Florence, Tuscany's beauty in spectacular unpublished photos by Massimo Sestini

In Florence, from Sept. 16 to Oct. 31, 2020, the stands of the Forte di Belvedere will host the exhibition Bellezza oltre il limite, a solo show by photographer Massimo Sestini (Prato, 1963), curated by Sergio Risaliti, promoted by the Region of Tuscany and the Municipality of Florence, and produced by Fondazione Sistema Toscana, Toscana Promozione Turistica and Mus.e. The exhibition offers the public twenty giant images (each is five meters by three) taken to promote Tuscany in the world: they are exhibited in Florence for the first time and thus become, thanks to the context in which they have been placed, real windows inserted in the landscape and skyline of the Tuscan capital.

The photos present a Tuscany portrayed from an unprecedented perspective: in fact, the shots were taken at an altitude of 2,000 feet, but with lenses that allowed them to get so close to the photographed scene that they framed it in an original and innovative way. The result, according to curator Sergio Risaliti, transcends photography and becomes a work of art. Massimo Sestini’s exhibition aims to embody the artistic interpretation of the concept Tuscany, Endless Renaissance studied by Toscana Promozione Turistica, in collaboration with Fondazione Sistema Toscana, for the region’s international promotional campaign. The idea is that Tuscany, as the land where the Renaissance was born, continues to nourish the souls and invigorate the senses, through all its riches and colors. The Tuscan Countryside. Endless Renaissance is the result of a series of complementary and progressive promotional actions implemented in recent months to create new products and new tourism initiatives precisely to intercept national tourism and the first flows from neighboring countries. The strengths of this tourism strategy lie precisely in this network, which is also developed on an artistic and creative platform presenting the most authentic expression of the territories.

Massimo Sestini, with these images, wants to harken back totheeropicture of the Futurists, rising into the sky to give rise to an unprecedented and extraordinary notion of landscape photography: the impression that the photographer wants to communicate to those who will reach the Fort, occupied by Sestini’s twenty works, is that of being on a large spaceship at very high altitude over Tuscany. The images are unprecedented because the landscapes covered by the works have never been photographed from the position and in the way Sestini did, at high altitude and perpendicular. Massimo Sestini often works in the air, in helicopters or military planes, descends into the abyss, and when the means of transportation is not sufficient to get a certain shot from above, he invents gymnastic perils and finds technical solutions to move his telephoto lens where no human hand can reach. Sestini has never been interested in the reproduction of reality as much as in the experience we have of it through the manner, the technical and performative choice he decides.

“Sestini’s works,” explains exhibition curator Sergio Risaliti, “ask us not only to recognize this or that place, this or that event, thatarchitecture, beach, lagoon, coast, countryside, hill. The artist requires us to read and enjoy the forms of the landscape, those of the territory in its artistic evidence, he wants us to see how photography transforms into a painting, into pictorial language, the landscape with its contents returned to the eye in terms of figurative structures and lemmas. The landscape as a work of art arises from the union between the artist, the photographer, the technological tool, the performative gesture decided upstream.”

“Even in one of the most difficult years for Florence,” says Mayor Dario Nardella, “Forte di Belvedere confirms itself as a civic and exhibition space dedicated to contemporary art. Massimo Sestini’s photos are unprecedented and authored glimpses of our land that through his eyes we are also able to see in a completely different optic. We give them now to visitors together with the wish to come out soon, all together, from these very hard and penalizing months.”

“The joint effort of the institutions for the restart continues,” says Regional Councillor for Tourism Stefano Ciuoffo, “with special attention to areas where recovery is perforce slower, such as the historic centers of art cities. A place as symbolic as Forte Belvedere in Florence for an art exhibition on Tuscany is the artistic key to the authentic and widespread beauty of our region. From such evocative and fascinating images the invitation to return and visit Florence and Tuscany.”

“It was by no means a foregone conclusion,” adds City Councillor for Culture Tommaso Sacchi, “that even in this complex 2020 we would succeed in organizing an exhibition at Forte di Belvedere, as has been the custom in recent years. And yet, by joining forces, enthusiasm and ideas we came up with a beautiful exhibition that delivers not only high-quality shots but also hopeful signs of a possible recovery, starting with the landscapes we hold most dear.”

“The gigantic formats that enhance Massimo Sestini’s impossible gazes and zenithal visions,” emphasizes Fondazione Sistema Toscana director Paolo Chiappini, “reveal the most intimate and natural nature of the Tuscan landscape, to the point of uncovering its most hidden and moving veins. Those who will climb the ramparts of the Fort will not find a replica of that repertoire of images, albeit beautiful and evocative, that have helped to establish the myth of the Tuscan landscape throughout the world. He will come into contact with the most unknown and unexplored parts of the myth; geometries, tones, volumes, chiaroscuro never seen before, without any artifice that corrupts the most intimate essence of Tuscany, shaped by the toil of man and by a millenary wisdom.”

“These are photos that tell an emotion,” points out Toscana Promozione Turistica director Francesco Palumbo, “that suggest a motivation to travel precisely because vacation is by definition a moment of rebirth and regeneration. It is the Tuscany of authentic and contemporary experiences, from the great attractions to the routes that allow people to get in touch with the territory with even more experiential forms of tourism. Tuscany’s landscape, its history and its community are the ideal place for new beginnings. The exhibition is thus part of a broad destination promotion project that pushes the brand of Tuscany, projecting it nationally and internationally.”

Below is a selection of the photographs on display.

Pisa, Piazza del Duomo

Florence

Florence, Piazza Santa Croce

San Vincenzo

Diaccia Botrona Reserve, Castiglione della Pescaia

Metalliferous Hills

Apuan Alps, marble quarries

Palio of Siena

White roads, Buonconvento

Volterra countryside

Apuan Victory

Florence, Tuscany's beauty in spectacular unpublished photos by Massimo Sestini

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