- Venue
- Boboli Garden, Florence.
- Location
- Italy
A new exhibition of monumental sculptures by Helidon Xhixha opens today at the Boboli Garden, Florence, until the 29th of October 2017. The open air exhibition, titled In Ordine Sparso (Random in Italian) is curated by the Director of the Uffizi Galleries, Eike Schmidt and Diego Giolitti. An honour to be the first contemporary artist to show at the Boboli Garden after having been awarded the ‘Public Medal’ for best installation at the 2016 inaugural London Design Biennale. Albanian by origin, he now lives and works between Milan and Dubai.
The new summer exhibition sees Helidon Xhixha explore the ideas of chaos and order through his series of thirteen monumental sculptures and installations. The works pay homage to how this concept has been portrayed in philosophy and the arts (sacred geometry) and how it is interpreted in the natural world. Xhixha’s distorted stainless geometric sculptural pieces successfully mirrors the surroundings in a by the second constant changing environment that remind us that nothing is what it seems and nothing stays still for long. His works blend in into the space and invite the viewer to rediscover minute details of the settings we inhabit. An opportunity to be more acute in our observations.
Through their shapes and reflective surfaces, the sculptural installations offer new perspectives on the intertwining of art and nature, promoted by the Medici family in 16th and 17th centuries. The exhibition features also several new works specially made by the artist on the occasion of this exhibition, along with other works created between 2010 and 2016, which are representative of his prolific career.
In the Limonaia of the Boboli Gardens the artist has looked to nature to understand chaos. Inspired by the Crystal Caves in Naica, Mexico, he has designed a complex response to their seemingly random formation. He has created in the Limonaia his signature aesthetic response, great towering columns of mirror polished stainless steel entice the visitor to enter and explore the artist’s vision.
Commenting on Xhixha’s work, Eike Schmidt said,
‘These highly interactive and communicative objects multiply, rearrange and distort the beholder’s likeness, and in many instances, they turn it upside down. Rarely have sculptures been able to draw and keep the attention of teenagers and adults alike, who often explore these works for long periods of time, mostly resorting to their smartphones for help in capturing their own likeness together with some of the mirror images on the steel.At the same time, they act as magnets for children who often touch the unusual surface while moving along it and observing the changes of their mirror images, or make faces or jump in front of it.”
Helidon Xhixha comments,
“To be asked by the Uffizi Galleries to create my vision in this incomparable setting is a great honor. These are some of the most breathtaking, historically important and atmospheric surroundings that I have ever worked within and I thank Eike Schmidt, Diego Giolitti and the Uffizi Galleries for their support in organizing this exhibition.”
For more information, please visit the Uffizi Galleries website on http://www.gallerieuffizimostre.it/helidonxhixha
