Boccaccio 25: Lange and Hirano transform the Decameron into a visual tale in Certaldo

A Decameron that spans time, an interweaving of past and present, memory and actuality, art and resistance. This is the soul of Boccaccio 25, the exhibition that from March 1 to May 18, 2025 will bring the works of Thomas Lange (Berlin, 1957) and Mutsuo Hirano (Hyōgo, 1952) to the rooms of Palazzo Pretorio in Certaldo, the birthplace of Giovanni Boccaccio (Certaldo or Florence, 1313 - Certaldo, 1375). Curated by Davide Sarchioni and promoted by the Municipality of Certaldo under the patronage of the Regional Council of Tuscany, the exhibition inaugurates the CertaldoArte25 exhibition, celebrating the 650th anniversary of the death of the author of the Decameron. As the ten protagonists of Boccaccio’s work take refuge in the countryside to escape the plague and reconstruct a fragmented world through storytelling, the exhibition reflects on the role of art as a space of resistance and rebirth. The project, in fact, takes the form of a double homage: to Boccaccio and to Pier Paolo Pasolini, who in 1971 reinterpreted the Decameron in a cinematic key.

In the hands of Lange and Hirano, Boccaccio’s masterpiece becomes a diffuse installation, a visual path through the rooms of the Praetorian Palace, the Loggia and the garden. Each room is transformed into a chapter, each work into a story, each theme into a reflection on contemporary society. Lange’s canvases and Hirano’s sculptures converse in an itinerary that, without documentary rigidity, addresses central themes of our time with a poetic and symbolic vision.

Thomas Lange is known for a neo-expressionist, gestural and material pictorial language. His last major exhibition in Italy was in 2017, when he exhibited at ZAC in Palermo. For Boccaccio 25, the artist presents a series of thirty large-format paintings in which the past overlaps with the present. Faces of Madonnas and angels taken from Botticelli and Pontormo are mixed with images of the contemporary, in a continuous play of cross-references between sacred and profane, history and actuality. Among the most significant works, the cycle of paintings dedicated to the Lampedusa migrants uses shades of whites and blues to evoke the sea, martyrdom and crucifixion. Grief becomes an image of hope, transforming the drama into a visual reflection on the human condition. Another core of black-and-white works is dedicated to the women of Tehran, who defy the regime by removing their veils, and to those sentenced to death for homosexuality. Lange does not limit himself to a chronological representation, but builds an emotional and symbolic investigation: the painted faces become contemporary martyrs, figures suspended between denunciation and memory.

Alongside Lange’s paintings, Mutsuo Hirano’s terracotta sculptures introduce a plastic dimension intended to amplify the meaning of the exhibition. His works, included in the exhibition itinerary as fragments of memory and myth, dialogue with the exhibition’s themes through a sculptural sensibility that draws on sacred models and Western iconographies. Angels, demons, and sacred idols emerge from his plastic forms, interpreting the world evoked by Lange in a three-dimensional key. Lampedusa, Teheran, Botticelli and Pontormo are reinterpreted through a sculptural language that oscillates between abstraction and figuration. The installation and coordination of the exhibition project are curated by Exponent, while the exhibition catalog, edited by Davide Sarchioni, will be published by Casa Fornovecchino.

“My interest in Boccaccio’s greatest work dates back to my adolescence,” Lange explains, “not only in my school desks, but to the cinematic interpretation of it by Pier Paolo Pasolini in his 1971 ”Decameron.“ It is not our intention (mine and Mutsuo’s) to reread the Decameron through a pointed commentary on its novellae in images, rather to be inspired by its importance for the history of European culture in defining artistic freedom in general, as a symbol of variety and diversity, finding links with our research.”

“The exhibition offers an extraordinary opportunity to bring contemporary art to life with the landscape and history of the Tuscan village of Certaldo,” says Giovanni Mazzeo, President of the Regional Council of Tuscany, “and opens a dialogue with the history of the space that hosts it, in this wonderful corner of Tuscany that speaks to us of a great protagonist of culture who was Giovanni Boccaccio.”

“Boccaccio 25 by Thomas Lange and Mutsuo Hirano,” add Giovanni Campatelli, Mayor of the Municipality of Certaldo, and Clara Conforti, Councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Certaldo, “kicks off the fifth edition, where painting and sculpture merge and dialogue with Palazzo Pretorio, transforming it into a dynamic stage where the creations interact perfectly with the surrounding space.2025 is the year of the 650th anniversary of Giovanni Boccaccio’s death, and the exhibition route could only bear the name of our most illustrious citizen, and for the occasion the two artists have dedicated works to him. Another particularly significant aspect of this exhibition is its international scope. The artists come, in fact, from two countries with which the Municipality of Certaldo is twinned: Japan and Germany. [...] We invite all visitors to explore, with curiosity the works on display. A real opportunity to celebrate Boccaccio through beauty and creativity, combining history with contemporaneity and international dialogue.”

Practical information

Hours: (March 1 to 31) Mon-Fri, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., 2:30-4:30 p.m.; Sat-Sun, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., 2:30-5:30 p.m. Closed Tuesdays. (Starting April 1) daily 10 a.m.-1 p.m., 2:30-7 p.m.

Tickets: visit to the 2 Museums (Casa Boccaccio, Palazzo Pretorio): full € 5.00; reduced € 4.00.

Boccaccio 25: Lange and Hirano transform the Decameron into a visual tale in Certaldo

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