Fifth edition of the initiative that proposes a path that unites the interior and the external front of the hotel with the entire surrounding urban area: sixteen of the most iconic works by the American artist, such as the Marilyns or the Campbell's soup, confront each other with the Vespa fashion show created by the Italian artist Simone D'Auria.
The iconic works of the master of American Pop art and the Freedom installation, which sees the Vespa bodies as protagonists, revisited by the brilliant Milanese artist, will create an evocative journey between the interior of the Gallery Hotel Art and the facade of the Florentine hotel.
“We have now reached our fifth appointment – declares Valeriano Antonioli, CEO of the Group -. The idea, born in 2013, was to redevelop Vicolo dell'Oro, the small square in front of our Gallery Hotel Art, giving the viewer an alternative point of view, leading him to look upwards! To do this, we made the art come out of our hotel and climb its facade. Simone d'Auria has been the one who has interpreted this vision of ours up to now, proposing installations that address themes of particular social and cultural interest and for which we have obtained the patronage of the Municipality of Florence, as well as the support of the main institutions of the city . This year we can boast of the collaboration of the Piaggio Group which wanted to support Simone D'Auria's project, inspired by that universal icon of Made in Italy which is the Vespa.
We are also very proud to host the works of a master like Andy Warhol who will surely be an important driving force behind the POP spirit of our Gallery Hotel Art".
The Andy Warhol Forever exhibition presents sixteen works among his most iconic productions, coming from the Rosini Gutman Foundation; it is a quick but extremely explanatory excursus, which traces the adventure of the artist who managed to shake the foundations of the academic world of painting and criticism of the second half of the twentieth century, but also to change the image of America forever and of contemporary society.
The itinerary, set up inside the Gallery Hotel Art, offers two portraits from the series dedicated to Marilyn Monroe, which Warhol already dealt with in 1962, immediately after her tragic death; Warhol sensed the high symbolic value of the actress's life and violent death, helping to create an icon that will remain in her legend.
Next to them, there is a silkscreen of the Ladies and gentlemen cycle, in which Warhol begins to portray the faces of ordinary people and not just the icons of the show. In this context, the artist decided to also take drag queens from the New York club The Gilden Grape as models, a rather strong subject and not easy to resolve for the time.
There is no shortage of images of consumer society, such as the famous Campbell's soup cans, here in their classic 1967 version and in the one with the special label created for the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics, as well as one of the 1966 Campbell Soup Dress in 'disposable' cotton paper.
The exhibition continues by analyzing more particular works, such as those that reproduce the Kiku, or the Japanese chrysanthemum, the flower that represents the emperor and the Japanese imperial house, or the reinterpretation of seventeenth-century still lifes, conceived and created as if they were real living models, playing and experimenting with the use of shadows in graphic art which, in Warhol's ingenious pop perspective, became Space fruits.
The exhibition closes with a series of works by Steve Kaufman, including three portraits of James Dean, a silver one of Elvis Presley, one of Marilyn and other pop subjects.
The common thread of Pop Art links the Warhol review with the unedited Freedom installation designed by Simone D'Auria for the new edition of the Lungarno Collection project.
D'Auria, artistic director of the operation, has identified in Vespa, universally recognized icon of Made in Italy, an extraordinary communication tool which, on this occasion, is covered with representative images from different corners of our planet.
“Vespa is a profoundly urban brand that goes far beyond its function as an elegant and easy vehicle for daily mobility – comments Davide Zanolini, Marketing and Communications Director of the Piaggio Group -. We like to think that it 'furnishes and dresses' the city. Vespa is one of the few 'physical' objects that represent Made in Italy, simply because it embodies the main values of Made in Italy: creativity, innovation, quality, strong and distinctive personality. Values that Vespa takes everywhere in the world, in an authoritative and credible way and that we find present in the partnership with Lungarno Collection and in the innovative installation designed by Simone D'Auria.
The initiative, with the patronage of the Municipality of Florence and the contribution of the Piaggio Group, presents a series of 12 Vespas anchored to the facade of the Florentine hotel.
Each Vespa, of which D'Auria uses only the body, has been specially colored and decorated with the particular technique of Water Transfer Printing, creating a livery in which nature is the true protagonist of the scene.
The shape of the Vespa was recently recognized as a "design work to be protected" worldwide, protected by copyright.
D'Auria's work will be the spokesperson for the beauty of nature. In fact, each body will carry a particular habitat on it and with it, be it the desert, the forest, the ocean, the mountains and hills, the sky with clouds.
D'Auria's is presented as a colorful installation, endowed with a strong idea of freedom and which, thanks to the communicative power of an instantly recognizable brand, such as Vespa, will allow the visitor to immerse themselves in a Pop atmosphere.
D'Auria's new installation arrives at the Gallery Hotel Art, after its facade had hosted, in 2013, a group of twenty-two bicycles that represented the Italian people's desire for redemption, that "looking upwards", towards the future, synonymous with the ability to reinvent itself and, in 2014, a long line of chromed mannequins, each with a different animal head to retrace, through their symbols, the history of the great Florentine personalities.
In 2015, the year of Expo, huge spoons – Bruno spoon – recalled the themes explored by the Universal Exposition and, at the same time, paid homage to the great designer Bruno Munari, while, last year, WOW. The pinwheel of energies, proposed large pinwheels that refer to the idea of the wind and that of clean energy obtainable by exploiting this atmospheric phenomenon.
D'Auria's project, which makes use of the collaboration of Leica, is completed, in the square of Vicolo dell'Oro, with a Selfie corner where three static Vespas will be placed, at different heights, to create interaction with the public, becoming motif and background for taking selfies and sharing them via social channels (#galleryhotelart; Instagram: @lungarnocollection @vespa_official #vespa).
