Francesco Vezzoli in Florence

From October 2 a monumental work of the artist in Piazza della Signoria

With two new sculptures in Piazza della Signoria and Palazzo Vecchio, from October 2, 2021 Francesco Vezzoli will be the protagonist of Francesco Vezzoli in Florence, curated by Cristiana Perrella and Sergio Risaliti.

The project - presented by the Museo Novecento of Florence and the Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Art The project - presented by the Museo Novecento Firenze and the Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci of Prato, realized under the patronage of the Comune di Firenze and organized by Mus.e - unites contemporary art with the historical and artistic heritage of the city.

After the interventions of Jan Fabre, Urs Fisher and Jeff Koons and the presentation of a work by Giuseppe Penone, with Francesco Vezzoli Piazza della Signoria will be once again the fulcrum of contemporary art in the cradle par excellence of the Renaissance. Francesco Vezzoli will moreover be the first living Italian artist to create a site-specific work for Piazza della Signoria, specially conceived for the occasion.

After his exhibition in the city in 2014, Francesco Vezzoli returns to Florence, tackling its most symbolic places. In Piazza della Signoria, a monumental twentieth-century rampant lion, installed on an ancient base, crushes between its jaws a Roman head from the second century AD. Together with the intervention in the square, the project includes a second sculpture, positioned inside the Studiolo of Francesco I de' Medici in Palazzo Vecchio, a precious treasure chest full of mysterious iconographic, esoteric and astrological suggestions made between 1569 and 1573, which for the first time ever hosts a work of contemporary art.

A "metaphysical" bronze head is grafted onto a figure of a Roman togato, a quotation from De Chirico's The Archaeologists, one of the works that best represents the recovery of classicism in modern times. Compared to Renaissance restorations, Vezzoli follows the conceptual path of De Chirico and Savinio, inventors of metamorphosis and mysterious collages, and instead of seeking formal harmony, he composes disconcerting hybrids, linguistic collages that regenerate the forms of tradition but which have a life of their own. A surreal world made of archaeology and fantasy, memory and invention, where classical culture, instead of an immutable, timeless model, becomes matter to be decomposed and recomposed.

After Francesco Vezzoli's intervention in the public space of Florence, the Centro Pecci in Prato will dedicate a solo exhibition to the artist from February 2022.