Flora Commedia. Cai Guo-Qiang at the Uffizi

Flora Commedia was born from a visit to the Uffizi Galleries in 2017, which included the Boboli Gardens of the House of Medici, the Pitti Palace, the Department of Prints and Drawings. The artist uses flowers as a vessel to manifest the spirit of the Renaissance: its desires and pleasures, its connection with nature, the awakening of humanity and its new perception of the human body. The exhibition is co-curated by Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi, and Laura Donati, curator of the Department of Prints and Drawings of the Uffizi. Flora Commedia features in ten interlinked galleries over sixty works of gunpowder paintings that vary in size, in addition to select artist sketches that illustrate the creative process. November 18, on Piazzale Michelangelo, Cai Guo-Qiang ignited the daytime explosion event City of Flowers in the Sky, inspired by Botticelli’s Renaissance masterpiece Primavera and overlooking the city of Florence, to splendidly unveil the exhibition.