Urs Fischer’s Artwork Exposed in Piazza Della Signoria in Florence

Urs Fischer’s work, exposed in Piazza Della Signoria in Florence, is an example of high visual impact of contemporary art. Not everyone agreed on the location picked out to exhibit the Big Clay, this is the name of the work of Urs Fischer, since that the sculpture doesn’t seem compatible with the renaissance context of Piazza Della Signoria. This Florentine square, is a key place of the renaissance city; in fact, it is the headquarters of the city hall, Palazzo Vecchio, and Uffizi Gallery, connected each other by an evocative elevate corridor called the path of the prince. Piazza della Signoria is one of the principle destinations chosen by the tourists visiting Florence, together with Duomo cathedral and Ponte Vecchio; the choice of this square as location was made to give great visibility to works of contemporary art made by contemporary artists of the all world. The Big Clay is a great volume work,12 meters high, externally built with burnish steel; it is a primordial sculpture that turns upside-down the traditional shape rules in order to give life to new visual experiences that will surely surprise everyone and, most of the times, won’t be well understood especially in a renaissance context such as this specific one in Florence. This sculpture will be exhibited for three months and this created several disapprovals by some who underline the huge contrast between a renaissance context such as the one of Piazza della Signoria, created with perfect canonical shapes, and the Big Clay that tends to destroy every reference to traditional shapes. Nevertheless, Florence is once again the background that hosts these high visual impact works; it had already hosted the installation of the famous Chinese artist Ai Weiwei who decided to set, on the façade of palazzo Strozzi, numerous red rubber boats to denounce the tragedy of contemporary migrants. This kind of art is not surely compatible and harmonious with the artistic heritage of the historic centre of Florence but it can represents a marketing strategy to attract the attention on the city in countries far from ours that don’t know and appreciate the beauty of Florence yet. The elevate level on the flight of steps in Palazzo Vecchio, hosts two other works of Urs Fischer that are two statues of the famous antiquarian Fabrizio Moretti and the curator Francesco Bonami. Although the use of traditional shapes, in these works as well Urs Fischer manages to express his own concept of human finity. These wax statues will slowly melt, modifying their aspect with casual shapes celebrating, according to Urs Fischer, the eternity of art in every shape.