KAWS Takes Over Palazzo Strozzi with THE MESSAGE: A Dialogue Between Renaissance and Pop
Florence woke up yesterday to an unusual short circuit between past and present: the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi hosted the inauguration of THE MESSAGE, the new site-specific installation by KAWS, the American artist known for blending pop, street art, and high culture into a language that’s both recognizable and irresistible. In dialogue with the Renaissance architecture of the palace and the ongoing exhibition dedicated to Beato Angelico, the work reimagines one of the friar painter’s most iconic subjects — The Annunciation — as a contemporary scene, where sacred reverence gives way to an emblem of our times: the mobile phone. A symbol of our hyperconnected lives, it becomes the focal point of the scene, embodying the melancholy, vulnerability, and solidarity that have always animated KAWS’s characters.
The feeling is like stepping into a film where art history and contemporary life speak freely to one another. The installation, open to the public, is part of Palazzo Strozzi Future Art, a program promoting interventions by contemporary artists capable of creating new perspectives between past and future — an invitation to rethink the aesthetic and symbolic codes of our daily lives.
The Florentine inauguration naturally had its glamorous aftertaste, with a party at YAB, the iconic disco club in the heart of Florence between Piazza Strozzi and Piazza della Repubblica, which gathered many familiar faces from the art and cultural scene. Among them, alongside Arturo Galansino, General Director of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, were Luigi De Siervo, Andy Bianchedi, Antonio Riva, Iva Lulashi, Tommaso Calabro, and Giulia Torelli.
The evening served as a celebration of the project and of the ongoing dialogue between KAWS and Palazzo Strozzi — a space suspended between the sacred and the everyday, art and pop culture. More than a work of art, THE MESSAGE is an experience: an invitation to reflect on the connections between past and present, to live art as a space for exchange, and to rediscover the pleasure of walking among giants that speak of us — our fragility, and our hyperconnected society. A Florentine debut that once again confirms KAWS’s ability to turn even the most historic settings into fertile ground for a surprising and immediate dialogue.
Text: Germano D’Acquisto
Photo: Ludovica Arcero
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