The exhibition “A World of Beauty - Masterpieces from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples” opens the collaboration between the Italian Cultural Institute of Shanghai and the group Shanghai Lujiazui Development Company Limited. Housed on the first and third floors of the Museum of Art Pudong (MAP), in the heart of Lujiazui (Shanghai’s financial district), the exhibition was conceived and designed by architect Aldo Cibic – co-founder of the Memphis Group and an honorary professor at Tongji University – along with Joseph Dejardin, from Cibic Workshop, and curated by Francesco D’Arelli, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute of Shanghai, Mario Grimaldi, and Clara Tosi Pamphili.

The exhibition was not only designed to tell a wider story about beauty as a timeless experience, but also to bring out the story of each piece. Sculptures, paintings, mosaics, bronzes, and glasses from the Farnese Collection and the archaeological excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum show the Roman world of the first and second centuries and its influence on Western culture.

A series of enclosures divides the exhibition spaces, creating a sort of labyrinth through which the experience unfolds slowly. Objects emerge from the dark, dramatically struck by light, and bright colors – which echo the primary tones used to decorate the sculptures and architecture of the time – create an emotional experience.

The exhibition also explores the possible presence of beauty within the exercise of power, violence, and sport, and then examines the relationship between love and beauty, culminating in a room that houses Apollo and Venus.