Press Release
Centro Pecci presents the first solo exhibition in Italy of Yu Ji, a Chinese woman artist who came to international attention with the 2019 Venice Biennale. Yu Ji's work draws inspiration for her practice as a sculptor from the context in which she lives and works, resulting in unfinished forms that evoke bodies and situations in transition and related to the everyday life. The exhibition stems from the daily confrontation with the context of the city of Prato and the spaces of Centro Pecci where the artist will produce new works alongside existing ones. The exhibition continues the investigation begun by the artist at CCA Berlin during her solo exhibition in 2023, to which Hide Me in Your Belly serves as an ideal continuation.
Yu Ji is known for a diverse practice that spans sculpture, installation, performance, video and most recently drawing. Much of her work is motivated by the investigation of the concept of place and the capacity for specific loci to be charged with both geographical and historical narratives. She frequently conducts field research, as part of which she has staged temporary interventions in different sites around the world, which reflect upon and interrogate the place of the body within everyday environments. In 2008, she co-founded am art space – an artist-led space in Shanghai, promoting experimentation and exchanges between artists, curators and the public.
