Author: Francesco Mugnai

VISIONS – FASHION EXHIBITION …seen through the eyes of the future

Posted on by Francesco Mugnai

VISIONS explored a wide variety of illustrations, clothing, digital printing and experimental designs through the eyes of LdM's fashion students.

Through the imaginative and singular perspective of LdM fashion designers, VISIONS showcases the diverse approach to the creative solution addressing a broad range of consumers. The genesis of the individual point of view grew from the designer’s interaction, sensibility and aesthetic sensitivity to the world-at-large resulting from an inspirational source or brand’s DNA.

VISIONS explores a wide variety of illustrations, clothing, digital printing and experimental designs through the eyes of the future of the fashion industry. This exhibit examines the personal growth and conceptual development of each designers journey through the design process while fostering a dialogue between the individual and the final product for a target market or, simply for materials exploration.

The exhibition VISIONS will run from Friday, May 10th to Thursday, May 16th.
After the launch, the LdM Gallery is open weekly from Tuesday to Thursday, 5-7 PM.

Opening night will include a free aperitivo

During LdM Gallery Art is in the Square event on Saturday, May 11th, the exhibition will be open to the public from 11 AM to 5 PM.

More information on the LdM Gallery here

Art is in The Square 2019

Posted on by Francesco Mugnai

LdM students take over Piazza San Lorenzo in this yearly display of art, design and fashion. Dance and music performances were also held in Via Faenza 43.

Art is in the Square is the initiative by which the Lorenzo de’ Medici Institute celebrates each year the creative abilities of its students, the historic community of San Lorenzo and the topics connected to cultural diversity.

The event, now in its thirteenth year, includes several artistic events involving LdM students: an exhibition of art and design, a dance show, and performances by the LdM student choir & jam ensemble, finally a round table, and a video screening inspired by the topic discrimination.

PROGRAM

11:00am – 6:30pm Piazza San Lorenzo

Art and design exhibition

Featuring works by students of Fine Arts, Design and Media Arts and Studies departments.

In case of rain, the exhibitions will be held at:

LdM premises – Via dell’Alloro 14 – Department of Fine Arts

LdM Library, Via dell’Alloro 13

11:00am – 5:00pm LdM Gallery, Via dei Pucci 4

VISIONS – Fashion exhibition

Featuring works by Fashion students

10:30am – 12:00pm Via Faenza 43, Chiesa di San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini

DiscriminACTION

Round table and video screening

3:00pm – 5:00pm Via Faenza 43, Chiesa di San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini

Dance recital and LdM Jam Ensemble & Choir 

Featuring students in classical, modern and flamenco dance courses, as well as a performance by the LdM choir & ensemble clubs.

DiscriminACTION – Creating a world everyone wants to live in

Posted on by Francesco Mugnai

DiscriminACTION was a round table led by LdM Event Planning students within the wider the Art is in the Square celebrations, which took place Saturday 11th of May.

The conference revolves around violence and discrimination in our society and how these can quietly seep into our lives, causing distress and uneasiness.   

Nowadays discrimination can come in several forms, either blatant or subtle: from household appliances industry’s bias against left-handed people, to the salary gap between male and female workers, examples of intolerance and unfairness can be found in any environment. LdM Event Planning students were tasked with identifying the most striking pieces of evidences of discrimination in their everyday life, conduct thorough research and finally organize a round table to discuss them.

Students’ assignments also included designing graphics and shooting a video to support the information and awareness campaign on both printed material and social media; select and invite influential speakers to the round table, in order to discuss the outcome of their research; cooperate with the Body Language course professor to examine how our negative feelings can show through our body expressions.

PROGRAM

10.30 – Erin Marr – Opening/Presentation of the Project

10:40 – Video Clip – Showing of the clip made by the Students

10:50 – Keely Meetze – Moderator
Stefano Marinelli
Origins of Violence and Conflicts
The visible and invisible violence we face in our daily life
Progress and Step-backs

Eva DeClerq 
Re-thinking disability what can a body do?
Showing of film by Judith Butler (famous American philosopher/gender theorist) and Sunaura Taylor (disability activist and artist).

Carla Fronteddu
Violence on Women
Violence on women in Italy, from the “codice Rocco” to the “no one less movement”, an overview on how the legislative approach has changed and femminist movement that is focusing on other ways of oppression beyond the gender.

Stefano Marinelli
Xenophoby

Final Message
11:50 – Q&A
12:15 – closing and thanks – Sarah Birchenough
12:30 – Paolo Grassini
Showing of 2 short films + 1 Animated Card

Florence Circa 1600: Patrician Families and the Financing of Culture

Posted on by Francesco Mugnai

Studies about the cultural life of Florence at the turn of the seventeenth century usually concentrate on the Medici court, the various academies, or the confraternities, and less on the role of patrician families who had sustained both the economy and the society since late medieval times

These élite families participated in the academies and in court life but also had many more focused particular interests; they were a vital to the creation of new forms of art and music.

In this conference, we hope to shine a light on the economic activities of such families and how their economic successes permitted avant-garde culture—in literature, art, music, theatre, etc.—to flourish. We are interested in each family’s patronage of artists and artisans but also how this patronage influenced other families with whom they had contact through informal gatherings as well as established institutions. There are many families which could be studied in this regard, for example the Bardi (especially Giovanni), Corsi (Jacopo and Bardo), Davanzati (Bernardo), Del Bene (Giulio), Del Nero, Gaddi (Niccolò), Guicciardini (Piero), Rinuccini (Ottavio and Alessandro), Strozzi (Piero and Giovanni Battista the Younger/ ‘il poeta’), but also others. We focus on individual patrons in these critical decades, but also on more general issues raised by our theme.

We will hold the conference 11-12 April 2019, the 450th anniversary of the foundation of the Accademia degli Alterati. It is supported by the Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici (M.A. in Museum Studies) and the University of Florence (SAGAS Department).

Associated with the conference is an exhibition on Michelangelo the Younger and the Birth of Opera at the Casa Buonarroti and a production of the recently discovered first rendition of Dafne — the first such production ever attempted.

The conference is organized by Tim Carter, Francesca Fantappiè, Maia Wellington Gahtan, and Donatella Pegazzano.

The conference is free, open to the public and no pre-registration is required. There is limited capacity in both venues.
For information: +39 055 287360
[email protected]

 

Download the program here

LdM Gallery presents “BLACK LIPS”

Posted on by Francesco Mugnai

For the fourth edition of Black History Month Florence, LdM Gallery presents Black Lips, a photography exhibition by Danilo Currò with poetic texts by Andrea Cafarella.

Black Lips invites the viewer to go beyond the recurrent stereotypes and caricatures which saturate media portrayals. The project negates the single story approach, so common in the media portrayal of the migration of African people to Italy, which applies the same narrative to people from different countries and cultures, whose motivation for leaving is as diverse as their stories. Their voices are yet to be heard.

Curated by Black History Month Florence

The exhibition will run from February 19th to Tuesday, March 12th. After the launch, the LdM Gallery is open weekly from Tuesday to Thursday, 5:30-7:30 PM.

Opening night will include a free aperitivo.

LdM GALLERY

A project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, the LdM Gallery is an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.

In line with its mission of fostering opportunities for students to experience the reality of the art world beyond an institutional setting, the LdM Gallery encourages the development of creativity and sophistication within the student body, offering an efficient space for showcasing interdisciplinary fields of art within the Institute and collaborating with high-level projects organized in the city of Florence.

LdM Gallery Coordinator:
Federico Gori, LdM Professor – Department of Painting, Drawing and Mixed Media.

Frederick Stibbert artista e collezionista

Posted on by Francesco Mugnai

The exhibition ``Frederick Stibbert Artist and Collector`` opened to the public on April 12th, shows a new aspect of the multi-faceted figure of Frederick Stibbert: his activity as an amateur painter combined with the collecting of 19th century painters.

He appreciated and bought the artworks of contemporary painters of his time, most of all the genre paintings, historical subjects or romantic views. A series of artworks, which together with his pictorial production, decorated the private rooms of his villa, such as the bedroom, the studio and the living rooms.
Stibbert preferred the fashionable painters of the late nineteenth century that he frequented directly or had seen at the numerous art exhibitions he loved to attend.

The exhibition, conceived in continuity with the rooms of the museum displaying nineteenth-century painting, presents an overview that, starting from Stibbert’s artistic beginnings, analyzes his path as a painter and, at the same time, as a collector of contemporary painting.

After an introduction on the figure of the young Frederick and his pictorial training, some artists of the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence who are apart of the collection are presented. In the following rooms some paintings by Stibbert, divided by genre, are displayed and compared with paintings by other artists depicting the same subject: still life, landscape painting and portraits in ancient costumes.

A part of the exhibition is dedicated to the most successful artist work made by Frederick Stibbert: the illustrated tables for the book on the history of civil and military customs, a work that will follow Frederick’s collecting career and will be published only after his death. Finally, the exhibition shows the drawings and the projects made by Stibbert, the architects and the decorators who worked on the design and decoration of the villa and the museum.

The project has been realized within the context of the “Museum and the Public II” course, organized by the Lorenzo de’ Medici Italian International Institute, as part of the Marist-LdM Master of Arts in Museum Studies, during which students refine and improve the theme of an exhibition, from its creation to its construction and installation, and contribute to the elaboration of its communication strategy.

P O P – U P P I T T I ! Architecture & interior design exhibition

Posted on by Francesco Mugnai

POP UP PITTI! was the direct result of an intensive one-week Architecture Workshop, which took place at LdM Florence in the Fall Semester 2018, involving students from various Architecture courses.

The goal of the workshop was to produce a complete architecture project in one week, operating in a setting and rapid timeframe that reflected professional studio conditions.

Featured are the works of previous LdM Architecture Students: Rodrigo Acosta Luviano, Ivana Sofia Contreras Madrid, Lorena Elizondo de los Santos, Rita Pamela Godinez Hernandez, Ileana Hernandez Robleto, Jesus Daniel Lopez Sanchez, Diego Alberto Ortega Rodríguez, Ana Lilia Piñera Lizcano, Magdalena Rocha Leal, Fernanda Silva Saucedo, Alejandra Zamora.

The site

Piazza de’ Pitti is a wide square in the Oltrarno neighbourhood in Florence dominated by the imposing volume of Palazzo Pitti.

Situated at the foothills of Boboli, the square, like a sloping stage where once reigning élites gathered, is known for its monumental beauty, elegant palaces and façades, Pitti’s family glories and misfortune and treasures of Boboli gardens.

The project

From the masterplan to the exhibition layout: five architectural elements of 7x7x7 meters are organized in Piazza de’ Pitti to create temporary spaces that dialogue with built environment and human presence. Each volume has to be used as exhibition space for design masterpieces: chairs, tables, bookshelves, sofas and lamps.

Pop Up Pitti! is curated by:

Arch. Donatella Caruso – Interior Design and Architecture Dept. Supervisor

The Pop-Up Pitti! project was realized thanks to the collaboration of LdM Professors:

Arch. Margherita Bagiacchi, Arch. Federico Grazzini, Arch. Alberto Morselli, Arch. Alessio Palandri, Arch. Andrea Parigi.

The exhibition POP-UP PITTI! will run from Thursday, March 21st to Wednesday, April 17th.

After the launch, the LdM Gallery is open weekly from Tuesday to Thursday, 5-7 PM.

Please note that the LdM Gallery will be closed during spring break from Monday, March 25th to Friday, March 29th.

Opening night will include a free aperitivo.

 

LdM GALLERY

A project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, the LdM Gallery is an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.

In line with its mission of fostering opportunities for students to experience the reality of the art world beyond an institutional setting, the LdM Gallery encourages the development of creativity and sophistication within the student body, offering an efficient space for showcasing interdisciplinary fields of art within the Institute and collaborating with high-level projects organized in the city of Florence.

LdM Gallery Coordinator:

Federico Gori, LdM Professor – Department of Painting, Drawing and Mixed Media.

Florence and the Birth of Opera: Documents and Virtual Reconstructions

Posted on by Francesco Mugnai

The focus of the exhibition at Casa Buonarroti is the birth of opera, between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Florence, in relation to the multifaceted figure of Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger.

The exhibition offers a panorama of musical theatre in Florence, in an effort to make the artistic phenomenon of opera better known in all its various aspects: social, political, musical, artistic, and theatrical. This multimedia exhibition includes original documents, virtual reconstructions and theatrical performances, using the most recent historical research in various fields conducted by prof. Tim Carter and dott. Francesca Fantappiè, with a particular emphasis on theatre machinery and stage design associated with some of the most significant performances at the Uffizi Theatre, and the first known operas, such as Dafne (1597) and Euridice (1600).

The project has been realized within the context of the “Museum and the Public II” course, organized by the Lorenzo de’ Medici Italian International Institute, as part of the Marist-LdM Master of Arts in Museum Studies, during which students refine and improve the theme of an exhibition, from its creation to its construction and installation, and contribute to the elaboration of its communication strategy.

Download the booklet here.

LdM Gallery presents the drawing exhibition Body of Evidence

Posted on by Francesco Mugnai

We are glad to invite LdM students to visit our interdisciplinary gallery for the launch of Body of Evidence, a student-oriented exhibition introducing figurative drawings that focus on the expression of the female form.

The LdM Gallery presents Body of Evidence, a student-oriented exhibition introducing figurative drawings that focus on the expression of the female form.

Presented to the public are the works of artists and current LdM students Emma Hermans, Elise Hillbrand and Lovisa Rönngren, created and developed during the LdM Advanced Drawing Course, in the short period from October to December 2018. With the use of gestural marks and abstract interpretations, the works of each artist interpret complex concepts of reflection and identity. Each artist uniquely approaches these notions, producing works that push boundaries within each composition to express the creative process through a personal and authentic style.

Curated by Martin Figura, LdM Professor of the Department of Painting, Drawing and Mixed Media, the exhibition Body of Evidence will be open from December 5th to January 30th.

After the launch, the LdM Gallery will be open weekly from Tuesday to Thursday, 5pm – 8pm. From December 17th to January 30th the LdM Gallery is open by appointment. For more information, please contact Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici at +39 055 287360.

Opening night will include a free aperitivo.

More information on the LdM Gallery page.

LdM Gallery presents the graphic design exhibition he!p

Posted on by Francesco Mugnai

Following the opening exhibition ANIMAE, the LdM Gallery launches he!p, a graphic design exhibition that approaches a variety of issues found in today's society from the students' perspective.

The student-oriented show centers around a series of campaign posters exploring the multicolored world of politics, social issues, and environmental concerns. The collective work in he!p opens up a dialogue around the concept of critical messages that go beyond what meets the eye. Through unique approaches and techniques, the selected artists underline the power of words and images related to today’s society, with a common goal of creating a powerful, lasting impact.

Curated by Paolo Ghielmetti, Supervisor of the LdM Department of Graphic design, the exhibition features the work by former LdM Graphic Design students Rio Julio Miguel Asch Phoenix, Charlotte Bolhuis, Cristina Cantu Santos, Meagan Kay Garrett, Andrea Gonzalez Arteaga, Elizabeth Ann Hurley, Gabriel Alejandro Jauregui Reveles, Kathleen Louise Lawver, Maria Lucrecia Quintanilla Decrescenzo, Alyssa Smith, Fernanda Trevino Tamez, Jeffrey Raymond Urbahn.

The exhibition he!p will be open from November 7th to November 28th.
After the launch, the LdM Gallery will be open weekly from Tuesday to Thursday, 5pm – 8pm.

Opening night will include a free aperitivo.

More information on the LdM Gallery page.