, China Millennium Monument Art Museum, and Beijing International Center for Cultural and Art Conservation, the exhibition featured Fu Wenjun’s conceptual photography series Twelve Chinese Zodiac Signs.
As part of the “World Heritage Theme” section of Beijing International Photography Week, this exhibition aimed both to enhance public awareness of cultural heritage protection and to promote the inheritance of traditional culture, thereby advancing cultural confidence and development. It also served as a meaningful contribution to the strategic goals of coordinated development across Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei, and the broader vision of building Beijing into a city of museums—breathing new life into the region’s rich cultural and tourism resources.
Fu Wenjun’s Twelve Chinese Zodiac Signs series, created in 2009, explores historical consciousness through conceptual photography. By repeating the imagery of the Yuanmingyuan (Old Summer Palace) ruins, the artist emphasizes the deeper historical implications behind the high-profile auction of the bronze rat and rabbit heads by Christie’s. In the photographs, twelve laptops are deliberately placed in front of the ruins. On the screens, digitally reconstructed images of the zodiac heads are displayed alongside bilingual (Chinese and English) descriptive texts. This juxtaposition draws a link between the historical site of Yuanmingyuan and present-day global events, particularly the auctions that reconstruct and reshape the narrative of that history.
In this sense, Twelve Chinese Zodiac Signs is not only a response to contemporary events but also an expression of historical perspective—underscoring the importance of the present in reinterpreting and reflecting on the past. The series invites viewers to reconsider the value and meaning of history in today’s world. In 2010, the Yuanmingyuan Ruins Museum permanently acquired the entire series for its collection.

From September 5 to 30, 2022, Chinese artist Fu Wenjun’s mixed media work Look Around I was featured in the group exhibition Untold Stories at Il Leone Art Gallery in Rome, Italy.
Jointly curated and organized by Rossocinabro and Tapropane, the exhibition focuses on the concept of “stories”—because wherever there are people, there are stories. Since ancient times, humanity has been telling stories in countless forms and languages, opening doors to imagination while shaping the multifaceted structure of human history.
The exhibition brings together diverse narratives conveyed through artistic language by various artists. More importantly, these stories are not merely personal; they are open and fluid, allowing viewers to interpret them from different perspectives and to engage with them in their own ways.
Fu Wenjun’s work Look Around I features a central figure reminiscent of a reawakened Terracotta Warrior, whose sharp gaze is fixed upon the present. The passage of history has left traces on his face and clothing, yet he stands resolute, eager to witness what kind of world will unfold before his eyes.
Il Leone Art Gallery, with a history of over 60 years, is located in the heart of Rome near the iconic Colosseum. Throughout its decades-long legacy, the gallery has upheld creativity as its core mission, committed to sharing the unique charm of art and enabling people to experience the power of artistic imagination.

Fu Wenjun’s Digital Pictorial Photography work Flowing Magma was selected for the Pallavicini Art Prize in Italy and exhibited from September 9 to 18 at the Palazzo Pallavicini in Bologna, a central Italian city.
The theme of this year’s Pallavicini Art Prize is Understanding Life Through Time and Space—From the Individual to the Collective, exploring the dissolving boundaries between art and life in today’s era and the mutual influence that arises from it. As curators Claudia Andreotta and Francesca Boriolo write in the exhibition preface: “Reality is always in flux, and the only way to freeze a moment is through art. Art contains two levels of contemplation—one from the artist, embedded in the work, and the other from the viewer, who engages in reflection, questioning, and discovery. Art and life continually collide and interact with one another.”
This interplay between art and life is also reflected in the creative process behind Fu Wenjun’s Flowing Magma. The work was inspired by the artist’s travels in Italy—specifically his profound impressions from visiting the ancient city of Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius. In his artist’s notes, Fu writes: “The volcano from over two thousand years ago still stands. The wind must have felt as dry and hot then as it does now. A once-prosperous Roman city was engulfed by lava in an instant. Today, more than two millennia later, we walk among the unearthed ruins of ancient human life, which have now become a site of touristic fascination.” Through this work, Fu explores the relationship between human civilization and nature—seemingly untouched natural landscapes are in fact constantly shaped by human activity, and in being altered, nature becomes a witness to the unfolding of human history and culture.
The Palazzo Pallavicini, built in the late 15th century, has also stood the test of time, accumulating a rich cultural and artistic legacy. In 1770, the composer Mozart performed here in person. In recent years, the gallery—one of Bologna’s key art institutions—has hosted exhibitions by international artists including Fernando Botero, and will later this year present a major solo exhibition by Giorgio de Chirico, founder of the metaphysical art movement in Europe.