Contemporary Florence: the new must-see exhibitions in the city

From Henry Moore to Tony Cragg, from Olafur Eliasson to BIAF, Florence Art Week is a blossoming of exhibitions and unmissable appointments with art

The first edition of Florence Art Week officially opens the contemporary art season in Florence.

The first exhibition to open is Henry Moore in Florence, realised by the Museo Novecento in collaboration with the Henry Moore Foundation. The exhibition presents two sculptures, "Large Interior Form" and "Family group", exhibited for the occasion in Piazza della Signoria and on the parvis of the Abbey of San Miniato al Monte (until 31 March 2023).

In conjunction with the exhibition Henry Moore in Florence, from 22 September to 3 October, the exhibition Back to Moore. Forte Belvedere 1972, which presents a selection of historical images from the personal archives of all those who, from all over Italy, visited Henry Moore's historic exhibition at Forte Belvedere in 1972.

Palazzo Strozzi has opened to the public the major exhibition Nel suo tempo (In His Time), a solo show by Olafur Eliasson, whose multifaceted production focuses the visitor in a reflection on the idea of shared and relational experience of reality. Curated by Arturo Galansino, General Director of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, the exhibition is the result of Olafur Eliasson's direct work on the spaces of Palazzo Strozzi.

Until 15 January 2023 Tony Cragg is the protagonist at the Museo Novecento and the Istituto degli Innocenti with the major monographic exhibition TONY CRAGG. Transfer, curated by Sergio Risaliti and Stefania Rispoli, which presents a selection of sculptures and works on paper by the famous British sculptor.

From 24 September to 2 October, great art and antiques return to Palazzo Corsini with The International Antiques Fair. Around 80 exhibitors are preparing to return as protagonists on the occasion of the 32nd edition of BIAF, to display the excellence of art and antiques in the splendid 17th-century rooms of Palazzo Corsini. Celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2019, BIAF has become an integral part of the history of collecting in Italy since the Second World War and thus continues to be a strategic moment for antiquarians and dealers.

On the evening of the 23rd, at sunset, the artist Emiliano Maggi, author of the sculptures with which the six patrons of RINASCIMENTO + will be honoured, is the protagonist of a performance, conceived and interpreted by the artist, which will take place on the stretch of the Arno between Palazzo Corsini and Ponte Vecchio.

At Palazzo Medici Riccardi, where modern collecting was born at the time of Cosimo the Elder and Lorenzo Il Magnifico, the exhibition Passione Novecento. From Paul Klee to Damien Hirst, curated by Sergio Risaliti. The exhibition hosts a prestigious selection of works by 20th century masters from private Florentine and Tuscan collections.

Until 30 September in Piazza Santa Maria Novella, Galleria Poggiali proposes the work Salsiccia - Fat bus, executed for the occasion by Erwin Wurm, one of the major protagonists of international contemporary art. Fat Bus Salsiccia - a prelude to the solo exhibition Trans Formam that from 24 September to 18 March 2023 will see the artist's works exhibited in Florence in a project specially conceived for Galleria Poggiali - is positioned in Piazza Santa Maria Novella and functions in the dual role of public monument and performative structure. Fat Bus Salsiccia in fact consists of a real van set up for the preparation and actual distribution of hot-dogs.

He also inaugurated the installation on the façade of Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni, home of the Roberto Casamonti Collection: the installation, a site-specific work realised by the artist FabrizioPlessi in collaboration with the Uffizi Galleries, features four videos placed inside the niches of the façade that in the past housed the sculptures of the four seasons (until 30 March 2023). At the same time, the exhibition Emozioni digitali, dedicated to Plessi, one of the most important Italian video art artists, opens in the Tornabuoni Arte exhibition space. And while until 28 September The British Institute proposes Love not war, an art exhibition to raise funds for the Red Cross in Ukraine with works by artists ErikArt Hoenig, Tom J. Bryne, Jennifer Leo and Look - Ah.