A project that stems from a daughter’s observation of certain behaviours of her mother affected by Alzheimer’s disease .
The sharing of these images on social media, under the name Mamma Mia Museum, highlights the need to share these fragilities with the outside world. Through the transformative power of art, they acquire visibility and a new form.
The displacement of objects, the combination of seemingly distant elements, and other strange juxtapositions are captured with quick and furtive photographs, reflecting the need to transform and interpret these apparitions as creative and poetic processes rather than errors.
Working in the contemporary art world, the author of this project found herself forced, at the beginning, to bring her mother to “work,” including meetings, exhibition openings, and installations,trying to remain somehow connected to her profession. She even started to observe her mother’s gestures and eccentricities from the same point of view she used to interpret art works, rediscovering in her mother’s casual gestures the same poetic obsessions that drives artists to creation.
Mammia Mia Museum is therefore a series of photographs that sometimes show her mother at exhibitions and museums, and other domestic moments in which certain movements of objects seem to create works of art.
The “art family” surrounding the author immediately recognized the potential of these images, inspiring the creation of a dedicated artistic project.
The Mamma Mia Museum inscription is a Poetrick by artist Stefano Calligaro, also transformed into a ceramic plaque to hang outside the front door, like the entrance to a real museum.
Each image is given a title, a metaphor of the impossible challenges that caregivers are forced to face every day.
Since her mother’s illness began in 2020, Becagli has had to balance work and caregiving, feeling the full weight of a family caregiver, including bureaucracy, family, and the practicalities of life. She has no time for private life. What’s left is dedicated to work, to maintain an income and a foothold in reality.
Serena Becagli, (Florence, 1973), lives and works in Signa (FI). She holds a degree in Phenomenology of Styles from the DAMS (University of Bologna) and works in the promotion, production, curation, and communication of exhibitions and cultural events, as well as in the drafting and coordination of editorial projects, collaborating with various organizations, galleries, museums, and independent spaces.
The LdM Gallery is a project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.
Decolonizing the Gaze is an ongoing participative artistic and research project by the artist Caterina Pecchioli that approaches colonialism by investigating fashion and textile design, combining aesthetics, history, and activism to critically approach the colonial legacy through material culture.
The research took place in the deposits of museums in Italy and the Netherlands, in particular Ex_Museo Coloniale, Museo delle Civiltà in Rome, critically examining fabrics, clothing and archive material. The discussion, involving stylists, artists and fashion designers from African countries and other states with a history of Italian and Dutch colonization, has allowed to examine new points of view and to identify new meanings in fashion practices and body politics that were widespread during the colonial period, and their effects on the individual and the collective imagination.The LdM Gallery will present the project in the form of an exhibition with works by Caterina Pecchioli in collaborationwith Victor R.B. Abbey-Hart, during the 2026 edition of the BHMF.
In collaboration with BHMF – Black History Month Florence
About LdM Gallery
The LdM Gallery is a project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.
PRESENTING THE WORKS OF: JACQUELINE LEWIS , VICTORIA TATE, ERIN GAGE, YAZMIN RECINOS, TRINITY CASTORO
DEVELOPED IN COLLABORATION WITH: WEIRD STUDIO + COLLA COLLA
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF LDM GRAPHIC DESIGN INSTRUCTOR: ANNA CEDERUS
Today we create quickly, consume even faster, and too often mistake software proficiency for creative thinking or design skill. Digital tools make everything appear effortless; they create the illusion that ideas emerge instantly and that the medium will resolve the design for us. This exhibition is the outcome of a semester-long project developed by the Fall 2025 LdM Graphic Design students. Through a manual workshop in silkscreen and letterpress printing, the course offered a deliberate pause, an analog break designed to rebuild confidence in using simple, centuries-old printing techniques. Students were asked to communicate meaning through symbolism, metaphor, and visual tension: searching for direction (Find Your Way), examining the overlap between digital and physical identity (Blurred Realities), or reflecting on personal development (Grow Beyond the Screen). To reach these outcomes, they began with hand-drawn sketches, moved into vector refinement, and then returned to the physical world to print the final work. This analog detour is not about nostalgia or rejecting technology. It is a reminder that design is built on decisions, intent, and the ability to communicate through form, concept, and metaphor, long before any software gets involved.
GALLERY COORDINATOR: ŠPELA ZIDAR
GALLERY INTERN: TRINITY CASTORO
LDM GALLERY, VIA DE’ PUCCI 4, FLORENCE
About LdM Gallery
The LdM Gallery is a project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.
Every LdM Student, professor, or staff member can participate in this project!
The LdM Gallery is a project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.
LdM Gallery in collaboration with CAMNES – Center for Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies, is pleased to present Born of Light: The Amarna Vision curated by Massimiliano Franci, Irene Morfini and Valentina Santini.
A brand-new capital, built from scratch in record time; a revolutionary art form, driven by an extreme – sometimes even exaggerated – naturalism; an once-marginal god elevated to supreme ruler of the whole pantheon; and a major god – until then the foremost in ancient Egyptian religion – literally erased from every visible surface, to obliterate his memory from History. These are the hallmarks for one of the most extraordinary epochs of the ancient Egypt: the Amarna Period.
This revolutionary era – spanning the reign of pharaoh Akhenaten and that of his immediate successors, and lasting for roughly 20 years (1350–1330 BCE) – stands at the heart of this exhibition, which aims to guide the visitor through the sweeping transformations that defined the Amarna Period and to show them what made this brief moment in time so unique.
Step back into the 14th century BCE, to glimpse the ancient Egyptian society during this radical and subversive age, and to meet the pharaoh who shattered centuries of orthodoxy, by defying tradition itself: Akhenaten.
BIO curators:
Massimiliano Franci is an Associate Professor of Egyptology and Food Anthropology at CAMNES-LdM Institute. He was the secretary of the International Congress of Egyptologists, held in Florence in 2015. He participated in numerous international conferences and is the author of many scientific contributions, such as: “Rethinking Osiris (Rome 2021)” in collaboration with Salima Ikram (AUC) and Irene Morfini (CAMNES), and “The Stelae of Khentykhetjwn and the Ancient Egyptian Lexical Field of ‘The man, ages, and Kinship’: an invitation to an Anthropological Analysis (Cairo 2022)”. Among his recent projects is the development of new information technologies for the analysis of Egyptian artifacts in partnership with the CNR and the University of Florence.
Irene Morfini is an Egyptologist and Archaeologist. She graduated in Egyptology from both the University of Pisa in Italy and at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. In 2019 she obtained her PhD at the University of Leiden. She’s participated in numerous excavations in Italy since 2000 and in Egypt since 2007. Since 2013 she has been co-director of the Min Project in Luxor. She has been vice-president of the Canarian Association of Egyptology who carries out research and dissemination of knowledge in the field of the archaeological, historical and scientific heritage of ancient Egypt and has been developing cultural projects in Egypt, Cuba and Ghana since 2011. Since 2017 she has been part of the staff of CAMNES. From 2019 till 2022 she has been working in the field for the EU-funded project ‘Transforming the Egyptian Museum in Cairo’, for the National Museum of Antiquities of Leiden and for the Museo Egizio of Turin.
Valentina Santini is Egyptologist and responsible for communication at the centre for archaeological studies CAMNES, based in Florence (Italy), and is currently pursuing her PhD in Egyptology at the University of Birmingham (UK), with a thesis focused on the analysis of New Kingdom bereavement scenes from a psychological and anthropological standpoint. She is also involved in the Egypopcult Project, which aims to promote the study of the perception of ancient Egypt in contemporary cultures, and is part of the Editorial Board of the magazine Scoprire l’Antico Egitto (Sprea Ed.), intended for the wider public. She recently co-edited the volume Sacredness at Deir el-Medina (Arbor Sapientiae). She has participated in numerous international conferences, authored various scientific papers, and published books for a broad audience.
About LdM Gallery
The LdM Gallery is a project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.
Every LdM Student, professor, or staff member can participate in this project!
The LdM Gallery is a project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.
LdM Gallery, in collaboration with @dessine_moi_une_blave projects, promotes an Open Call for artworks for exhibition and archive
DESSINE MOI UNE BLAVE (Draw a blave for me)
@dessine_moi_une_blave is a project by Rachel Morellet & José Bréval.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge,” said A. Einstein, “because knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, as imagination embraces the entire world. Imagination is the only thing that can open our minds and our hearts to the possible; it is what gives us the power to invent.”
The Story of the Blave – What?
Years ago, in the enchanting landscapes of the south of France, a whimsical tale began to weave its way into the hearts and minds of those who dared to listen. It all started with an evening among friends, where I, under the influence of the local Corbières wine or perhaps some hidden muse, shared a peculiar revelation.
In hushed tones, I spoke of a mystical being that materializes under specific conditions – a creature known only as the “Blave.” I illustrated rough shapes on the table, depicting Blaves emerging from space, the abyss, or the vastness of the ocean. Cryptic words accompanied these drawings, deepening the mystery.
However, skepticism hung heavy in the air, as my friends, their senses tinged with the taste of wine, questioned whether the Blave was a product of artistic grandstanding or a genuine creation of the imagination.
Time passed, and Rachel Morellet, a participant in that fateful evening, took it upon herself to breathe life into the elusive Blave. She initiated the “Dessine-moi une Blave” project – a collective endeavor inviting contributions from anyone willing to share their interpretation of this enigmatic creature.
The response was overwhelming. A multitude of drawings and texts poured in, offering diverse perspectives on what a Blave could be, its characteristics, actions, and more. The once-questionable existence of the Blave became a canvas for boundless creativity and imagination.
While the term “blave” may have an obscure origin in old French dictionaries, referring to a small pocket handkerchief floating on the sea waves, the project “Dessine-moi une Blave” has transformed it into a symbol of limitless possibility, sparking the evolution of a new fantastical species.
Now, as the collection of Blaves continues to grow, the question arises: What can we do?
In the realms of science, the Blave could inspire ecological studies, prompting researchers to explore the potential impact of this imaginary being on ecosystems. Could the Blave serve as a metaphor for the delicate balance of nature, encouraging environmental awareness and conservation efforts?
In the realm of art, the Blave could become a muse for various creative endeavors. Artists might find inspiration in the diverse interpretations, leading to exhibitions, performances, or even collaborative projects across different artistic disciplines. The Blave could transcend its fictional origins, becoming a symbol of unity through artistic expression.
Moreover, the Blave might serve as a catalyst for storytelling and literature, with writers crafting tales of Blaves exploring uncharted territories, encountering mythical creatures, or embarking on quests that mirror the collective human experience.
Ultimately, “Dessine-moi une Blave” has not merely birthed a creature; it has sparked a cultural phenomenon. The Blave, once a whisper in the wind, has grown into a shared creation that transcends the boundaries of imagination, inviting us all to explore the wonders of creativity, collaboration, and the limitless possibilities that lie within the realms of art and science.
Participants
Duccio Abate, Marco Acquafredda, Josefina Ahumada, Anouk Aldegher, Sylvie Arena, Marie Astier, Fabrizio Basso, Silvia Bellandi, Devis Bergantin, Leonora Bisagno, Stefano Boccalini, Carla Brogi, José Bréval, Marina Maria Buratti, Myriam Cappelletti, Federica Cecchi, Shilha Cintelli, Maxine Christensen, Fabio Cresci, Cristina Crusciani, Filipe Da Rocha, Gandolfo Gabriele David, Sandra Dechezleprêtre, Elisabeth Délétang, Cinzia Delnevo, Delphine Denis, Axel Di Chiappari, Eyrine Dietzman, Kyana Dietzman, Diego Di Sepio, Raffaele Di Vaia, Graziano Dovichi, Manuel Fadat, Dino Ferruzzi, Barbara Fluvi, Alessio Fossi, Silvia Galasso – Francesco Gianmaria Bernabei, Nicolas Gal, Alexandre Gérard, Fabio Giusti, Pamela Gori, Stephane Granger, Nicolas Gruppo, Victoria Hawrys, Julie Hruba, Tianyang Huang, Inge Iacoviello, Iris, François Jacob, Suzy Kim, Scott Kuffner, Lori Lako, Valentina Lapolla, Julien Lavigne, Luis, Bartolo I. Marini, Christophe Morellet, Rachel Morellet, Bob Morse, Nicolas Mouton-Bareil, Florent Nicolas, Oblo Creature, Monserrat Perez Arteaga, Valeria Piccoli, Isabelle Pigeonnier, David Perahia, Nicolas Ramel, Barbel Reinhard, Duccio Ricciardelli, Bertrand Rigaux, Leandro Riecke, Nemo Riecke, Patrizia Sacchi, Lizzy Sainsbury, Eva Sauer, Caterina Sbrana, Alessandra Serra, Luca Sguanci, Margherita Sguanci, Simoncini –Tangi, Lucia Spennato, Chiara Tambani, Serena Tani, Aldo Thomas, Marco Ulivieri, Enrico Vezzi, Tatiana Villani, Victor Zabrockis, Elisa Zadi, Belinda Zhang, Marta Zunino, Sara Zunino
General info
Exhibition Title: Dessine moi une blave
Location: LDM Gallery, Via Dei Pucci 4 – Florence
Date: October 23rd until November 14th
Open: Mon/Wed 10 am-2 pm, Tue/Thu/Fri 4-7 pm
About LdM Gallery
The LdM Gallery is a project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.
Every LdM Student, professor, or staff member can participate in this project!
The LdM Gallery is a project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.
A cura di Spela Zidar LdM Gallery, Via de’Pucci 4 FI Sep 18 – Oct 17 2025 Opening: Thursday Sep 18, 5-8pm
About To Take Flight
LdM Gallery is pleased to present To Take Flight by Fabrizio Ajello, an artistic project featuring works created through the interaction of different media, but above all through text-to-image applications. These works challenge our understanding and perceptual habits.
The relationship between the image and what we, in some ways, define as reality—one of the intrinsic questions in the very existence of art—has been at the heart of Ajello’s artistic research for several years, which he addresses in the book L’immagine Leggera: arte ricondizionata, sognata, ritrasmessa (The Light Image: Reconditioned, Dreamed, Retransmitted Art), published in 2024 by Castelvecchi Editore.
To Take Flight presents an imagery that takes us back to themes and styles traceable to the Renaissance and Baroque periods, mimetically yet always with a reinterpretative and liminal approach. Upon approaching, the viewers cannot find the conventional supports or formats, nor can they even glimpse the brushstrokes or smell the oil paint and even the iconography is alienating and disturbing. The representations are something else entirely, created by the artist through an extensive research process with the help of some TTI applications that exploit artificial intelligence.
The LdM Gallery is a project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.
Curated by: Spela Zidar Opening June 12th, from 5 to 8 PM June 12-July 11 Open Mo-Thur 10am-2pm, Fri 4-7pm LdM Gallery, Via de’ Pucci 4 Free Entrance
About RD
“RD” is a multimedia project by artists Sandra Binion and Lou Mallozzi. The exhibit is inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1844 short story “Rappaccini’s Daughter.” Hawthorne tells the story of Beatrice, the daughter of a mad scientist Giacomo Rappaccini who cultivates a garden of exotic and poisonous plants. As a result of caring for the garden, Beatrice becomes poisonous to the touch, finding herself akin to Persephone and Hades with her father Giacomo. She and a young student, Giovanni, fall into a tragic romance, where she eventually turns Giovanni poisonous as well. The story deals with the tensions of desire and order, the male anxiety towards the female body, and fear of unchecked scientific experimentation. In the exhibition “RD,” the artists interpret this story to become a living site for these themes through writing, images, gestures, sound, surfaces, etc.
“RD” seeks to explore one’s relationship with the nature of a garden and the man-made and natural duality inherent within the space. What are the fact and fiction that emerge with the garden? How does one approach the garden through their individual path, senses, and interpretations? The artists approach the garden’s materiality, structure, and history through their informed senses and minds to create works that emerge from their experiences.
About the Artists:
Sandra Binion is an interdisciplinary artist whose work often takes the form of multimedia installations based on literary or historical themes and references. Her work encompasses performances, installations, process-based artworks, photographs, and paintings that embrace a choreography of the everyday. She has exhibited and performed in the US, Europe, and Japan at venues including the Musée d’Orsay Paris, Kyoto City University of the Arts, Maison de George Sand, Musée Flaubert Rouen, Hyde Park Art Center Chicago, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Kunstraum Stuttgart, Institut Unzeit Berlin, and many others.
Lou Mallozzi is an interdisciplinary artist and educator in Chicago. He dismantles and reconstitutes gesture, sound, image, and language to poetically destabilize our relationships with the familiar through performances, installations, interventions, fixed media works, improvised music, drawings, and collaborations. His work has been exhibited and performed in many venues in the US and Europe, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Smart Museum at the University of Chicago, The Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago and the Italian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, TUBE Audio Art Series in Munich, Radiorevolten Festival in Halle, Constellation in Chicago, and many others.
During the exhibition LdM students and other spectators will be able to deepen their experience of the exhibition participating to special events organized in collaboration with the artists and Sistema Museale di Firenze.
Looking for Rappaccini’s Garden – Guided tour Summer
Thursday July 10th at 10:00 am. Botanical Gardens Giardino dei Semplici, Via Micheli 3 and LdM Gallery, Via de’Pucci 4. Book your spot through Activities Office!
In conjunction to the exhibition RD (Rappacini’s Daughter) by Binion and Mallozzi LdM Gallery organizes for LdM students a guided tour to Florentine Botanical Gardens Giardino dei Semplici and LdM Gallery exhibition guided by professional guides and in the presence of the artists.
Free Entrance Meeting point: Via Faenza 43 at 9:50am LdM Galler visit: 10 am Botanical Gardens visit: 10:45 am End of the tour: 11:45am
Rain Gravel Thread – Sound performance by Lou Mallozzi
Friday July 11th at 6:30pm, LdM Gallery, Via de’Pucci 4. Book your spot through Activities Office!
In conjunction with the exhibition RD by Sandra Binion and Lou Mallozzi, LdM Gallery presents the premiere of Rain Gravel Thread, a new sound work by Lou Mallozzi. Composed and produced in Firenze during the artists’ stay, Rain Gravel Thread is cinema for the ear, a film without images that focuses on the materiality of listening and the imaginary sites and objects conjured by sound and speech.
Rain Gravel Thread (18:12) by Lou Mallozzi; narrator: Bruce Jenkins
Free Entrance Meeting point: Via Faenza 43 at 6:15pm
The LdM Gallery is a project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.
On May 10th, Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici held “Nutrire il futuro – Nurturing the Future,” in the prestigious setting of the Istituto degli Innocenti, a showcase of the works by our students enrolled in the practical courses of the schools of Creative Arts, Design and Italian Gastronomy and Culture.
It’s not just the value of this historic venue that makes the occasion special, but also the spirit of warmth and intimacy, both physical and spiritual, that permeates its spaces. Since the very beginning the Istituto degli Innocenti has been dedicated to welcoming youths and nurturing their cultural and emotional growth within the society. It is an intimate and nurturing place for beauty, a place where new possibilities are created within the harmony of Renaissance forms. A similar venue provides the ideal context to showcase our students’ artistic expressions, amplify their voices, and facilitate their interaction with the public.
Works selected by LdM Department Supervisors and Professors.
Students participated from the following departments:
CREATIVE ARTS
Painting, Drawing & Mixed Media
Sculpture
Printmaking
Restoration
Photography
Film & Media Arts
Performing Arts
DESIGN
Fashion Design
Jewelry Design
Graphic Design
Architecture
Interior Design
NUTRITION, ITALIAN GASTRONOMY AND CULTURE
Certificate students in Italian Gastronomy and Culture department held a culinary performance.
The LdM Gallery is pleased to present Naturalezza Innaturale – Un mondo nuovo (Naturally Unnatural – A New World) by Andrea Marini. The show is a container for Marini’s captivating synthetic but lifelike sculptures and drawings. At the same time disturbing and fascinating, his work exists in the boundary between real and imaginary. Despite their diversity, the works still manage to coexist peacefully in the gallery space, as if it were a sort of biodiversity in a non-natural ecosystem.
The artist uses ever-innovative techniques, exploring new possibilities of creation and transformation each time. His mutant creatures provoke a sense of alienation, but also of curiosity. In the viewer, this awakens a desire to understand and explore them even when they may be dangerous.
The artwork employs diverse materials to evoke nature and corporeality, depicting organic forms, growth, and transformation.
The exhibition therefore becomes a desire for a new birth, a corporeal metamorphosis, and a poetic transformation for a different vision of reality. An unnatural nature in the materials used, but created with such naturalness that it convinces the spectator to enter and listen to it, realizing the consequences that a lack of balance and respect have on our world.
About the Artist:
Born in Florence on April 19, 1948, Andrea Marini is an Italian artist whose work explores the delicate boundary between nature and artifice. Marini pursued studies in architecture, obtaining a degree in the arts. Since the late 1980s, Marini has devoted himself to his artistic research, particularly in sculpture and installation. Marini’s work is deeply rooted in an exploration of organic forms, evoking a sense of balance between simplicity and complexity, the familiar and the unknown. His career has seen him participate in numerous prestigious exhibitions in Italy and internationally, including: “Borderless” – Solo Creative Room, Pietrasanta (2024) “Nomads from the Infinite” – Spazio Cappella Marchi, Seravezza (2024) “SuperNatura” – Die Mauer Contemporary Art, Prato (2019) “Novi Mundi” – Kate Vass Galerie, Zurich (2018) “Genesis” – Lu.C.C.A. Center of Contemporary Art, Lucca (2010) “Italian Spring in Japan” – Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan (2007). A critical voice in contemporary art, Marini’s works navigate the thresholds of organic and inorganic, blending the scientific with the poetic.
The LdM Gallery is a project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.
Opening performance: concert with handpan by Cristina Manuguerra& Licia Agnetta
LdM Gallery is pleased to present SILENCE exhibition in which three artists Carlo Bertocci, Roberto Pupi and Pietro Schillaci dialogue about the representations of silence.
Silence, the concept that is defined by absence – the absence of sounds, voices, noises, and everything capable of producing and perceiving them. Can a still and silent world be a real condition? Can a human being perceive absolute silence or will one always remain tied to the background noises of distant activities or his own body that keeps itself alive? In fact, silence is more of a state of mind than an actual component of nature. The unpredictable silence that paradoxically predisposes the absence of the senses to be heard, but in the absence of the senses does it make sense to talk about silence or does it also cease to exist? Like the famous question: “If the tree falls by itself in the woods and there is no one to hear it, does the tree make a noise?” For the philosopher George Berkeley, the answer was clear – the tree does not make a noise, as objects exist only if perceived. Therefore, silence can only exist if perceived, but to be perceived it must be represented.
The three artists featured in the exhibition Carlo Bertocci, Roberto Pupi, and Pietro Schillaci aim to unite their unique interpretations of silence. Using languages of art, the only ones capable of expressing the concept of silence that has no concrete reality and highlights the limits of language, since it can only be affirmed by remaining silent, the artists create an environment where the viewers can live their own experience of silence and put himself in the relationship with it.
The figures in the paintings of Carlo Bertocci, one of the Tuscan protagonists of the return to figurative painting in Italy in the 80s, have a great communicative attraction. They do not tell a story or mention an event, but their presence is felt, through the gaze and through gestures, which makes his works open to different interpretations. In the works on display it is precisely the gesture, index finger in front of sealed lips, that invites the visitors to be silent in the first part of the exhibition. This gesture is represented both, in the paintings of the master and in the photographs of Pupi and Schillaci who dialogue with each other.
The works of Roberto Pupi and Pietro Schillaci, created together, aim to overcome the autorial dimension of artistic production. Through synaesthetic processes, they visually elaborate the theme of silence as unsaid/unseen, and implement a differentiated perceptive process, through a reorganization of the ways in which the image is presented to the gaze.
During the exhibition, LdM students and other spectators will deepen their experience of silence through events and performances. On the opening day, the musician Cristina Manuguerra will play handpan to create an immersive environment. Furthermore, students will have the opportunity to participate in the meditation session in the gallery with Shirley Shivhon and have a guided tour of the exhibition in the presence of the artists.
CV ARTISTS
Carlo Bertocci was born in Castell’Azzara (GR) in 1946. He lives and works in Florence where, in 1973, he graduated in Architecture. Since 1997 he has been a member of the Academy of Arts and Design in Florence. In the early 1980s he was the protagonist of Pittura Colta theorised by art critic Italo Mussa, thus participating in international exhibitions that brought together the painters of this group with those of Anacronismo. In 1974 he held his first solo exhibition at the Galleria Schema in Florence, followed by numerous solo exhibitions over the years. In 2011 he held an anthological exhibition at the Academy of Florence. He also continues to participate in numerous international and national collective exhibitions, including the XIII Quadriennale d’Arte in Rome 1999 and the biennials in Istanbul 1999, Prague 2009, and Venice 2012. Since 2004 he has been called by the Senate of the Republic to create, for the Galleria dei Presidenti in Palazzo Madama, the portraits of Presidents Giovanni Spadolini, Franco Marini and Maria Elisabetta Alberti Catellati.
“Painting is a silent poem…”
(Leonardo Da Vinci)
Roberto Pupi , born in Livorno (1958), he lives and works in Florence, his studio is in via Giuseppe Sirtori 25 in Florence. Graduated in Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. Graduated in History of Contemporary Art at the University of Florence. Among the numerous exhibitions we mention: Exhibitions in 1995 FIRST PRIZE TREVI FLASH ART MUSEUM collective Trevi Perugia; in 1988 ARTISSIMA Contemporary Art Fair Turin Over Studio Gallery, Turin; in 2002 TRACCE FUORICENTRO second edition Department of Culture Municipality of Florence, curated by Lara Vinca Masini and again in 2004 TRACCE FUORICENTRO LIVE fourth edition TRA ART regional network of contemporary art in Tuscany, curated by Patrizia Landi and Gaia Bindi; in 2005 SMACK! collective, The Brewery Project, Los Angeles, curated by Robert Veydemaier; in 2006 LIVORNO 400 YEARS FROM THE FOUNDATION installation, Biblioteca Labronica Livorno. Department of Culture of the municipality of Livorno, curator Patrizia Landi; in 2009 THE ORDER OF CHAOS Installation, National Archaeological Museum of Florence, National Central Library of Florence, La Corte Contemporary Art of Florence, curated by Gianni Pozzi; in 2012 ROBERTO PUPI AT DIE MAUER, solo exhibition at Die Mauer gallery, presentation of the mobile photo catalogue curated by Patrizia Landi, Prato. Among the latest projects we mention: In 2022 BAPTISTERY-A solo exhibition with Pietro Schillaci, Palazzo Pucci, Florence curated by Fabio Norcini; in 2024 NUVOLE Villa Rospigliosi Prato curated by Riccardo Farinelli and Pietro Gaglianò, SOTTOVUOTO for an epidermal city with Margherita Verdi, Cartavetra art Gallery Florence, curated by Erica Romano, SIMULACRA, on the occasion of Pitti Immagine, with Pietro Schillaci, Galleria Immaginaria Florence And 2024 RIFLESSI, with Silvia Noferi and Duccio Ricciardelli, IsolartGallery Florence curated by Xue Rui, Yanqui Cao and Rossella Tesi. The artist collaborates with the following Galleries: Galleria Die Mauer Prato, Galleria Immaginaria Florence, Galleria I-sculpture, San Gimignano – Siena, Galleria Isolart Florence, Sincresis Arte Empoli.
Pietro Schillaci, born in Sicily, lives and works in Florence where he graduated in Architecture. Schillaci is a professional photographer, specialized in art. His photographs are featured in many catalogs of contemporary artists. Shy and withdrawn, he is an implacable judge of his work. In addition to his profession, he carries out research on the medium of photography exhibiting within the circuit of Italian galleries. For some years he has undertaken collaborations with other artists with whom he has produced experimental and innovative projects
Exhibition Dates: February 20 – March21, LdM Gallery, via de’ Pucci 4
The LdM Gallery is a project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.
