When I feel that depression takes over, I go back to Florence to look at Brunelleschi’s dome: if the genius of man has gone so far, then I too can and must try to create, act, live. “
(Franco Zeffirelli)
For centuries, Florence has been an artistically cutting-edge city, a hotbed of continuous contemporary developments thanks to sensitive patrons and talented and visionary artists; Donatello was little more than twenty years old when his San Giorgio per Orsanmichele broke with the late Gothic tradition by introducing Renaissance innovations, at the time considered “revolutionary”; a century later, Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino, eighteen years old, were called to fresco the Cloister of the Vows of the Santissima Annunziata; Leonardo da Vinci was a young seventeen year old when he entered at Verrocchio’s workshop and executed masterpieces such as “the Annunciation” or “the Adoration of the Magi”. The cultured and farsighted patronage of Lorenzo the Magnificent, however, made Florence the “new Athens”, or the cultural lighthouse of the Italian peninsula; while his successors contributed to enriching the city of Giglio with extraordinary civil works, aimed at gaining collective support. Like Grand Duke Cosimo I, who transformed Piazza della Signoria into an extraordinary open-air museum where every sculpture solicited implicit political messages. What we admire today as the great legacy of a glorious Renaissance past is therefore the fruit, at the time, of courageous choices, of artists who abandoned the ruts of tradition to promote a modern and dynamic image of Florence.
In a singular synergy between contemporary art and history, the Art Director Angela Fagu has also selected artists from all over the world, in order to propose new opportunities for reflection and stimulating comparison and, to bring art and aesthetic meditation back into their place of origin, in the beating heart of artistic expression: namely Florence. “ART in Florence” is an artistic exhibition that promotes the multilingualism of current art, showing the importance of adopting a free and diachronic look on art, in a perspective that is always dynamic but respectful of historical events. In fact, through the eclecticism and talent of international artists, the exhibition weaves a stimulating dialogue between past and present, attempting a bold synthesis of opposites: Florence and contemporary art.
The inauguration will take place on Friday 2nd February 2024, at 7.30 pm, in via Borgo Ognissanti 77r, Florence.
During the evening, a welcome cocktail will also be offered while jazz musicians will play live, livening up the evening and creating a happy union between Art and Music.
Virginia Bazzechi Ganucci Cancellieri
