COLLEZIONI COMUNALI D’ARTE, PALAZZO D’ACCURSIO, BOLOGNA
A major international exhibition exploring the evolving language of contemporary Chinese calligraphy, Beyond Ink: New Horizons of Contemporary Chinese Calligraphy is on view from May 7 through July 5, 2026, at the Collezioni Comunali d’Arte in Palazzo d’Accursio, Bologna. Bringing together over 40 artists and more than 55 works across visual art, graffiti, decorative arts, digital media, and performance, the exhibition offers one of the most comprehensive presentations in Europe dedicated to contemporary Chinese calligraphic practices.
Organized as the culminating exhibition of the European Research Council-funded project WRITE – New Forms of Calligraphy in China: A Contemporary Culture Mirror, the exhibition examines how calligraphy continues to expand beyond the written sign into new artistic, social, and technological territories. Curated by Adriana Iezzi together with Marta R. Bisceglia, Daniele Caccin, and Martina Merenda, the exhibition highlights artists whose practices transform writing into gesture, abstraction, performance, and material experimentation.
We proudly announce that Fung Ming Chip, the represented artist of FQM, is featured in this landmark exhibition.
FUNG MING CHIP: CALLIGRAPHY AS MATERIAL, OBJECT, AND EXPERIENCE
© Courtesy of the WRITE team
Known for his pioneering exploration of experimental scripts, Fung Ming Chip’s practice continually redefines the possibilities of shufa (calligraphy). Through invented writing systems, unconventional materials, and meditative processes, Fung transforms calligraphy from a linguistic form into an experiential and conceptual language.
© Courtesy of the WRITE team
At Beyond Ink, Fung’s work appears within the exhibition’s broader investigation into how calligraphy intersects with contemporary visual culture and design. Among the highlights is a Hermès ceramic service created in collaboration with Fung Ming Chip, demonstrating how calligraphic expression can extend into the realm of decorative and applied arts while maintaining the vitality and philosophical depth of ink traditions.
© Courtesy of the WRITE team
Fung’s exhibited work Technique Handscroll 技巧手卷 (2014) further demonstrates his expansive investigation into the language of contemporary calligraphy. Structured in the format of a traditional Chinese handscroll and divided into individual chapters, the work presents twenty-five calligraphic techniques developed by the artist, including examples of his Sand Script, Light Script, and Shadow Script. Throughout his career, Fung has developed more than one hundred original script forms, each probing the relationship between time, materiality, and perception. Whether through water-based writing methods, translucent scripts, or systems that merge musical notation with brushwork, his practice continually expands the expressive dimensions of calligraphy while remaining deeply rooted in its historical foundations.
© Courtesy of the WRITE team
Structured across four thematic sections — visual arts, graffiti, decorative and applied arts, and performing arts — Beyond Ink demonstrates the extraordinary adaptability of calligraphy in contemporary culture. Visitors encounter works ranging from abstraction and illegible scripts to digital installations, augmented reality experiences, fashion, performance documentation, and experimental sound practices.
The exhibition also marks the public debut of the WRITE Digital Archive, the world’s first digital archive dedicated to contemporary Chinese calligraphy, developed through years of research by the WRITE project.
EXHIBITION INFORMATION
Beyond Ink: New Horizons of Contemporary Chinese Calligraphy
May 7 – July 5, 2026
Collezioni Comunali d’Arte
Palazzo d’Accursio
Piazza Maggiore 6, Bologna
