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The Art is in the Streets

05-28-2007

Releasing art into the streets to unite the different peoples and cultures living and working together in the San Lorenzo area: with this spirit, Scuola Lorenzo de' Medici, in collaboration with the Quartiere 1 and the Department of Art History and Representation of the University of Florence, has organized the first edition of "The Art is in the Streets ," the art competition that, on Saturday, 12 May, saw 100 students displaying their creations in the various businesses in the San Lorenzo neighborhood.

"The road to integration between different cultures," explains Fabrizio Guarducci, president of Scuola Lorenzo de' Medici, "is paved with shared knowledge, and the language of art, in all of its forms and expressions, can benefit this dialog. Our school, which welcomes over 2,000 university students from all over the world every year, constitutes an important presence in the San Lorenzo neighborhood, and the 12 May show seeks to consolidate our role at the center, drawing from many different realities."

And so, the Florentine craftspeople, vendors of Pakistani cloths, and Indian shopkeepers are transforming their stores for a day in order to display ceramics, jewelry, photography and other works of art realized by the students of Lorenzo de' Medici. In the same way, Arabian kiosks and Iranian-managed leather shops have become hosts for sculpture and other installations, the products of the invention and creativity of young people from all over the world attending the courses of the Florentine school. "The shop owners of the area have enthusiastically come together for this initiative and have cooperated whole-heartedly in the organization of the show," Fabrizio Guarducci continues. "At a time in which stories of the difficulty of diverse ethnicities living together abound, Florence wants to send the message that encourages peaceful co-inhabitance among the people."

At the end of the day, a commission of experts composed of Leonardo Cardini (graphic artist of "The Florentine" newspaper), Riccardo Castellacci (Dipartimento of Art History and Representation of the University of Florence), Elisabetta Cianfanelli (fashion assessor of the Provincia di Firenze), Marco Crivellin (photographer), Pape Mbaye Diaw (PRC advisor of the Comune di Firenze), Francesco Fagnani (illustrator and author), Sadeghin Hossein (businessman of San Lorenzo), Anna Nocentini (head of the PRC of the Comune di Firenze) and Domenic Viggiano (printmaker, sculptor and teacher of photography techniques at the University of Florence Faculty of Letters) bestowed three awards and five honorable mentions to the works most recognized for originality and creativity.

Awards were presented as follows:

1st place, Tim La Rosee for "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate" (Topics in Advanced Drawing Conservation and Interpretation);

2nd place, Jessica Becker for "Turtle" (Topics in Advanced Drawing Conservation and Interpretation);

3rd place, Ilya Khokhhlov for "Spring/Summer 2008" (Portfolio Development in Fashion Design).

Honorable mentions were awarded to: Iris Anne Sigurdardottir, Karen Brooks, Melissa Estremera, Dora Glasser and Livia Stefanidis. All students involved, however, were also given a certificate of participation.

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