Alupanel in Art!

Another superb example of the versatility of our Aluminum Composite Panels, we’re extremely proud and excited that Alupanel Lite has been used on an amazing art installation on the façade of the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy.

Created by French-born artist JR and completed alongside a team of 11 in two months, the site-specific piece was constructed 30 centimetres in front of the 15th Century ashlar facade with a metal structure and 120 panels of Alupanel Lite.

Throughout his career, JR has created monumental photographic collages — from the favelas in Rio de Janeiro to the Louvre in Paris, his work depicts larger than life images placed in dramatic locations across the urban landscape and this latest work, La Ferita (The Wound), is an anamorphic collage that appears to reveal the iconic artworks housed inside the building, in addition to a stately courtyard colonnade, exhibition hall, and library.

Measuring 28 meters tall and 33 meters wide, the massive collage installation covers the primary façade of Palazzo Strozzi and creates an illusion in which, when observed from a specific viewpoint, appears to split the gallery in half.

With La Ferita, JR proposes a direct and evocative reflection on accessibility to cultural sites in this pandemic era. Thus, Palazzo Strozzi becomes the stage for a symbolic yet painful wound suffered by cultural institutions all over the world. Exposing different parts of the interior as the viewer shifts position, the artwork is in response to the lack of accessibility at cultural institutions since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The installation also launched the Palazzo Strozzi future art programme, a new initiative to support the production and promotion of contemporary art in Italy, including an annual public art commission for Florence.