The National Roman Museum under the direction of Federica Rinaldi opens in Halls X and XI- XIbis of the Baths of Diocletian the solo exhibition by the artist Wu Jian’an (Beijing, 1980) Metamorphoses. Art that transforms: it is the first one set up in an Italian museum. Curated by Umberto Croppi for the Berengo Foundation with the coordination of Giulia Cirenei, the exhibition unfolds as an immersive journey through the different materials and techniques that define Wu Jian’an's artistic practice: from hand-blown Murano glass to contemporary monumental works that inherit and deconstruct Chinese artistic traditions, while simultaneously using paper cutouts, leather carving, and collage.

Set in a monumental architectural space, the exhibition offers a reflection on transformation through a continuous dialogue between Eastern and Western traditions. The space that hosts it is the result of a historical stratification that provides a suggestive and symbolic background for Wu Jian’an's exploration of change, continuity, and reinvention.

Drawing from classical Roman mythology and Eastern philosophical traditions, Wu Jian’an weaves references to Ovid's "Metamorphoses" — with their assertion that "nec species sua cuique manet" ("no being retains its form") — as a key idea through which

to interpret this project, intertwining it with Taoist notions of generative transformation and change (化生, huàshēng).

Rather than placing inherited ideas, materials, and stories within fixed cultural positions, the artist synthesizes them in a dynamic process of transformation, allowing myth, medium, and narrative to be continually reconfigured in a unified visual language that reflects contemporary experiences of instability, change, and renewal. The juxtaposition of works created with different techniques and scales highlights his extraordinary ability to

create images and his refined craftsmanship, while deepening his broader conceptual investigation into transformation as both a material and philosophical process.