Pietro Ruffo - Lois Conner
On Monday 25 May 2026 at 6:00 pm, the Paper Space of the Temple Dongjingyuan in Beijing hosted a special evening dedicated to Italy, organised in collaboration with the Italian Embassy in Beijing and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Beijing.
Set between two important exhibitions dedicated to Andrea Palladio — the master of Renaissance architecture whose vision profoundly marked the history of Western architecture — the evening followed the success of the exhibition Geometry, Harmony and Life. The architecture of Andrea Palladio from Antiquity to Classicism, recently hosted at the National Museum of China, and offered a brief preview of the exhibition Chinese Voices on Palladio, officially opened on 10 July 2026 at the Tsinghua University Art Museum.
Andrea Palladio (1508–1580) is considered one of the most influential architects of the Italian Renaissance. Through the study of classical architecture and the integration of the knowledge of his time, he redefined architecture with tireless exploration and extraordinary influence. His treatise, I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura, remains a cornerstone of architectural theory.
This exhibition presents a contemporary reinterpretation of Palladio's legacy through the eyes of the celebrated American photographer Lois Conner, with a selection of works from her photographic project devoted to Palladian architecture. Through her unique visual language, Conner explores Palladio's architecture not as an isolated historical monument, but as a living presence in dialogue with landscape, light, atmosphere and contemporary perception. Internationally known for her large-format photography and for her deep connection with the Italian and Chinese cultural landscapes, Conner has developed over decades a distinctive visual research centred on the relationship between architecture, memory and place. Her work offers an intimate and meditative perspective on Palladian architecture, revealing unexpected spatial and emotional dimensions.
The photographs were placed in dialogue with four works by the Italian artist Pietro Ruffo (Rome, 1978), entitled The Flowers of Time, created specifically for the project and presented here for the first time. In these works, Ruffo revisits Palladio's I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura, developing a practice that interweaves architecture, botany and the memory of landscape. Alongside his reinterpretation of Palladian geometries, the artist has carried out research into the plants and flowers of sixteenth-century Veneto, Palladio's homeland, incorporating palaeoclimatic data on the flora of the period and on the impact of climate change on plant habitats.
Ruffo is currently considered one of the leading voices in contemporary Italian art and was recently the subject of a solo exhibition at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome.
The exhibition is curated by Juan van Wassenhove (Founder and Curator of the Temple Dongjingyuan) together with Guicciardo Sassoli de' Bianchi Strozzi (President of Associazione Nuova Artemarea ETS), with the advice of Giorgia Cestaro (Politecnico di Torino).
The evening continued at 7:30 pm with a concert by the Italian pianist and composer Giulia Mazzoni, an internationally renowned artist who returned to perform in China after several years' absence.
