By Rebecca Ceccatelli. Cover image: Marcela Castañeda Florian, Architettura di sopravvivenza – Bandera, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Toast Project.
Time to refresh you summer with current exhibitions in Florence. Living in Florence during the hottest months of the year feels quite like a challenge. With low-pressure systems and water bottles emptying in seconds, staying in the city often seems like the last resort if you’re unable to make it to the actual beach. However, contrary to the usual trend of hosting less significant exhibitions in summer, we’ve managed to compile a list of cultural events that might bring a breath of fresh air to the sweltering days for us Florentines or those who have adopted the city. Here are some exhibitions you definitely shouldn’t miss if you’re feeling inspired during the high temperatures of the Summer 2024.
Ps. Some of these exhibitions in Florence and the surroundings are open until November, so if you don’t have time to see them now, make a note and come back!
4 must-see art exhibitions in Florence to spark out your summer in the city
Louis Bourgeois, Do Not Abandon Me.
Louise Bourgeois’ creatures are being displayed in Florence for the first time within the spaces of “Do Not Abandon Me” at the Novecento Museum, accompanied by a related exhibition titled “Cell XVIII (Portrait)” at the Museo degli Innocenti. Conceived to harmonise with the ex-Leopoldine architectures where they will be housed, over one hundred of the artist’s works will be showcased in a setting originally managed by a predominantly female leadership, addressing many of Bourgeois’ research themes. From the theme of mother and child in her red gouaches to the exploration of the iconography of sexuality, nourishment, dependency, couplehood, family unit, and flowers. By expressing her psychological states through a visual vocabulary, the artist explores wood, marble, bronze, and fabric, with artworks now finally accessible for viewing in the rooms of the exhibitions. In addition to this exhibition in Florence, the Museo Novecento’s cloister will host “Spider Couple” (2003), one of the artist’s famous large spiders. Isn’t that enough to convey just how unmissable this event is?
Where: Museo Novecento, Piazza di Santa Maria Novella 10, Florence. Until October 20, 2024
Pino Pascali, Disegnare una fotografia.
This exhibition in Florence, organised in collaboration with the Pino Pascali Foundation (Polignano a Mare) and the photographic archives of Claudio Abate (Rome), Elisabetta Catalano (Rome), Marcello Colitti (Rome), and Ugo Mulas (Milan), explores Pascali’s frequent use of photography. It examines how the artist operated on both sides of the camera: as an actor posing for a film, a performer alongside his sculptures, a photographer capturing images for an advertising project, or as an illustrator “drawing a photograph”.
Additionally, the exhibition features a selection of drawings characterised by the use of photographic supports, techniques, and materials (film, emulsion papers, enlargements, contact prints, photograms, and photo paintings), which further highlight Pascali’s obsessive tendency to predict the outcome of the shot through technical study.
Where: Frittelli Arte Contemporanea, Via Val di Marina, 15, Florence. Until September 14, 2024.
Yu Ji, Hide Me in Your Belly.
Just a few kilometres out of Florence, Centro Pecci in Prato hosts the first solo exhibition in Italy of Yu Ji, a Chinese artist who gained international recognition at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Her artistic practice, which ranges from sculpture to performance and drawing, is deeply inspired by her surroundings, creating forms that evoke bodies and situations in transition.
The exhibition, developed in collaboration with the city of Prato and the museum’s spaces, showcases new works created specifically for the event alongside existing pieces. This project builds on Yu Ji’s previous exploration at CCA Berlin in 2023, following on from “Hide Me in Your Belly”. The artist’s research delves into the concept of place and its geographical and historical narratives, often through temporary interventions in various global contexts.
Where: Centro Luigi Pecci, V.le della Repubblica, 277, Prato. Until September 8
Marcela Castañeda Florian
Last but not least as one of our fav events in Florence is located at Toast Project with a studio program launched in the summer of 2024, designed for local visual artists in need of a workspace. The program offers three annual residencies, with the first edition being invitation-only.
During their stay at the studio, artists can participate in various activities focused on knowledge exchange and artistic dialogue. Toast supports the artist through individual meetings, helping them develop and enhance their practice and research from emotional, practical, and theoretical perspectives.
Additionally, the Toast team invites various professionals to visit the studio, fostering relationships between the project, the artist, and the art scene. At the end of the four-month residency, artists present their work at a public event organised by Toast, open to the community.
The first artist invited is Marcela Castañeda Florian, a young international artist in town who will have the opportunity to expand her practice in the spaces of the Florentine studios at Manifattura Tabacchi.
On the 9th of October everyone is therefore invited to the Open studios to see the results of this first residency!
Where: Toast Project Space, Via delle Cascine 35, Florence.