ROME – A new exhibition at Palazzo Pretorio di Certaldo, Florence, will be open from March 1 to May 18 to host Boccaccio 25, exhibiting the works of Thomas Lange and Mutsuo Hirano, curated by Davide Sarchioni to celebrate the 650^th anniversary of the death of Boccaccio. 

 “Just as in the Decameron, 10 protagonists seek refuge in the countryside from the plague and use storytelling as a way to unify a world fragmented and thus, the exhibition explores the role of art as a refuge and instrument that can be used to rebuild society, transforming it into a place of artistic and poetic resistance in a double homage to both Boccaccio and Pier Paolo Pasolini.” 

 In the hands of Lange and Hirano, the magnus opus of Boccaccio becomes a contemporary visual narrative in an installation spread across the many different rooms of the Palazzo Pretorio, the lodge and gardens, which echoes the structure of the Boccaccian work. In each room lies a chapter, in each work lies a story and every theme is a reflection on current society. A story of images and matter, where Lange's canvases and Hirano's sculptures intertwine in a continuous dialogue between painting and sculpture. This is an immersive itinerary that ponders on our society, on its crises and its values with a poetic and symbolic vision.

 Thomas Lange (Berlin, 1957 -) is a German painter known as a neo-expressionist, whose last great exhibition in Italy dates back to 2017 at the Z.A.C. in Palermo. In this exhibition he presents thirty large paintings, in which the past and the present merge. The paintings are dedicated to Lampedusa migrants, with its shades of whites and blue of the sea, evokes martyrdom and crucifixion, transforming pain into an image of hope. The series of black and white works show the faces of the women of Tehran - who challenge the ideological regime by removing their veils and those who are condemned to death for homosexuality become the subjects of an emotional investigation, in an attempt to a give voice to those who no longer have it, transforming these figures into contemporary martyrs.

 Alongside the works of Lange, the terracotta sculptures of Mutsuo Hirano (Hyogo, 1952), an artist of Japanese origin, are placed in order to make a plastic and three-dimensional counterpoint, and form an exhibition path as fragments of memory and myth. His sculptures draw on archaic traditions, oriental references and animists, but are combined with the themes of the exhibition. Lampedusa, Tehran, Botticelli, Pontormo are reinterpreted in plastic forms that model angels, demons and sacred idols, restoring a suspended humanity between the past and present, between East and West.

The opening hours and location is stated as the following: 

Location: Palazzo Pretorio Piazzetta del Vicariato, 4, 50052 Certaldo FI

Dates: 1st March – 18th May 2025
Hours: (from 1^st to 31^st March) Mon-Fri, 10.00-13.00, 14.30-16.30; 

    Sat-Sun, 10:00-13:00, 14:30-17:30. Closed Tuesdays

(From 1^st April) every day from 10:00-13:00, 14:30-19:00.
Tickets: Tickets to two museums (Casa Boccaccio, Palazzo Pretorio): standard € 5,00; reduced € 4,00.

Info: tel 0571661219 , e-mail musei@comune.certaldo.fi.it

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