Merì, Huangshan establish friendly relations

The city of Huangshan in Anhui province signed a memorandum of understanding on May 20 to establish friendly and cooperative relations with Merì, a municipality in the metropolitan city of Messina in Sicily, Italy.

[Video provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The two sides will carry out various forms of exchanges and cooperation in fields such as tourism development, heritage protection and cultural exchanges.

In 2021, the Italian "Timeless Immortal Art project" project was set up in Tunxi district to strengthen exchanges and cooperation between the two cities.

Initiated in March 2020 by Carmelo Arcoraci, Merì's councilor for culture, and Sicilian painter Lorenzo Chinnici, the project aims to transform Merì into an "open-air museum" by installing terracotta tiles painted by 60 artists from 34 countries at streets and squares.

A total of 61 works were exhibited at the "Timeless Immortal Art project" China premiere. Among the selected works were those by 18 Chinese painters, including 13 Huangshan painters.

The 2023 International Tunxi Village Art Exhibition was also held on the day and featured earth art. The term "earth art" refers to art that is made by shaping the land itself or by making forms in the land using natural materials like rocks or tree branches. Earthworks were part of the wider conceptual art movement in the 1960s and 1970s.