Vespa dialogues with Warhol

May 17 2017 14:27
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THE WORKS OF THE AMERICAN ARTIST AND A LARGE INSTALLATION BY SIMONE D’AURIA, WITH VESPA AS PROTAGONIST, ON DISPLAY AT THE GALLERY HOTEL ART OF FLORENCE THROUGH 31 DECEMBER 2017

Florence, 18 May 2017 Through 31 December 2017, an absolute protagonist in the history of art, Andy Warhol, and a rising talent, Simone D’Auria, will be in Florence for the new chapter of the urbanistic-cultural project conceived by the Lungarno Collection.

The iconic works of the American Pop Art master and the Freedom installation, which features Vespa as protagonist, revisited by the ingenious artist from Milan, will create a beautiful setting in the Gallery Hotel Art and the façade of the Florentine hotel.

The Andy Warhol exhibit Forever has sixteen of his most iconic works, on loan from the Rosini Gutman Foundation; this is a brief excursus, but extremely explicative, that retraces the steps of the American artist's adventure.

The exhibit, set up inside the Gallery Hotel Art, has two portraits from the series dedicated to Marilyn Monroe. Beside them is a silkscreen print from the Ladies and gentlemen collection. There is no lack of images of society and consumables, such as the famous Campbell’s soup tins, here in their classic 1967 version and in the one with the special label created for the Sarajevo winter Olympics.

The red line of Pop Art connects the Warhol exhibit to the brand new Freedom installation conceived by Simone D’Auria for the new edition of the Lungarno Collection project.


D’Auria, artistic director of the operation, identified a universally recognized icon of Italian style in Vespa, an extraordinary instrument of communication that, on this occasion, is clothed in images that are representative of various corners of the globe.

“Vespa is a profoundly urban brand that goes well beyond its function as an elegant and easy means of transportation for daily mobility. - comments Davide Zanolini, Piaggio Group Marketing and Communication Director - We like to think that it ‘furnishes and dresses’ the city. Vespa is one of the few physical objects that represent 'Made in Italy', simply because 'Made in Italy' embodies the main values: creativity, innovation, quality, strong and distinctive personality. Values that Vespa takes everywhere in the world in an authoritative and credible way and that we find in the partnership with Lungarno Collection and in the innovative installation conceived of by Simone D’Auria”.

The initiative, with the sponsorship of the Municipality of Florence and the contribution of the Piaggio Group, presents a series of 12 Vespas anchored to the façade of the Florentine hotel.

Each Vespa, of which D’Auria uses only the body, was specifically coloured and decorated with the particular Water Transfer Printing technique, creating a livery where nature is the true protagonist of the scene.

The Vespa shape was recently recognized as a “Design work to be protected” on a global level, protected by copyright.

D’Auria's work will be the ambassador of the beauty of nature. In fact, every body will bear and take with it, a particular habitat, whether that be the desert, the forest, the ocean, the mountains and hills or the sky and clouds. D’Auria's installation is colourful, with a strong idea of freedom and that, thanks to the communicative power of an immediately recognizable brand like Vespa, will allow the visitor to be fully immersed in a Pop atmosphere. The D’Auria project is completed in the Vicolo dell’Oro square with a Selfie corner where three static Vespas will be placed at different heights in order to create interaction with the public, becoming the motif and backdrop for taking selfies and sharing them on social media.

 

ANDY WARHOL - FOREVER
SIMONE D’AURIA  - FREEDOM

Florence, Gallery Hotel Art (Vicolo dell'Oro, 5)
16 May - 31 December 2017
Free entry

 

Simone D’Auria (Bergamo, 1976) Biographical notes
Architect and designer. Child of the Seventies, he grew up in a cultural environment pervaded with the aesthetic and political revolution. The alternative atmosphere of those years indelibly characterized the aesthetic sense of his path as a designer. It is Bruno Munari, Italian master of design, who Simone D’Auria looked up to when he decided to follow his vocation. His natural talent, the knowledge acquired throughout the years and the “institutional-cultural” preparation allowed him to embark in the world of art and design with eyes wide open. On an institutional level, his most prestigious collaboration has involved the Milan Triennale, where he regularly exhibits his works of art and design and St. Moritz Art Masters 2012 with the display of his two most recent works (Charging Bull and MV California). Simone D’Auria actually works in all design disciplines, creating industrial design projects, graphics, publishing, art direction, architecture and interior decorating for hotels, private homes, showrooms, shops and motorcycles: every now and then he trespasses into the world of art and photography. This vision that is so vast and ‘unconventional’ drives him to constantly seek out new materials and possibilities of using them that are always different. This is the source of his unmistakeable projects, products and works, characterized by a transversal charm and strong interdisciplinary nature.

Vespa
It was the spring of 1946 when the first Vespa, the legendary 98 cc, rolled out of the Pontedera production plant in Tuscany.
In seventy-one years of history and almost 19 million units later, Vespa has gone beyond its original function as an elegant and easy means of transportation, becoming a cult object, known and loved all over the world.
Vespa has brought together generations of guys and girls from distant and different cultures in a single passion. The first truly global brand in mobility, Vespa has interacted with social environments that at opposite ends of the spectrum, generating various cultural phenomena particular to the different settings where it integrated to the point of becoming a protagonist and a distinctive trait. It has led fashion, music and youth revolutions. It has accompanied populations through their growth and let them run happy in their phases of financial well-being.

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