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Museo Novecento
A project for art /“Quadrante” (1961–1964)
From June 16 to October 15, 2017, the Museo Novecento reconstructs a portion of the historic gallery set up by the Florentine architect Giorgini.
Inauguration on Friday 16 June at 18.00, free access to the Museum and the exhibition upon reservation, by writing to segreteria.museonovecento@muse.comune.fi.it
An exhibition in various spaces of the city and not only to rediscover the figure of the Florentine architect Vittorio Giorgini and what his studies and his work have bequeathed, but also to rediscover a season rich in cultural ferments – that of the Florence of the the fifties and sixties – and its protagonists. An important personality, Giorgini was a protagonist of the culture of our home after World War II. The exhibition “VITTORIO GIORGINI Architect (1926-2010)”, promoted by the Florence Architects Foundation, B.A.Co., is dedicated to him, his life and his works. – Archivio Vittorio Giorgini, Order of Architects of Florence, Municipality of Florence and Mus.e, which will involve various spaces in the city and beyond (from the Royal Palace to the Novecento Museum, up to Baratti, where some of the most important testimonies of the his work) and which includes conferences, lectures, workshops and exhibitions in various places in Florence and Tuscany, in collaboration with the most important institutions in the region and with international realities.
It was one of the most significant art galleries of the Florentine scene of the 1960s. At the Museo Novecento it will be possible to visit a reconstruction thanks to the exhibition A PROJECT FOR ART / “QUADRANTE” (1961–1964).
The initiative, part of Secret Florence 2017, is part of a larger project dedicated to rediscovering the figure of the Florentine architect Vittorio Giorgini. Indeed, his was the installation of Quadrante, under the artistic direction of his sister Matilde; a space that in those years of cultural rebirth in Florence represented a crossroads of the main trends of the moment, a meeting point for the most prominent personalities in the artistic field and therefore a place for dialogue, exchange and comparison.
It will thus be possible to admire for the first time together works and documentary testimonies of leading artists of the Italian artistic twentieth century, some already present in the collection of the Museum, such as Corrado Cagli, Antonio Bueno and Alberto Moretti, and other authors of the time, including foreigners. , like the French architect, sculptor and painter, founder and editor of Architecture d’Aujourd’hu magazine, André Bloc, or the Chilean architect and painter Robert Sebastian Matta. The paintings preserved in the Civic Collections of the Municipality of Florence will be presented alongside works on loan from the Il Ponte di San Giovanni Valdarno Gallery and documents kept at B.A.Co. (Baratti Architecture and Contemporary Art) – Vittorio Giorgini Archive.
The exhibition of project drawings, period photographs, “Bulletins”, newspaper articles, letters, postcards and catalogs with dedications, will allow you to retrace the relationships of the Florentine architect with artists, critics and intellectuals of the time. An opportunity, therefore, to deepen a prominent figure in the post-World War II cultural landscape and reconstruct the strategic role of Quadrante in the Florence of the 1960s, thus fully diving into an extraordinary season for the city, characterized by an unparalleled ferment.
One of the hallmarks of the gallery was certainly the layout designed by Giorgini. An intervention born from the need to optimize the small size of the available space and “rejuvenate” an environment that risked being excessively austere. The gallery headquarters were in fact located on the first floor of an ancient building on Lungarno Acciaioli, a sort of loft that led the Florentine architect to redefine the spaces using innovative design solutions, those that would later characterize his entire artistic career. Thus it was that the walls were transformed into sinuous, undulating surfaces, far from the most classic geometries, reaching the double objective of optimizing the available structure and obtaining an unusual environment, a sort of highly suggestive organic cave, which will be evoked with the exhibition of works related to the gallery.
The project, with the scientific direction of Valentina Gensini, will develop as a deepening of the permanent collection of the Museo Novecento, involving some rooms on the first floor and the exhibition room on the second floor. The exhibition, curated by Marco Del Francia, Valentina Gensini and Silvia Moretti, is promoted by the Municipality of Florence with the organization of MUS.E in collaboration with the Florence Architects Foundation, the Order of Architects of Florence and B.A.Co – Vittorio Giorgini Archive.
Installation View
