This French artist has 'reopened' the museum world which has been shut down due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
French artist Jr's wall mural on the side of the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy, creates an optical illusion that brings forth those parts of culture that have been shut off from the general public for over a year.
The amazing piece is called La Ferita, meaning 'The Wound' in Italian, an appropriate name that both represents the 'wound' on the side of the building that lets people 'see inside', and the wound that we have all suffered throughout the pandemic, both physically, mentally and culturally.
The mural, which is 28 metres tall and 33 metres wide, depicts a whole range of cultural features, such as museums, libraries, and cinemas, as well as famed pieces of artwork. These pieces of artwork include a representation of Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera.
The installation comes as Italy faces yet another lockdown. Italy was the centre of the first wave of the pandemic to hit the Western world and has been one of the countries most badly hit by the ongoing pandemic. Almost 100,000 people have already lost their lives in Italy to the disease.
"They say the museums are closed, but it's up to us to open them. Here is Florence, the city of Boticelli, Donatello, Machiavel, and Dante, we opened the Palazzo Strozzi. These last few months, we have been deprived of the possibility to be together… but we still have the freedom to dream, to create, to envision the future. Maybe it's not much, but we have that!"
Arturo Galansino, the museum director of Palazzo Strozzi, added:
"What all these lockdowns have shown us very clearly is that people are hungry for culture. They want to access exhibitions, museums, libraries, theatres, cinemas, to have culture back as a fundamental part of their lives. We want this work to be seen as an invitation to rediscover a direct relationship with art and to explore new forms of sharing and participation—a call to action for art and culture in this difficult moment."
The mural will be in place until August of this year, but there is already public pressure to keep it in place and making it a lasting symbol of what Italy, the world, and the world of culture, has endured over this last year.
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[h/t: My Moderm Met]
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