The Contemporary in Florence

On Tuesday, February 6, NYU Florence students are invited to visit the contemporary art exhibition Adrian Paci.‘Di queste luci si servirà la notte’ at fascinating space of Le Murate, Florence’s historic ex-prison complex. Contributing artist Gianni Barelli will introduce students to his installation La mia voce è la mia casa, which explores how a group of asylum seekers in Tuscany represent ‘home’. Le Murate. Progetti Arte Contemporanea artistic director Valentina Gensini will share insight into how the city of Florence cultivates contemporary creative production in historic spaces.

R.S.V.P. at lapietra.dialogues@nyu.edu or 055 5007219

Valentina Gensini, Artistic Director, Le Murate. Progetti Arte Contemporanea

Valentina Gensini is an art historian and curator. Since 2005 she has been focusing her work on Museum Studies with an appointment at the Florentine Superintendency in the Galleria d’Arte Moderna of Palazzo Pitti. Since 2007 she has served as a consultant for the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation in Florence, where she curated the international project Green Platform. Art Ecology Sustainability in 2009. In 2010, she was member of the Cultural Commission for selecting projects for the Estate Fiorentina festival organized by the City of Florence. In 2011, she was the Artistic Director of the Notte Bianca in Florence, entirely dedicated to the contemporary arts. Gensini curated the section of Visual Arts for the Fabbrica Europa Festival in 2012. She is currently the scientific coordinator for the international master’s program in Arts Management at the European Institute of Design in Florence. She is the founder of Museo Novecento (that she directed from 2014 to 2017), and of Le Murate. Progetti Arte Contemporanea, a civic center for the contemporary arts that she's managing as Artistic Director from 2014 to the present.

About Progetto Arte Contemporanea

Le Murate. Contemporary Arts Projects offers exhibitions, meetings, performances and workshops focused on the themes and artistic languages of the contemporary world with an interdisciplinary lens. Visit the website for more info.

Gianni Barelli, Contributing artist

Gianni Barelli graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence in 2002. He is a visual artist who uses different media like video, installation, drawings and performances. In 2012, the Italian art distributor Visualcontainer in Milan selected his video Genesi o Melanconia del Dormiente for promotion and distribution. In 2013 Barelli contributed to the art magazine BAU Contenitore di Cultura Contemporanea with the long term project The Synchronic Family Archive. His works are exhibited in various independent art galleries, including the Institut für Alles Mögliche in Berlin and Stitching Gaidaro in The Hague. In 2017, Barelli was selected by the Albanian artist Adrian Paci to contribute to his exhibition Di Queste Luci si Servirà la Notte at Le Murate. Progetti Arte Contemporanea in Florence. He has recently participated in the workshop Through Rituals (Make. It. Happen.) by Stefan Pente and William Locke Wheeler at Villa Romana in Florence. He is currently working on a project in collaboration with the National Institute of Astrophysics in Florence.

About Barelli's work 'La mia voce è la mia Casa':

In a living room, visual artist Gianni Barelli exhibits photographs of and drawings by young asylum-seekers he met during one of his workshops in a reception center in Florence in order to explore the controversial concepts of “home”, “welcoming” and “memory” for refugees.

About Le Murate

The Complex Le Murate, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano in 1998, is one of the main recreational hubs in contemporary Florence. It was born as a convent for Benedectine nuns in 1424 and derives its name (‘walled up’) from the nuns’ cloistered lives. It then became the prefecture of the French Département of Arno from Tuscany’s annexation by France in 1807 until the fall of Napoleon in 1814 and a prison from 1845 to 1985. It hosted political prisoners, dissidents and partisans during World War II.