Curricula

Guicciardo Sassoli de’ Bianchi Strozzi (1980) is an art historian and critic, curator and director of international cultural initiatives, with a particular focus on the history of art criticism, comparative research and cultural diplomacy. Alongside his education at the Università di Bologna, with degrees in History and Visual Arts and a specialisation in Historical and Artistic Heritage, and his work in journalism and cultural promotion, he has built almost twenty years of entrepreneurial and managerial experience in the Oil & Gas and LPG sector, working with Eni, Butangas and Liquigas and developing expertise in management, contracts, logistics and the running of complex operations.

He has carried out archival research, curatorial and management work in the cultural field in Europe, South America and China, collaborating with institutions, universities, academies, publishing groups and museums, including the Gallerie degli Uffizi, the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, the MART in Rovereto, the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani, the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut, the Latvian National Museum of Art, De Gruyter Brill, the Università di Bologna and the Università di Pisa. He contributed to the organisation of the World Congress of Art History of the CIHA – Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art in Florence and to the CIHA Workshop in Bologna.

He has been invited to give lectures, seminars, classes and presentations at, among others, the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, the Università di Messina, the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, the ADI Design Museum and the Politecnico di Milano, the Estorick Collection in London, the Nishan Forum on Classical Civilizations in Qufu, the Quanzhou Overseas Transportation History Museum and the Annual General Meeting of the World Heritage Cities at the Summer Palace in Beijing.

In the field of cultural diplomacy he has worked with the Embassy of Italy and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Beijing, the Consulates General of Italy in Chongqing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, the Embassies of Italy in Latvia, Lithuania and Spain, the Istituti Italiani di Cultura in Madrid and New York, and the Delegation of the European Union to Japan.

In China he has developed research, publishing and exhibition projects with the China Academy of Art, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Tsinghua University, China World Art Museum, Sichuan Museum, Tianjin Museum, Guardian Art Center and Poly MGM Museum, as well as with the Fondazione Italia Cina, within programmes dedicated to Italian historical and artistic heritage, contemporary art and cultural dialogue between Italy and China.

In 2023 he founded the Associazione Nuova Artemarea ETS, of which he is President and Scientific Director, promoting and coordinating exhibitions, publications and research, artist residency programmes and international cultural cooperation projects. He has published over 40 academic contributions, many of them translated into several languages, on the history of criticism and comparative art, artistic and cultural relations between Italy and China, the United States, South America and the Baltic states, art history from the Renaissance to the present day, with particular attention to Futurism and the avant-gardes in art and architecture, the history of collecting and exhibitions, the relationship between art and politics, and cultural diplomacy.

Giorgia Cestaro (1988) is a researcher and curator specialising in architecture, the history of cultural heritage and cultural diplomacy between Italy and China. After a degree in Art History at the Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia, she earned a PhD in Architecture. History and Project within the joint programme between the Politecnico di Torino and Tsinghua University in Beijing, becoming the first candidate of the doctoral programme between the two universities.

She has lived in Beijing since 2015, where she has built a career that brings together academic research, cultural promotion and institutional relations. She worked at the Embassy of Italy in Beijing, later joining the staff of its Cultural Office, where she helped develop initiatives in cultural cooperation between Italy and China. She works as Exhibition Advisor for the Embassy and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, supporting their cultural promotion and cultural diplomacy activities. Her research focuses on transnational models of cultural heritage conservation, with particular attention to the dialogue between Italy and China. She is currently a researcher at the Politecnico di Torino, where she works on the research and promotion of Italian architecture in China.

Manuela Valentini (1982) is an independent curator and art critic, specialised in Contemporary Art History at the Università di Bologna. Born in Bologna, she lives and works in Rome and is active both in Italy and internationally, curating exhibitions, carrying out artistic research and promoting contemporary art. Throughout her career she has collaborated with museums, galleries and cultural organisations, developing exhibition projects devoted to Italian and international artists.

Among the exhibitions she has curated are New Future (2013) at the Museo di Palazzo Poggi in Bologna, dedicated to young Mediterranean artists, and the retrospective of Raimondo Galeano held in Naples in 2014 under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic. From 2020 to 2022 she directed the art section of Off Gallery in Bologna, curating exhibitions and collaborations with artists and galleries. A journalist registered with the Ordine dei Giornalisti of Emilia-Romagna, she writes for Il Resto del Carlino and Exibart and works as an art advisor.

Ginevra Cavina Boari (1956) is a lawyer specialising in international contracts, comparative international law, canon law and procedural law.

A founding member of Nuova Artemarea ETS and a member of its Board of Directors, she has served since 2023 as Treasurer and Head of the Administrative, Legal and Archival Research Division. Within the Association she coordinates the legal, administrative and contractual aspects of national and international cultural projects, managing relations with institutions, museums and private parties. She is also responsible for archival research and for the organisational and logistical coordination of exhibitions, conferences and cultural initiatives.

Ren Jingge (1989) is a curator, art critic and linguistic and cultural mediator between Italy and China. He holds a Bachelor of Literature from the Guilin University of Electronic Science and Technology and continued his studies in Painting at the Bologna Academy of Fine Arts and in Visual Arts at the University of Bologna, specialising in art history and theory. A Chinese-language teacher certified internationally by the Ministry of Education of China, since 2024 he has taught Chinese language and cultural mediation at the SSML “Carlo Bo” Institute of Advanced Studies in Milan, and since 2026 Chinese at the University of Milan, after teaching Specialist Translation and Conference Interpreting at IULM University. He has worked as an interpreter and translator for institutions such as the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing and Tsinghua University.

As a delegate of Nuova Artemarea ETS for the curatorship of international exhibitions, he has curated and co-curated, among others, “A Journey of Knowledge: ‘The Travels of Marco Polo’ and Its Legacy between East and West” at the China World Art Museum, Beijing (2024), “The Cascella family. Beyond time” at the Italian Cultural Institute in Madrid (2025), “The Imperial Palace of Beijing” at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (2026), “Memory and Future. Italian Contemporary Art” at the Guardian Art Center (2026) and “Global Intellectualism: The Bologna School” at the Italy China Foundation in Beijing (2026). He also oversees the residency programme for Italian artists in Beijing, “Developments in the Contemporary” (2025-2026).