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8 February 2023

In a world abused by wars that stain every continent with blood, we very often turn to art to express our hope that one day the Earth will once again be the Eden we all want it to be.

It is with this in mind that the Centro Studi Sauro Cavallini - with the patronage of the Municipality of Florence and the contribution of the Florence Biennale - promoted the placement of a work by sculptor Sauro Cavallini, entitled Balletto multiplo (Multiple Ballet), in Piazza del Duomo in the Tuscan capital, in the space between the apse of the Cathedral and Palazzo Strozzi Sacrati, headquarters of the Regional Council of Tuscany, where the recently inaugurated exhibition of 16 other works by the artist entitled 'Sauro Cavallini. Storia di un internato' (Sauro Cavallini. Story of a deportee).

Entitled 'Balletto per la pace di Sauro Cavallini. Un abbraccio per un mondo senza confini' (Ballet for Peace by Sauro Cavallini. An embrace for a world without borders), the event was presented today in front of the sculpture, in the presence of the Deputy Mayor and Councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Florence, Alessia Bettini, the President of the Tuscany Region, Eugenio Giani, the President and Director of the Sauro Cavallini Study Centre of Fiesole, Teo Cavallini and Maria Anna Di Pede (also curator of the exhibition), and Jacopo Celona (Director of the Florence Biennale). The work will remain here until 11 April 2023.

«A monumental bronze work in a unique location that emphasises movement, harmony and gestures and renews Sauro Cavallini's strong bond with our city - underlines the deputy mayor and councilor for Culture, Alessia Bettini -. The large sculpture, with its tight interplay of balances and intertwining, powerfully and intensely conveys the central themes of this extraordinary artist's production: peace and human brotherhood. A powerful and unfortunately still topical message in the dramatic context we are currently experiencing. Cavallini's lived experience, full of pain, transpires vividly in all his creations, making them truly unique. This exhibition project is very important for us, representing a further opportunity to enhance the role of the city of Florence in the context of contemporary artistic production while celebrating and promoting the values of peace».

There is no precedent for a work of contemporary art being placed in that space - between the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and the headquarters of the Regional Council of Tuscany - and featuring the artist who passed away in July 2016, who in his youth personally experienced the atrocities of the Second World War, as he was imprisoned in the Gradaro camp in Mantua for a period of about a year. Those months of imprisonment profoundly marked Cavallini's life, and when he began practising sculpture, the nightmares of that experience took shape and were translated into his first works of art.

«Sauro Cavallini is an artist who was able to translate the horrors of history into works that are a gift of beauty and at the same time a civil testimony, - says Eugenio Giani, President of the Tuscany Region -. For this reason, more than others, they deserve public spaces where they can also be a stimulus for reflection, remembrance, and commitment. This is particularly true for the Ballet for Peace, which will be installed in Piazza del Duomo, in front of Palazzo Strozzi Sacrati, in continuity with the exhibition that the Region of Tuscany has decided to dedicate to Cavallini. It is a work of extraordinary value, whose message is particularly strong and topical in these months marked by the war in Ukraine, but also by so many other situations of human rights violations, from Iran to central Africa. It is ultimately not only a fitting tribute to a great artist but also the best way to send a great message with the power of art».

Until 11 April the exhibition will feature an original monument by master Sauro Cavallini, the Balletto Multiplo, in Piazza Duomo in Florence, as unique is the message that the exhibition wants to communicate: 'peace among peoples'.

This renews the sculptor's bond with the city of Florence, already witnessed by the numerous works present in the area, sharing with the citizens the message of peace strongly felt by Cavallini and characteristic of all his work.

Realised in bronze in 1984, the large sculpture measures 260 centimetres wide, 280 centimetres high and two and a half metres deep; weighing approximately 700 kilograms, it was placed on a 50 centimetre high base that gives it even more height.

The Balletto Multiplo depicts three sinuous silhouettes that move harmoniously and, in a tight play of balances, brush against each other, intertwine, and arrange themselves according to a choreography that develops around the central figure raised in an agile surge.

«Piazza del Duomo is the ideal place for Cavallini's dancing figures, - says the Director of the Centro Studi Sauro Cavallini, Maria Anna Di Pede - which establish a lively dialogue with the surrounding buildings, a harmony of harmonious contrasts between the sinuous shapes of the silhouettes and the rigour of the architecture of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, between the colour of the bronze and the whiteness of the marble, between the graceful movement of the dance and the severe geometry of the square».

The installation of the work saw the precious collaboration of the Florence Biennale, which through its Director Jacopo Celona wished to express its appreciation for this project: «We are delighted that the Deputy Mayor and Councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Florence, Alessia Bettini, has enthusiastically embraced the project of placing a sculpture by Sauro Cavallini in Piazza Duomo, - says Celona -. As Florence Biennale, we are proud to have awarded the maestro the 'Lorenzo il Magnifico' International Award (in memoriam) in 2017 because artists such as Cavallini have the great ability to dialogue with the city and find a balance with the art of the past».

Strongly desired by President Teo Cavallini, the exhibition is part of the 'Ballet for Peace' project, conceived with the aim of proposing a theme particularly dear to Cavallini, that of peace and brotherhood, contextualising it in a large public space able to emphasise the movement, harmony and gestural expressiveness of the figures that make up the work. The Balletto Multiplo, therefore, stands both as an expression of freedom and movement without constraints of space, and as a metaphor for an embrace of peace among men in a world without borders, without barriers, free of war and violence.

«I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the Municipal Administration of Florence for this wonderful opportunity of expression, - Teo Cavallini concludes - through which we can contribute to highlighting the work of my father Sauro, a master of public art, and the need to promote it».

Florence Biennale Media Office