CCCS: Center for Contemporary Culture at Palazzo Strozzi

By Sonia Brodi (University of Florence)

The CCCS, better known as “the Strozzina,” is an exhibition space that was founded in 2007. It lies within the beautiful Palazzo Strozzi, in the same space where the palace’s wine cellar was once located.  After entering the courtyard and walking down the stairs located to the right of the café, you begin your tour of 11 exhibition rooms. All of the rooms are strictly white, and they allow you to glimpse and imagine the Renaissance past of this place, as vaults and arches accompany you the entire way. The center supports and promotes national and international artists through exhibitions and thematic programs concerning language, poetry, projects, and works of contemporary art.

There is currently an exhibition open until January 22, 2012, entitled “Declining Democracy: Rethinking Democracy between Utopia and Participation.” Twelve artists from around the world come together in an attempt to reflect on today’s society from an ethical, social, economic and political standpoint, emphasizing the increasingly more ironic and dark relationship between citizens and institutions, between the individual and power, and between people and authorities. They further comment on the loss of meaning in the word “democracy.” In particular, many of them have tried to highlight the moral importance of participation, of freedom of choice, of having an opinion and of being aware of one’s surroundings; they do so by presenting works that promote the direct intervention and interaction of the visitor, who is not only a spectator, but also becomes an active performer. These are, therefore, works of art marked by interaction and by subjects closely contingent on, and made up of, socio-political matter. It is not, indeed, a surprise that, in this historic moment characterized by the crisis in Western culture and economy, many artists feel the need to create works with a political and social background. Among the most challenging and curious works were, for me, those by Michael Bielicky & Kamila B. Richter (Germany), Buuuuuuuuu (Italy), Thomas Feuerstein (Austria), Thomas Kilpper (Germany), and Lucy Kimbell (United Kingdom). The first two artists created a multimedia installation that is a sort of video game, entitled Garden of Decay and Error. You can use a joystick to interfere with what is projected (Obama, Putin, Saddam, weapons, banks, etc.). Buuuuuuuuu, meanwhile, is a group of three Italians who wanted to create a participatory initiative on the web (in the work, One Minute Against Berlusconi Smile, you can shoot a picture of yourself and then see yourself on YouTube); they have also provided visitors with the opportunity to write what they think on a message board and to shout their own ideas from megaphones. The third artist presents a work that oscillates between art, sociology, and biology, in order to try to metaphorically illustrate the coexistence of individuals and their need to organize. The fourth artist, on the other hand, uses videos, drawings, and prints on fabric to address the issue of immigration, particularly that of Lampedusa, and of the atrocities that are related to it. Finally, I found the work of Lucy Kimbell to be quite enjoyable and peculiar. The artist created eight transparent tubes of equal height and filled them with buttons of different colors, each displaying a written answer to the question: “What did you do last week that made you a citizen?” With the passage of time and with the cooperation of visitors, the work is transformed into a bar graph, as each visitor must choose a button to put on. The other artists in the exhibition are: Francis Alys, Roger Cremers, Democracia, Juan Manuel Echavarria, Thomas Hirschhorn, Caesar Pietroiusti and Artur Zmijewski.

The Strozzina is a very interesting and easily accessible place that serves as a forge of ideas and of events. It is definitely recommended for art lovers and non-art lovers alike, for it exudes a multidisciplinary atmosphere. For more information, see the official website: http://www.strozzina.org/