The new project in MUSEC's "Global Aesthetics" cycle features Chinese artist Hu Junjun, with a selection of works created between 2015 and 2024.
Born in Shanghai in 1971, in the 1990s the artist first moved to Beijing to devote herself to painting and poetry as a self-taught artist, and then in 1998 to New York, where she continued her artistic research while developing a broad and profound understanding of Buddhist spirituality. Returning to Shanghai in 2006, where she still lives and works today, Hu Junjun focuses her artistic research on the figure of the Buddha in the iconic position lying on his side; this recurs, like the painted litany in a mantra, in her small and large oil paintings and sculptures made from fragments of fabric salvaged from the world of fashion and meticulously sewn together. The portrayal of the Buddha, the posture of his body, the different styles of the mantle that envelops him, the head surmounted by the bun of hair, the elongated earlobes and, again, the serenity emanating from the lips slightly bent in a smile, all testify to the in-depth study that Hu Junjun has conducted on Buddhist painting and statuary of the Northern Dynasty (386-581 AD).   The spontaneity and almost childlike features of his drawing are also distinctive elements of that traditional iconography. In fact, with the ancient 'cave artists', Hu Junjun shares an artistic intentionality oriented - even before the beauty of form - towards sharing a human experience generated by the profound joy achieved through Zen practice. Not having followed a path of artistic training has never been an obstacle for her. On the contrary, she believes that our weaknesses are to be welcomed as an opportunity, an invitation to exercise our tolerance and experiment with alternative solutions, both in life and in art. The obstacle, instead of closing, thus opens up new and unexpected spaces of freedom.
The exhibition Hu Junjun. The Journey to Compassion, curated by Giancarlo Ermotti and Massimiliano Vitali, presents 38 paintings and sculptures as well as the video 'The Covenant of Nirvana' from 2022, directed by Huang Maosen, on the artist's journey to Buddhism and the genesis of Hu Junjun's large-scale work made entirely from dried tree branches.

Hu Junjun was born in 1971 in Shanghai. As a child, she was an avid reader and dreamed of living an entire life surrounded by books. With a tormented and rather rebellious nature, she wondered about the origin and direction of life throughout her childhood and youth, but was unable to find answers that would appease her. In the early 1990s, he moved to Beijing, to the artists' quarter Yuan-mingyuan, to devote himself to poetry and painting. Hu Junjun's poetic production, for which he received the Anne-Kao prize in 1995, reflected the spirit of a generation of young people in search of a new identity. It was an era of profound modernisation and liberalisation in which contemporary artists sought new sources of inspiration in Europe and the United States. These were the years when she also met her future husband, the artist Zhang Huan, with whom she moved to New York in 1998. Hu Junjun began to find answers to her questions in NYC, in 2003, in the Chan meditation centre located just a few minutes from her home. La Temple attendance and immersion in the readings give her the feeling that the articulate system of thought contained in the texts of Buddhist doctrine can help her answer the many existential questions that have always accompanied her. Under the guidance of her first Buddhist mentor, Master Sheng Yen, Hu Junjun fully embraced Buddhist spirituality and philosophy, allowing it to permeate every aspect of her life. In 2006, Hu Junjun left the United States and returned to China to settle with his family in Shanghai, where he still lives and where his art workshop is based. 'Beyond the Mountain', 'Living with Impermanence', 'Nirvana in Nature', 'The Universe in Nirvana' and 'Life Reborn' are just some of the titles of the solo exhibitions that the artist has already held in numerous cities in China and Taiwan. The exhibition at the MUSEC in Lugano celebrates his work for the first time in Europe.

The artist in her Studio in Shanghai