Hero for Florence
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I L Accademia Gallery, Florence Accademia Gallery, Florence LUOGO Antonio Pio Saracino Il luogo del David – Leaflet no. 3 Hero, 2015 HERO FOR FLORENCE Homage to David: Accademia Gallery, Florence Saracino interprets Michelangelo Edition based on Hero installed for Florence DEL at Three Bryant Park, New York, NY HERO May 5 – September 20, 2015 Homage to David: D AV The many visitors to the Accademia Gallery Ministero dei beni e delle attività Regional Secretary for the Ministry Ambassador of Italy to the Saracino interprets Michelangelo I will now be able to see a modern and cap- culturali e del turismo of Cultural Heritage and Tourism United States D tivating interpretation of the David thanks in Tuscany Claudio Bisogniero to the Gallery’s customary receptiveness Paola Grifoni Cultural Attaché, Embassy of Italy to contemporary art. The sculpture by the Administrative and HR Director Segretariato Regionale del Ministero Washington DC architect Antonio Pio Saracino has been in- of the Former SSPSAE e Polo Renato Miracco dei beni e delle attività culturali e del stalled in the internal courtyard and, there- Museale della città di Firenze turismo della Toscana fore, it stands just a few dozen meters away Silvia Sicuranza Managing Director GEM GROUP Soprintendenza Peter de Svastich Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale from Michelangelo’s original. Formerdella città di FirenSoprintendenzaze Speciale Director of the Accademia Gallery Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico Curator and Scientific Director I would like to express my sincere grati- ed Etnoantropologico e per il Patrimonioper il Polo Museale Storico, Artistico della città di Firenze Angelo Tartuferi Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale Pmg Italia tude to the Gallery’s management team ed Etnoantropologicodella città di Firenze e per il Polo Curators Soprintendenza Matteo Innocenti Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e and to all the people who have contrib- per il Polo Museale Museale delladella città di Fire nze città di Firenze Angelo Tartuferi uted to the staging of this event, which Renato Miracco Managing Director Pmg Italia has an undeniably international scope, in Helen Varola Anna Santucci particular to the Embassy of Italy in Wash- Matteo Innocenti Galleria dell’Accademia Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ington and GEM GROUP. ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze Statue Production Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale Paola Grifoni della città di Firenze Deputy Director of the Accademia Precision Stone Inc., Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale in collaboration with Studio Regional Secretary for the Ministry of della città di Firenze Gallery Cultural Heritage and Tourism in Tuscany Firenze Musei Lia Brunori Corsanini and Mazzucchelli Marmi Administrative Director of the Project Manager Pmg Italia David: such a strong symbol of Italian her- Accademia Gallery Mario Poli itage, and now a Guardian of the friend- Marzia Marigo ship between our two countries. The year Installation Director of Italian Culture in the U.S. couldn’t have Secretariat Maria Cristina Valenti Quintana Giorgio Angioloni, Francesca left a better legacy. Embassy of Italy Washington DC Ciaravino, Simone Giordani, Coordination, Transport and Claudio Bisogniero Cristina Panconi Installation Ambassador of Italy to the United States Arteria, with the collaboration Security Staff Coordinators Embassy of Italy of CAF Washington D.C. Flavia Cappelli Antonella Motti Pedestal Production Italy in U.S. Lorella Naldini Figli di Augusto Lorenzini Exhibition Graphic Design Italy in US.org Photo Credits Melaverde Archivio sillabe: Cristian Ceccanti, Global Emerging Markets Group – GEM Antonio Quattrone (Florence) Communication Stephen Smith (New York) Pmg Italia – Anna Santucci Alexo Wandael (New York) Paola Tazzini Cha Press Office Pmg Italia Marco Ferri Opera Laboratori Fiorentini – Civita Group Antonio Pio Saracino © 2015 s i l l a b e Hero, 2015 www.sillabe.it Carrara marble, steel bars managing editor: Maddalena Paola Winspeare Michelangelo Buonarroti 5.17 mt (height) x 1.78 x 1.14 mt ISBN 978-88-8347-801-7 graphic design: Susanna Coseschi David, 1501–1504 Accademia Gallery, Florence editor: Giulia Bastianelli Carrara marble Hero for Florence is a new edition based translation: Catherine Burnett mt 5.17 (height) on Hero at Three Bryant Park, New York, NY printing: Media Print, Livorno s i l l a b e Accademia Gallery, Florence € 3.00 David - Hero The iconographic value of Michelangelo’s David Saracino’s new edition of Hero nods to Michelan- Antonio Pio Saracino Hero, a public sculpture at Three Bryant Park, New York, was commissioned in 2013 as a gift by the Italian Numerous artists, in the broadest sense of the word (painters, engravers, sculptors, graphic designers, in all various interpretations throughout history gelo’s David, defender of the city of Florence as a Hero, 2015 government and Eni to symbolize friendship between Italy and the United States. I never would have ex- Carrara marble, steel bars photographers and so on), have found the courage to take on Michelangelo’s masterpiece with results becomes a symbol of multiple meanings. Antonio contemporary civic champion who offers protec- pected, two years later, to receive the great honor to see a new edition of Hero in the Accademia Gallery of 5.17 mt (height) x 1.78 x 1.14 mt that differ considerably from the grotesque to the heroic. As regards the reproduction of the sculpture for Pio Saracino’s Hero draws inspiration from the tion and surveillance, and also suggests a long Florence, in the same place as Michelangelo’s David. Accademia Gallery, Florence educational purposes, Clemente Papi’s plaster cast (1847) is vitally important. It formed the basis for the David and becomes symbol of friendship between history of vulnerability spanning centuries, politics With the New York Hero, I wanted to create a symbolic protector of New York City, as David was intended “historic” casts now at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow two countries. The Italian Embassy in DC has been and cultures. Hero for Florence is a new edition as protector of Florence. The statue celebrates the superhuman and the inspiration that it channels. and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. During the twentieth century, the impact of Michelan- promoting from long times those values. What un- Helen Varola based on Hero at Three Bryant Park, The anthropomorphic layered architectural constructions display the universal ability of mankind to ce- New York, NY gelo’s masterpiece on artists constituted an inexhaustible source for comparisons, re-examinations and derlies the very essence of Hero is the artist’s un- Curator,Hero, New York ment its own presence in the world with its perennial construction skills. interpretations as well as more or less explicit and/or partial deductions. There have also been copies in derstanding that the poetic-evocative language of a Antonio Pio Saracino bronze, like the one the Municipality of Florence donated to the Chinese city of Ningbo in 2010. One of people is founded on the impulses of the primordial unconscious being, and that its logic is subordinat- the most remarkable interpretations is definitely the work that the Turkish artist Serkan Őzkaya presented Hero at the Accademia Gallery in Florence, Antonio Pio Saracino is a New York-based De- ed to deep human roots. The poetic side, be it in a at the Istanbul Biennial in 2005. It is a gilded polystyrene copy, precise in its proportions because it was the Power of the Present signer and Italian Architect. Saracino has de- made with a 3D program, but double the height of the original. sculpture or in painting, is based on the attempt to Antonio Pio Saracino’s interpretation of Michelan- signed buildings, monuments and products. His In 2012, for the exhibition Arte torna Arte (Art Returns to Art), a sculpture painted in fibreglass and marble achieve the purest contact possible with what Jung gelo’s David takes on a connotation in Florence work is in museum collections internationally dust with identical dimensions to the original was put on display in the courtyard of the Accademia Gal- called the “primordial collective unconscious”. that I would define as “philological”. Tackling such including the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of lery. The work was by Hans-Peter Feldmann and it was painted by the students of the Academy of Fine Culture is expression and the cultural expression a meaningful paradigm in the city where the sculp- Art and Design in New York City and the Power- Arts in Florence. The students made the David blonde with pink skin creating a decidedly kitsch effect. is the value of humanity. This value represented ture was made and has always lived is tantamount House Museum in Sydney. He participated in the Antonio Pio Saracino has sculpted his work from the same pure white Carrara marble that Michelan- by the David goes beyond history and its meaning to both a challenge and an act of generosity. The 54th edition of the Venice Biennale and has won gelo used to make the David. His modern take on the sculpture has not been conceived for a museum is part of our daily life and our collective global challenge comes in the form of the peculiarity of numerous awards among which are two American or an art gallery but for an open public space, similar to the way in which Michelangelo conceived imagination. Saracino’s artistic research, which the artist uses Architecture Awards from the Chicago Museum of his own work to be seen. The incom- Renato Miracco to focus upon and analyze some of his more for- Architecture and a Best of the Year Award from In- parable beauty of Michelangelo’s Cultural Attaché, Embassy of Italy Washington DC mal ideals through a respectful and tangible com- terior Design magazine.