Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

It can be visited for free by reservation only until 11 October

Milan, September 8 2020 – Opens tomorrow, Wednesday 9 September, and will remain open for free until Sunday 11 October, 'Out of the blue, Journey into calligraphy through Alcantara', an exhibition promoted and produced by the Municipality of Milan, Palazzo Reale and Alcantara SpA, specifically conceived to the Princes' Apartment.

Access to the exhibition is limited, by reservation only and in compliance with the provisions aimed at protecting the safety and health of visitors.

The exhibition, curated by Dagmar Carnevale Lavezzoli and Katie Hill, takes part in the Art week 2020 (7 -13 September 2020) and confirms Alcantara's constant interest in the most advanced contemporary creativity, transforming the spaces of Palazzo Reale in Milan into doors of access to exhibition proposals that are unusual in terms of content and methods of use.

Calligraphy is one of the highest artistic forms of Chinese culture. In 'Out of the blue' six established Chinese artists – Qin Feng, Qu Lei Lei, Sun Xun, Mao Lizi, Zhang Chun Hong, Wang Huangsheng – combine the thousand-year tradition of their past with the most modern technologies, using Alcantara as the common denominator . Ranging from digital projections to forests of ink on scrolls, the artists are inspired by calligraphic practice to question the nature of the relationship between man and the world around him through Taoist notions of temporality, life force and participation.

Founded in 1972, Alcantara represents one of the excellences of Made in Italy and has been certified "Carbon neutral" since 2009, having defined, reduced and compensated for all CO emissions₂ related to your business. In 2011, reporting was extended to include the entire life cycle of the product, therefore including the use and disposal phases (“from cradle to grave”).

The Princes' Apartment, a room with ten rooms in the south-west wing of the Royal Palace, is a precious example of a royal residence from the early nineteenth century, which has come down to us almost intact. Planned for the Napoleonic reorganization of the building in 1805, it was used as a "reserve apartment for princes" in 1830, intended for princes and arch-dukes born from Ranieri's marriage to Elizabeth of Savoy-Carignano. The renovation work, which involved the sophisticated decoration of the rooms, mostly in Restoration style, directed by the architect Giacomo Tazzini, ended in 1838, shortly after the arrival of Emperor Ferdinand I, who arrived in Milan to wear the crown of King of Lombardy Veneto.