In case you missed it, there was a recent temporary installation by Tuscan artist Federico Gori in the courtyard of the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence entitled Di fragilità e potenza (On Fragility and Power). A 7+ meter oak tree was suspended in the Renaissance space, proposing a duality of not only fragility (life) and power (structure), but also between man and nature, between lightness and stability, as well as protection and exposure.
I like that this installation has been described as radical, in all senses of the word: the root of a matter, the fundamental origin, and an extremity. The visitor is invited to contemplate a dialogue between the contemporary work and its environment, as well as the symbolic placement of man himself.
Gori has created a visual ground for the tree using a composition of sheets of copper imprinted with leaves, branches and bark, creating sort of visual “sound board” suggesting movement and the natural process of change and aging. Even though they are made from metal, they retain a sense of fragility.
Federico Gori, who was born in Prato in 1977, currently lives and works in Pistoia. After studying painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, he was invited by Sergio Risaliti to show his work in Prato’s Palazzo del Comune in 2002 in the context of an event entitled Gemine Muse devoted to displaying the work of young artists in the museums of Europe. He was awarded a resident stage in 2003 by the Fondazione “Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri. Hic Terminus Haeret”, where he produced a site-specific work for display in the park. The exhibitions in which he has taken part in recent years include Apocalisse curated by Giovanna Uzzani, Bianca Pinzi and Daniele Franchi at the Villa Medicea La Màgia in Quarrata, Pistoia, in 2007; Abitanti Ambienti curated by Silvia Lucchesi at the Galleria Il Ponte in Florence in 2008; Eternal Sunshine curated by Fabio Migliorati for Alexander Alvarez Contemporary Art, Alessandria – MAEC, Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca città di Cortona in 2010; 1910-2010. Un secolo d’arte a Pistoia curated by Lara-Vinca Masini at the Palazzo Fabroni in Pistoia in 2010; Von curated by Fabio Migliorati at the Galleria Lara e Rino Costa in Valenza, Alessandria, in 2010; Video Art Yearbook curated by Renato Barilli at the Dipartimento delle Arti Visive Università di Bologna in 2010; Dalla terra al cielo curated by Giannella Demuro for the Progetto Arti Visive in Berchidda, Olbia-Tempio; Seeds at the Galleria Biagiotti Progetto Arte in Florence in 2012; Memorie curated by Nicola Davide Angerame at the Galleria Whitelabs in Milan in 2012; and Le stagioni del nostro amore curated by Chiara Canali at the Antico Frantoio di Quiesa in Lucca – Villa Castello Smilea in Montale, Pistoia, in 2012. See more on the CCC Strozzina website.
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