The third edition of Uffizi Live arrives: all summer long shows at the Florentine museum

June 12, 2018 marks the start of the third edition of "Uffizi Live," the event created in collaboration with Firenze Musei, which will enliven the spaces of the Florentine museum by staging a rich and varied program of truly exquisite quality every Tuesday of the summer.

Since its first edition, the singular spirit of the Uffizi Live initiative has never been to offer artists and performers a mere stage on which to perform, but rather to stimulate them to create specific performances conceived in dialogue with the works of art contained in the museum, in search of signs and new visions capable of truly and originally enriching the enjoyment of the Uffizi treasures.

A dialogue that, on the wave of the success of the last editions, proves that the enhancement of art collections through alternative languages and perspectives-as is the case with the most diverse performing arts-is a trump card still to be played for Italian museum realities. And it is an initiative liked not only by the audience of visitors who every Tuesday evening in summer flock even more interested to the Gallery until 10 p.m. - having, moreover, the opportunity to enjoy the performances included in the ticket price free of charge - but also liked by the artists themselves from all disciplines, poetics and genres, from classical to contemporary, from experimental to the contamination of genres to the use of new technologies.

Actors, dancers, and performers of all types, ages, and cultural backgrounds have in fact responded with surprising enthusiasm to the call published by the Uffizi Galleries for the 2018 edition of Uffizi Live: applications have more than doubled compared to last year. More than 550 projects have arrived, of which Director Eike Schmidt himself says he is flattered: "It is sincerely exciting to see how much creativity and energy has been spent and put at the service of art, of the enhancement of the Uffizi’s historical-artistic heritage, which is and must remain public, the heritage of all and brought to knowledge in every form, even better if it is spectacular. After all, it is our duty, as a museum belonging to the MIBACT, to protect art in all its expressions, representing and promoting the nine Muses, including those of music, poetry, theater and dance. The arts have been sisters since ancient times."

From the hundreds of proposals, the Director chose, assisted by the Department of Information Technology, Digital Strategies and Cultural Promotion of the Uffizi Galleries and the advice of some external experts, 15 projects, announcing, however, important news also for the artists who did not make the shortlist: "It is a pity to choose only 15 projects among the many that arrived and of such high quality. We need to increase the offer. In fact, from 2019 we will start a continuous rotation of performances in the three venues of the Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens that will cover the entire year, not just the summer."

The 15 projects of Uffizi Live 2018 bring together great talents, young and old, already established names alongside emerging artists , from the most diverse cultures and latitudes: from France to Slovenia, from Burkina Faso to China to Russia, this year the festival stands out for a truly international vocation, much more pronounced than in previous editions, in the sign of interculturality and exchange between traditions. The national panorama is also heterogeneous, with artists from every part ofItaly: Piedmont, Sicily, Liguria, Puglia, Tuscany and Veneto the regions represented.

Among the selected projects, the works that most attracted the attention of the artists were undoubtedly those of four great masters(Botticelli, Piero di Cosimo, Michelangelo and Caravaggio), with a discrete and deep interest also directed, in a way that is by no means taken for granted, to medieval art and ancient statuary and works of archaeology.

As for genres there really will be something for everyone: from traditional African music to the Italian classical repertoire between the 16th and 18th centuries to jazz; from live electronics and musical experiments with innovative digital technologies to the most suggestive experiments on the search for sound and voice as an instrument; from kabuki to contemporary dance, dramatic or violent, minimal or semi-acrobatic, in dialogue with digital media or with the more traditional “puppets” up to real site-specific performances; from physical theater and illusion, which will captivate even children, to the poetry of shadow theater.

This year’s visit to the Uffizi in the evening, illuminated by the orange and purple lights that filter through the large windows on the Arno after 7 p.m. to almost naturally announce the “beginning of a show,” will be studded with many surprises, ideas, unusual and unexpected visions for an all-round appreciation of art and culture. For all information you can visit www.uffizi.it.

The third edition of Uffizi Live arrives: all summer long shows at the Florentine museum

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