Architectural Project Drawing – 11 Architects from China and Italy

For the first time, within the Silk Road International Art Exhibition – part of the 11th edition of the Silk Road International Arts Festival organised by the People’s Government of Shaanxi Province, and co-organised by the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and the Xi’an Municipal People’s Government, the exhibition has included Architectural Art by establishing a dedicated special section. This initiative aims to foster a profound interdisciplinary dialogue between the visual arts and architecture, effectively broadening and deepening artistic exchanges along the Silk Road, and injecting new contemporary elements and vitality into the brand “The Silk Road Today”.

In architecture, drawing is not merely a representational tool, but a true critical and design language in its own right. Descriptive operations require a disciplined use of graphic signs whose purpose is to ensure both precision and communicability of the project. Yet the architectural project drawing is also an act of interpretation: it selects, recreates, reveals, and ultimately adheres to a specific viewpoint on reality. Thus understood, drawing is never a neutral act: it is a hermeneutic device, capable of constructing meanings rather than simply recording them. Interpretation becomes an integral component of the design synthesis. Moreover, architectural drawing possesses an autonomous value, independent of construction: it is a work in itself, at once a mode of study and a poetic anticipation—so much so that it may be regarded as the indispensable counterpart of theoretical inquiry.

The exhibition presents more than 470 works from 79 countries and regions, fully representing the most recent achievements and cutting-edge trends in the development of the visual arts both nationally and internationally. The special architecture section, entitled “Architectural Project Drawing – 11 Architects from China and Italy”, curated by Professors Laura A. Pezzetti of the Politecnico di Milano and Li Kun of the Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, includes five urban paintings by the artist Marco Petrus and 23 architectural projects located in countries along the Belt and Road Initiative, amounting to 41 design drawings and 7 models. The exhibition was introduced during the International Fine Arts Salon, held concurrently with the event, through a lecture by Professor Laura A. Pezzetti titled “Architectural Drawings – From the Milan School”.

Professors Liu Kecheng and Lei Zhendong (XAUAT) participated as representatives of Chinese architects. Their exhibited works include, respectively, the interpretative drawings and models of the Mingde Gate Conservation and presentation Project of Sui-Tang Chang’an City, and the Shenna National Heritage Park and Xining Municipal Cultural and Arts Exchange Centre. Laura A. Pezzetti, Professor at the School of Architecture AUIC of the Politecnico di Milano and Honorary Professor at XAUAT, curated the section dedicated to 8 POLIMI Italian architects and presented the drawings and model of the Roman Art Museum of Xi’an.