THE WORKS OF THE AMERICAN ARTIST AND A LARGE INSTALLATION BY SIMONE D’AURIA CENTRED ON THE VESPA SIDE BY SIDE AT THE GALLERY HOTEL ART IN FLORENCE, UNTIL 31 DECEMBER 2017.
Florence, 18 May 2017 – Until 31 December 2017, an outstanding name in the history of art, Andy Warhol, and one of today’s emerging talents, Simone D’Auria, come together in Florence for the latest phase in the cultural-urbanist project of the Lungarno Collection. The iconic works of the master of American Pop Art and the Freedom installation, a fresh look at the Vespa, create a fascinating exhibition route between the Gallery Hotel Art and the façade of the Florentine hotel.
The Andy Warhol exhibition, Forever, presents sixteen of Warhol’s most iconic works, lent by the Rosini Gutman Foundation; the show is a rapid but informative excursus on the adventure of the American artist. Set up in the Gallery Hotel Art, it includes two portraits from the series dedicated to Marilyn Monroe.
Next to these, visitors can see a screen-print from the cycle Ladies and gentlemen. Images of the consumer society are there too, of course, such as the famous cans of Campbell’s soup, here in the classic version from 1967 and the special-label version created for the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.
Pop Art is the thread linking the Warhol exhibition with the original Freedom installation by Simone D’Auria for the new edition of the Lungarno Collection project. D’Auria, the initiative’s artistic director, sees the Vespa, a universally recognised icon of Italian style, as an extraordinary communication tool, which, for the occasion, is adorned in images representing various corners of the earth.
The initiative is sponsored by Florence City Council, with a contribution from the Piaggio Group. It presents a series of 12 Vespa scooters anchored to the façade of the hotel in Florence. Each Vespa, of which D’Auria uses only the frame, has been coloured and decorated with the water transfer printing technique,to create a livery where nature provides the key focus of attention. The shape of the Vespa was recently recognised as a “design work to be safeguarded” at world level with copyright protection. D’Auria’s work is a tribute to the beauty of nature. Each scooter frame presents a particular habitat: the desert, the forest, the ocean, mountains and hills, the sky and clouds.
The D’Auria piece is a coloured installation, based on a strong idea of freedom and, thanks to the communicative power of the immediately recognisable Vespa brand, it immerses the visitor in a Pop atmosphere.
“Vespa is a deeply urban brand whose significance extends well beyond its function as a stylish and practical solution for the daily commute,” says Piaggio Group Marketing & Communication director Davide Zanolini. “We like to think it ‘decorates and dresses’ the city. The Vespa is one of the small number of physical objects that represent Made in Italy, simply because Made in Italy embodies the key values of creativity, innovation, quality, a strong and distinctive personality. The Vespa takes those values all over the world, in an authoritative and credible manner, and they can be seen in the partnership with the Lungarno Collection and the innovative installation designed by Simone D’Auria”.
The D’Auria project is completed, in Vicolo dell’Oro, with a Selfie corner where three static Vespa Primavera scooters have been positioned at different heights, to create an interaction with the public, providing a backdrop for selfies to post on social media.
EXHIBITION INFO: ANDY WARHOL – FOREVER. SIMONE D’AURIA – FREEDOM.
Florence, Gallery Hotel Art (Vicolo dell'Oro, 5), 16 May–31 December 2017 (Entrance free).
SIMONE D’AURIA, ARCHITECT AND DESIGNER. (Bergamo, 1976). Born in the 1970s, D’Auria grew up in a cultural environment exposed to revolutionary trends in aesthetics and politics. The alternative atmosphere of those years had an indelible impact on his aesthetic development. Bruno Munari, a master of Italian design, was Simone D’Auria’s inspiration when he decided to follow his vocation. His natural talent, skill and “institutional-cultural” background enabled him to enter the world of art and design in an informed manner. At institutional level, his key ties are with the Milan Triennale, where he regularly exhibits art and design works, and St. Moritz Art Masters 2012, where he displayed two of his more recent works (Charging Bull and MV California). Simone D’Auria operates in all design disciplines, on projects in industrial design, graphics, publishing, art direction, hotel architecture and interiors, private homes, showrooms, shops and motorcycles: every so often he moves into the world of art and photography. His wide-ranging, unconventional vision is the driver behind his constant search for new materials and new ways to use them, leading to unmistakeable projects, products and works, with powerful cross-appeal and strongly interdisciplinary content.
