TuttoToscana on Art & Place
By Katherine McCarthy
2017 marks the first TuttoToscana edition featuring an art event in the NYC lineup. Our team welcomes a new collaboration with the FUA Art & Places course that is currently curating the event here in Florence in preparation for NYC.
Art and places are often connected because the environment in which an artist lives and visits affects the way a person thinks and therefore how they conduct themselves and their artwork. Surroundings in which art is created can greatly influence the style of the artwork, the colors used, and the overall meaning of the work. Tuscany, specifically Florence, was the location of the birth of the Renaissance and the city thus holds Renaissance art.
On the other hand, other metropoli have different characters: take New York for instance, that is a forward thinking city, and its art reflects that through daring aesthetics and often controversial elements. Florentine art and architecture is in someways “bizarre,” as Harvard University associate Even Borsook once said, because while much of it is made of the same material and the same colors, the designs and patterns all contradict one another but in a strange way this contradiction works in its display. Even with the temporary contemporary art installations which have been lately animating the city center. For example, the current statues by contemporary Swiss artist Urs Fisher in Piazza della Signoria completely clash with the Renaissance sculptures that share the space with, however, the space still has harmony because all the artworks have a similar grandeur, and a certain adherence to their own time.
This year’s TuttoToscana event week in NYC features not only a new theme, Fragments of Tuscany, but a new event category revolving around art. Tuscan artist Lorenzo Brini will exhibit his works at an art aperitivo. Guests will see touches of this “Firenze bizzarra” in both his works teeming with visual fragments of Tuscany and the menu, which includes flavors of all different kinds – sweet, spicy, sour, etc. – that initially may not seem complimentary yet they all come together. Sometimes clashing, yet inevitably successful in combining, as in the case of Florence itself. Stay tuned for more posts on the event and the artist we will be featuring.
Urs Fisher in Piazza della Signoria. Photo by Courtney Carl.
Follow our journey from Florence to NYC on Facebook.