Three themes for the line “The Contemporary Art”

1. Sub-theme: The Parks of Sculpture.

Many art interventions in open places have been concentrated in Tuscany since the post-World War II period. These belong to various types ranging from sculpture in urban and landscape contexts, environmental sculpture, to site-specific, environmental works in foundational interaction with the genius loci. If the Volterra 73 exhibition was the historic incipit of art in the city, environmental parks, museum parks, artist gardens of international significance have also sprung up in this territory. The common feature is always the integration of the artistic sign into the urban or natural landscape designed by man, either as added elements, that is, set, or as site-specific. This intense activity and multiple permanent works have initiated an important process of resemantization of pre-existing architecture and nature.

The sub-theme highlights this peculiar aspect of contemporary art in Tuscany and has moved on the two fronts of reconnaissance and narrative that has concerned three exemplary places: The Pinocchio Park in Collodi (PT), The Padula Park in Carrara, and Daniel Spoerri's Garden on the slopes of Monte Amiata (GR). Created at different times, in expressive styles in dialogue with varied habitats, they offer a glimpse of the richness of this heritage. The Portal has the merit of having initiated the campaign of cataloguing the parks and their collections, according to the parameters of the Central Institute for Catalogue and Documentation (ICCD) for this category (OAC cards). In addition to the recognition of the cultural value of this heritage, the filing, which can also be consulted from the Portal as well as from the ICCD's SIGEweb, has made it possible to study and propose appropriate definitions that could become models for expanded regional and national filing. The narrative paths lead Portal navigators on virtual journeys transversal to the boundaries of the parks in the complex fabric of a territorial network that the three parks exemplify. The transversality of the virtual visit is intended to generate renewed points of view and reflection, integrating elements of the documentary and digitized reconnaissance about the history of the places, relationships, artists and patrons, nothing detracting from the identities and uniqueness of the places whose digital channels of information can be accessed from the same Portal through links.

2. Contemporary Art events

Beginning with crucial exhibitions such as La Nuova Figurazione held in 1963 at the Strozzina in Florence, contemporary art exhibitions held in public and institutional venues in Tuscany marked, and sometimes determined, the development of contemporary art, nationally and internationally, from the crisis of informal painting and sculpture to the new crisis of traditional media in the late 1980s. The group exhibitions, which acted as a synthesis of the most advanced positions in contemporary art offerings, open to the national and international scene, left a mark on the work of Tuscan artists because they were fundamental opportunities for updating and comparison. Of the exhibitions in question, the catalog and reviews that appeared in the press are generally usable, but not other study materials. The portal offers a survey of the main events in contemporary art in Tuscany in recent history. For a part of them, the institutions that hosted the exhibitions have provided the necessary archival and photographic documentation, so it is possible to view in addition to information about the event: press releases, brochures, posters, and other types of gray literature in addition to photographs of the installations.

The goal of the section is to return a map of contemporary art events (solo and group exhibitions, performances, site-specifics, shows, debates, reviews) that marked the development of this field in Tuscany between 1980 and 2020, both to facilitate art-historical research and for a rereading of the institutional history of contemporary art in the region, based on secure documentary data.

Each event is included in a special cataloguing sheet in which the references constitute the departure for other navigation paths. Contemporary art events can also be reached through a shortlist of thematic routes. They allow an exploration of the contents of the events to which they are linked.

In addition, for a rose of exemplary cases, events are accompanied by explanatory text designed for a wide audience. All events accompanied by explanatory texts are collected in the Educational section, created for pedagogical purposes related to the enhancement of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

Thanks to the involvement of specialized researchers, the materials were selected on the basis of original archival research. Events were selected on the basis of art-historical criteria.

3. Photographic archives

In Tuscany, photography boasts an illustrious tradition that has its roots in the nineteenth century with the great photographic establishments Alinari and Brogi, considered the leader of a wide productive sector that, because of the very high quality of the results achieved in the sphere of craft and industry, also influenced research photography and the production of professional photographers during the twentieth century.

The twentieth-century photographic funds present in Tuscan private and institutional archives prove to be fundamental, in their relations with the events and reflections of contemporary arts, both for actual photographic research and for photography related to the so-called documentation activity, especially when it is based on a particular territorial focus.

The Portal makes it possible to consult a series of photographic archives present in Tuscany, connected with the cultural temperaments of the contemporary arts of the twentieth century.

The archival photographic objects are digitally represented layers according to methodological approaches updated to the international debate in the museum field with the aim of rendering the material complexity of the photographic object. The individual photographs are flanked by cataloguing sheets also entered in the SIGECweb of the Central Institute for Catalogue and Documentation (ICCD) for these categories of cultural property (F-Photography and FF-Photographic fonds). For each photograph, the information entered is the starting point for other navigation paths. Individual photographs can also be reached through thematic paths. They allow an exploration of the contents of the photographs to which they are linked.

In addition, for a shortlist of exemplary cases, the photographs are accompanied by explanatory text designed for a wide audience. All photographs accompanied by explanatory texts are collected in the Educational section, created for pedagogical purposes related to the enhancement of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

With the involvement of specialized researchers, the photographic objects were identified on the basis of original archival research. The selection was made on the basis of art-historical criteria.