GRAZIA VARISCO. ESPERIENZE D ARTE IN GIOCO

Marina Abramovic's exhibition in Florence kicks off, here are exclusive preview photos

by Redazione , published on 19/09/2018
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Opens in Florence, at Palazzo Strozzi, the exhibition 'Marina Abramovi&cacute;. The Cleaner'. Here are exclusive preview statements and photos.

Opening on September 21, 2018, and running until January 20, 2019, is the exhibition Marina Abramovi&cacute;. The Cleaner, a major retrospective entirely dedicated to Marina Abramovi&cacute; (Belgrade, 1946), the first in Italy, held in Florence at Palazzo Strozzi. An exhibition that brings together one hundred of the artist’s works, from her early pictorial works to her latest performances (some of which are reproduced by real actors in the exhibition) and whose title, The Cleaner, refers to a reflection by the artist on her own life, which with the exhibition intends to cleanse the past, memory, and destiny and keep only ... what she needs. It ranges from early paintings such as Truck accident (1963) and Clouds (1965-1970) to early performances, such as the Rhythm series (1973-1974) and Thomas Lips (1975) to move through celebrated actions such as Imponderabilia (1977) or The Lovers (1988) to more recent works, such as The Artist is present (2010). Five of Marina Abramovi&cacute;’s historic performances will be reproduced, as mentioned, by actors, at set times: Imponderabilia (daily from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., on Thursdays until 9:30 p.m.), Cleaning the mirror (on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 2:30 to 7:30 p.m.), Luminosity (on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays from 3 to 4 p.m., Sundays from 12 to 1 p.m.), The freeing series (on Thursdays and Saturdays from 4 p.m.), and The hous with the ocean view (from Wednesday, Nov. 28 to Sunday, Dec. 9).

At the press conference, Marina Abramovi&cacute; wanted to emphasize her relationship with Italy, a land she loves very much: “I remember when as a girl I used to take the second-class train to Trieste to buy jeans: in Yugoslavia at the time there was communism and we had little money. Then I kept going to Italy to visit the Venice Biennale and the great masterpieces of the Renaissance: I got to know Italy by traveling around the country, and I found Italians always so emotional, dramatic, creative.” She then wanted to emphasize an important aspect of the exhibition, the first one that Palazzo Strozzi is dedicating to a woman: “I am honored,” said Abramovi&cacute;, “to be the first woman to whom an exhibition is dedicated at Palazzo Strozzi, but I hope that after me many others will follow, by Italian and international women artists.”

“The exhibition,” pointed out Arturo Galansino, director of Palazzo Strozzi, instead, "lends itself to three levels of reading. The first is the more traditional works, such as videos, paintings, photographs, and installations. The second is the interactive works and the third is the performances that will be re-enacted by specially selected actors. It is a great retrospective that starts from the Belgardo of the 1960s, goes through the young and little-known phase of Marina Abramovi&cacute;’s career, and then the sections on the main floor investigate mainly the performances and the artistic and sentimental symbiosis with Ulay, concluding, at the end of the exhibition, with ’The artist is present’ from 2010."

“I believe that Marina Abramovi&cacute;’s exhibition,” said instead the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, “crowns a path that began four or five years ago, with the exhibitions of Bill Viola and Ai Weiwei, and that has brought contemporary art to the city, thanks also to the exhibitions organized by the municipality such as those of Jeff Koons and Urs Fischer. This is a path that Florence has strongly desired and that leads us to be a city that brings stimuli, makes people discuss and tends to make the messages of the works of our past, of our great historical heritage, dialogue with the messages of contemporaneity. Florence is Florence when it is contemporary, when it interprets the present, even when it breaks the mold, and when it conveys values and perspectives. The exhibition is also in this perspective, because it will amaze the public and lead them to question, it will shock them exactly as Ai Weiwei’s exhibition did (I remember the inflatable boats on the facade, an installation that the City of Florence authorized). In my opinion, art captures the point when it makes us discuss, when it makes us question our existences, when it opens up horizons that we otherwise would not consider. Florence is not a city that sits on its past-I am proud to say that Florence is a city that, thanks to the many realities that make up its fabric, looks to the future.”

“I am happy to share this extraordinary moment,” said Cristina Acidini Luchinat, art historian and scientific advisor to the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi. "As an art historian I have wondered about the meaning, position and approach of Marina Abramovi&cacute;’s works: I can give observations that are not specialist, because as an art historian of the Renaissance I am displaced, but I believe that in the work of Marina Abramovi&cacute; one can recognize moments in dialogue with the past, I think of Michelangelo emerging from Anima Mundi or Vermeer that inspired The Kitchen V Carrying Milk, but the fundamental trait that Marina Abramovi&cacute; has grasped and that places her in continuity with the past is the aura that the artist emanates. Marina Abramovi&cacute; in particular, has made of her own body a work of art, with all the risks that this entails, since on certain occasions she has even endangered her own safety. The aura that the artist emanates invests the people, the objects she uses and is touched by, the places that become oparte of a new art, the one that arises when Marina makes the place become her work and therefore gives it meaning."

Exhibition hours: daily including holidays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. For all info, see the Palazzo Strozzi website. Following is a selection of exclusive photos taken this morning during the exhibition preview.

Anteprima mostra Marina Abramović a Firenze, Palazzo Strozzi

Exhibition preview Marina Abramovi&cacute;. The Cleaner in Florence, Palazzo Strozzi

Preview exhibition Marina Abramovi&cacute;. The Cleaner in Florence, Palazzo Strozzi

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Marina Abramovic's exhibition in Florence kicks off, here are exclusive preview photos

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