Articolo disponibile anche in: Italian

Sunday, March 25th (at 5pm) the Osservatorio Polifunzionale del Chianti (Giada Rodani, artistic director-visual arts) opens its 2018 exhibit season with the inauguration of “Spring is late!” by Florentine artist Giovanni De Gara.

This exhibition welcomes spring with a triumph of flowery meadows, where nature is reborn and reclaims its spaces.

“Spring is late!” is a vast and constantly evolving artistic project, which changes with site specific installations and performances. A twin exhibition to the one hosted by the Chianti Observatory will be held in May at the Giardino Torrigiani in Florence.

Don’t expect traditional figurative paintings of botanical subjects, this is conceptual art that uses allegories to speak to the viewers. Painting becomes an instrument to covey a deeper meaning.

The flowers and the plants depicted on the backgrounds of green lawns are just details of a larger subject: a football field, or more specifically … an abandoned suburban football field.

In the words of Giovanni de Gara: “An alien looking at our planet from the sky would pinpoint a clear and defining sign of the human impact on Earth: the football field. All those green rectangular shapes are a distinctive feature of our planet. It’s our logo”.

The artist plays with the word “calcio”, that means football in Italian, but also “calcium”, Ca, the fifth chemical element: “Considering that calcium is essential for life, I’d say that football is even more important in our society. It’s a real cult of today”.

“Spring is late!” shows us that spring hasn’t yet arrived, and neither has awareness or hope for a better future. However some seeds have been planted… which will hopefully grow and bring a new era with them.

The exhibition will be open until June 17th. Info: info@osservatoriochianti.it​​g.rodani@osservatoriochianti.it.

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