14 November 2018

Outdoor: art comes out of the Museo Novecento and meets the public

The project for the circulation and enhancement of the works of the civic collections conceived by Sergio Risaliti starts.

For 2018, in collaboration with the Department of Education of the Municipality of Florence, the project will see Florentine schools as protagonists. The next step will be to bring the works also to hospitals, prisons, institutions for the elderly, libraries, companies and private homes.

The works of art leave the perimeter of the museum and literally go to find their audience. It is with this spirit that the Outdoor project was born, conceived by the artistic director of the Museo Novecento Sergio Risaliti and created by the MUS.E Association, thanks to the contribution of some technical sponsors (Apice, Magjlt and Rossella Lari).

With a view to enhancing the value of civic collections, even outside the walls of the museum, and establishing relations with other local institutions, the Museo Novecento organizes a series of initiatives aimed at recounting and re-reading the artists and works of the own collection. The Outdoor project plans to exhibit paintings and sculptures from the twentieth-century collections in schools, hospitals, prisons, institutions for the elderly, libraries, companies and private homes. The initiative responds to the dual purpose of promoting knowledge of the collections of the Municipality of Florence by intercepting and focusing on different audiences in everyday contexts, sometimes even very far from the museum dimension, and to encourage a direct encounter with the work of art, also highlighting aspects of its history and material existence. The exhibition, dedicated from time to time to a single work, will be accompanied by the presence of a mediator who will present the artist and his work.

For 2018, in collaboration with the Department of Education of the Municipality of Florence, the project was included in the Keys of the City program, providing for a first experimental phase with the involvement of schools of all levels.

The first to join was the Oltrarno comprehensive school (via dei Cardatori, 3) which on Wednesday 14 November saw the 3rd and 3rd grade of the lower secondary school inaugurate the experimental phase of the project. The young students witnessed the arrival of the work, “Still life with carp and shells and lemons in the landscape of Pomposa” by Filippo De Pisis, and the unpacking operations (opening the case or any other types of packaging). A brief analysis by a restorer involved in the project was followed by an introduction on the artist’s work and activity by the cultural mediation department of the MUS.E. A laboratory phase is also foreseen. At a later time, teachers will be able to work independently with children and young people on the work.

The next works to go “away” in Florentine schools will be “Purple tree and white house” by Severo Pozzati and “Figures in space” by Virgilio Guidi.

The project does not end with the experience in schools, a painting or a sculpture will be the main guests of events also organized in hospitals, prisons, libraries, institutions for the elderly, companies and private homes. Similar occasions arise with the intention of enhancing the work and encouraging awareness of modern and contemporary art, offering attendees the opportunity to come face to face with some of the masterpieces present in the civic collections.