FLORA COMMEDIA. CAI GUO-QIANG AGLI UFFIZI

One November afternoon, the sky over Florence was filled with huge, multicoloured fireworks, while swirls of smoke covered the clear sky. They were fireworks celebrating the opening of the exhibition at the Uffizi (20 November 2018 – 17 February 2019) by one of the most important contemporary Chinese artists, Cai Guo-Qiang. Fire is central to his work; indeed, it is precisely with fire that Cai “paints” his paintings, large compositions in which lines are traced with gunpowder that, once lit, explodes, drawing an image that is only partially predictable. With the exhibition conceived for the Florentine museum, the artist wanted to celebrate, at the Uffizi, Botticelli’s Renaissance masterpieces and, through him, the elementary forces of Nature.

Edited by: Renata Pintus, Germano Celant, Laura Donati, Simon Schama, Guo- Qiang Cai