When talking about classic Italian sculpture one can easily visualize epic marble statues from ancient Roman times or Michelangelo's majestic 'David' from the Renaissance Period. But, by late 19th century, sculptors in Italy had already began experimenting with new mediums (with aesthetic meanings) in the hope of breaking new ground.
With advanced materials and technologies invented, Italian  contemporary sculpture in the past century has gained a kind of revo- lutionary presentation. However, little of it known by the rest of the world because there were so few Italian artists able to hold decent exhibitions outside the country.
To fill the gap, an ongoing exhibition at Shenzhen's He Xiangning Art Museum, entitled "Subtle Energies of Matter  –  Italian Contemporary Sculpture International Review", offers the public the opportunity to learn about the development of Italian contemporary sculpture. 
It showcases altogether 50 works of 31 Italian artists, including both emerging young talent and masters from the 1960s Italian art movement "Arte Povera", such as Giulio Paolini, Giuseppe Penone and Gilberto Zorio. Re-worked in radically new ways, these quasi-avant-garde "Arte Povera" members employed unlimited  materials, revealing the elemental forces locked within them and the fields of energy that surround our daily life.
Yet this is actually not the first time for local audiences to encounter such "unusual" sculptures. The recent 'Vista of Perspective – the 6th Shenzhen Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition' has already made a successful statement. "Comparing the two exhibitions, I found that domestic contemporary sculptors are more likely to relate their art to realistic or ideological matters, while Italian artists are keen on  exploring the substance of diverse materials," reckons Feng Boyi who directed the 'Vista of Perspective' program.
The title that underlines the initial conception of "lightness" has made Feng's point clear. "By applying various portable materials and the effect of light, color and video, artists have made those seemingly heavy materials lose their inherent weight. They are suspended in the air so that it makes the visitors feel like coming into a three- dimensional space, with the enjoyment of mysterious and wonderful visual dynamics," says exhibition curator Marisa Vescovo, from the Turin-based Garuzzo Institute for the Visual Arts. 
Therefore, viewers will not be surprised to find their common sense being stripped away. Take Fabio Viale's Banana Slick" and "Aeroplanes" for example: Through sculpting trivial objects such as a banana skin in heavy marble stone, or hanging paper-thin marble "wings" on mirrors, a strange visual paradox is created. In a piece called "Vanitas-Toilet", Nicola Bolla studded a full-size toilet (which the artist equates with "filthiness") with Swarovski crystals (the symbol of exquisiteness), shocking viewers (as Damien Hirst does) through an oxymoronic contrast defined as the "radicalization of nothing". With his works "Souls" and "Hanging Questions", combining day-to-day items (Cremona violin and fishing nets) with technology (neon lights and video), Filippo Centenari demonstrates that the "uncanny" does not necessarily generate fear, but is part of everyday experience.
Shenzhen audiences are now lucky to have access to all these  pioneering works after successful exhibitions in Beijing and Shanghai. It is also the exhibition's last stop in the Chinese mainland.
"Shenzhen is a very young and modern city, and it's the right atmosphere for promoting young Italian artists," adds the curator. 

The "Subtle Energies of Matter—Italian Contemporary Sculpture International Review", is running through June 25 at the He Xiangning Art Museum (0755-2660 4540) in Shenzhen.