Florence – From June 18 to 28th 2020 Manifattura Tabacchi will host At the Edge of Chaos in its digital spaces (manifatturatabacchi.com), a special online art exhibition curated by the Arts Management Master Course of IED – Istituto Europeo di Design di Firenze, created in collaboration with Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and Manifattura Tabacchi.
The exhibition gathers together the artworks of 13 young international artists, and it represents the conclusion of the project of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi “Complex Systems”, addressed to creatives and professionals of the art world, whose aim has been to develop new artistic productions in relation to the exhibition Tomás Saraceno. Aria (still ongoing at Palazzo Strozzi until the 1st of November 2020). The artworks have been selected from the students’ submissions of some of the most prestigious art schools of Florence: Accademia di Belle Arti, California State University, Fondazione Studio Marangoni and LABA Libera Accademia di Belle Arti. As it is the final project of the Arts Management Master Course of IED Firenze, the exhibition was originally intended to be held physically and locally in Florence inside the spaces of Manifattura Tabacchi.
Due to the COVID-19 emergency, the creative process of the exhibition has evolved into a new online format which allows the audience to live the experience in a whole new way: a virtual space that can be explored on the website of Manifattura Tabacchi (www.manifatturatabacchi.com/live/at-the-edge-of-chaos), combined with two performances that will be live streamed on the Instagram page of the exhibition @at_the_edge_of_chaos. The current online format challenged the production of artworks to new extents, as perceptions and possible interactions shifted from what could normally have been done in a traditional physical space, to a virtual reality where images, textures and sounds, when being enclosed in the screen, gather new meaning and give food for thought.
Inspired by the work of Tomás Saraceno, the artworks of this exhibition examine the collision between the complex systems of human beings and nature, sometimes resulting in irrevocable damage to the environment; the intersocietal interactions between humans both in reality and in the virtual, and the personal interaction between an individual and their own psyche.
The title of the exhibition, At the Edge of Chaos, takes its cue from a statement by Andrea Ferrara, Cosmology Professor at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, according to whom “Complex systems are situated in between order and disorder, or at the edge of chaos”. As the current situation of crisis shows, we are always living at the edge of chaos, grasping onto the strings of order.
EXHIBITION’S OPENING AND PRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT: Thursday 18th of June, at 12.00 On Thursday 18th of June at 12.00, the project will be presented live on the official Facebook pages of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Manifattura Tabacchi and IED Firenze. With the participation of Arturo Galansino (General Director, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi), Igor Zanti (Director, IED Firenze), Michelangelo Giombini (Head of Product Development, Manifattura Tabacchi), Martino Margheri (Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi), Daria Filardo (Coordinator Master Arts Management, IED) and Erica Gatti (IED). LIVE PERFORMANCES, through live streaming on the Instagram account @at_the_edge_of_chaos – Thursday 18th of June, the time will be communicated: Liu Xuan, A Tombstone which Is Dying – Monday 22nd of June, at 18.30: Elisa Del Taglia e Sara Sassi, Pollution