To welcome the 2026 Chinese New Year, Valentino presented the "Dreams of Light" Spring Lantern Festival from Jan 16 to 18, celebrating the joy, hope, and renewal of the Year of the Horse. The festival was held at the historic Tianhou Temple, along the Suzhou Creek in Shanghai, a site built in 1884.

Curated by X Zhu-Nowell, director and chief curator of the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, the lantern festival featured light-based art installations by local Chinese artists, offering a modern reinterpretation of the festive symbolism associated with the Year of the Horse. X Zhu-Nowell, who resides in both Shanghai and New York, explores how exhibitions, institutions, and public spaces are continually reshaped by the hidden infrastructure of globalization and migration history, rejecting the fixed narratives of coherence and completeness.