PIAZZA DEI TRE RE 2017

As last year, the 2017 restyling of Piazza dei Tre Re transforms the site into a secret and intimate oasis of green pop-up architecture, this time merging the urban garden concept with a huge work of street art.
The project of designer Chiara Fanigliulo aims at re-qualify this small corner, hidden in the heart of Florence, by using vertical greens, trees and temporary structures, blending in her project a pictorial installation, enhancing art itself as a tool for urban regeneration.
The pop-up acquires a new look from last year, due to the required reinvention of a 20-m tall scaffold mounted on the wall of the fourteenth-century Torre dei Macci, currently undergoing renovation.
The un-removable scaffolding surface of the tower became an opportunity to create a visually powerful backdrop, an enormous canvas on which to imagine an evocative scene.
The inspiration for the artwork came from the history of the Piazza itself, as headquarter of the Guardian of Public Morality during the XV century, yet reinterpreted through the use of contemporary materials and formats. The style of London-based painter Tarik Berber was perfect for the task, echoing the ancient art of painting yet with ultra-modern textures.
The result of this collaboration is a huge canvas made out of PVC, depicting four figures of prostitutes dressed with three-dimensional drapes, made out of the same material.
Such pictorial installation is inspired by the history of the place, in its subjects and depictions, but also uses contemporary materials such as scaffolding and digital printing, to create a street piece that also has a crucial functional goal – integrating the scaffold into the space, giving it a new and pleasing role.
At the end of summer 2017, Serre Torrigiani will hold a charity auction where Berber’s piece will be sold to help the Angeli del Bello, a notable city institution that carries out volunteering activities for the maintenance and improvement of urban decor.

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