Emanuele Giannelli's Giants in Florence

Through May 15, The Watcher on the right side of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, and two Korf17 in front of the headquarters of the Region of Tuscany

Following the huge success of Mr. Arbitrium's installation alongside the Basilica of San Lorenzo in 2022, Emanuele Giannelli returns to Florence with the exhibition Giannelli. The Sky Above Florence, through May 15.

Three monumental sculptures are in town: The Watcher (5 mt.) installed on the right side of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, and two Korf17 (5 mt.) installed on either side of the entrance door of the headquarters of the Region of Tuscany, Palazzo Strozzi Sacrati, in Piazza Duomo.

Korf17 (5 mt.) davanti alla sede della Regione Toscana, Palazzo Strozzi Sacrati, in piazza Duomo

The title of the exhibition, is deliberately taken from Wim Wenders' cinematic masterpiece, and tells of the skyward gazes of the three monumental figures installed in Florence. In the gray sky above Berlin, in its streets and buildings, Wenders makes countless angels move, not visible to adults but only to children. The idea came about during his walks, where the director noticed that there were many depictions of angels in Berlin, so the author conceived the idea of guardian angels as protagonists

Florence, is a city where a series of great visionaries have built history through their thinking. The sky above Florence, in its highest vision Brunelleschi built it, through that Dome that has never been surpassed. But also, still speaking of the sky, Dante with that “E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle” of his.

The Watcher (5 mt.), Emanuele Giannelli

The Watcher is a man on the move, with his eyes and with his mind. His pose, with muscles in extreme tension, highlights the figure in the act of scrutinizing the universe. Solemn and hieratic, Korf17 is a five-meter monumental sculpture that stands imperious in the act of peering into a very distant space through a virtual reality immersion mask. Fixed like a sentinel, Kork17 pulls the viewer beyond the real.

“The Watcher and Korf17,” comments the artist, ”are two important figures in my work, their being monumental should create awe not only because of their size, but above all because of what they represent: the invitation to look far, to search beyond, to peer into the invisible in search of the tangibility of thought, to open oneself to a cosmocentric vision that leads man in the right path and in a balanced relationship between himself and the universe".