When you come to Prato from the highway A11 after exiting at the toll booth Prato Est, you will have surely have noticed an enormous futuristic structure on the right hand side of the road on the edge of the city center. This is the Contemporary Arts Center Luigi Pecci with a marvelous vista (from the top of the building) of the Florentine skyline.
On the day I went to visit the museum, a day like any other, I was practically alone exploring its secrets. To be honest, to visit the museum in almost absolute solitude, allowing myself the opportunity to explore in full my reaction to these exhibitions, was a true treat.
The Contemporary Arts Center Luigi Pecci in Prato is one of the few of its kind in Tuscany. Constructed specifically to promote, conserve, present the “new”, the research and the avant garde discoveries that have made in: paintings, sculptures, architecture, design, fashion, photography, video, film, theater, dance and music. It is considered an important point of reference, with more than one thousand works of art and artistic projects that have a long history (at least 25 years).
It is a container for ideas, research and exhibition which has proposed tendencies and revolutions over the years in the field of media from the second half of the 1900’s up to and including today. In a region like that of Tuscany, already famous on an artistic-historic-cultural level, it was unthinkable that they lacked a center highly qualified space to capture the new and progression of form, material and sensations typical of modern and contemporary art.
If you happen to pass by this area often you may have even noticed that it is busy with activity and that it is slowly changing. In fact they are already working on enlarging the structure which should result in even more exciting exhibits and more. Though opening was scheduled for Spring 2015, the date has been moved to October 2015, and I am looking forward to another day close up and concentrated on the new exhibitions.
The Pecci was planned in the 80’s by a Florentine architect, Italo Gamberini (1907-1990), an important supporter of the Tuscan Rationalist Movement. The work to enlarge the center is composed of a new building fits over Gamberini’s original one and doubles the exhibition area. The building is in the phase of renewing itself, just like the continuous movement of the art which it houses.
Even the design of the building is a sign and has an important role mixing with the environment in a decisive and majestic manner as a sign of innovation. Like a ballerina that spins, it is sure of itself and it partner in the dance (the zig zag tower positioned on top). With each step it launches a message: open to the stimulus from the territory and to share the “novità”.
Maurice Nio, the new designing architect, proposed the theme “Sensing the Waves.” Not only will it artistically send out feelers for the next trend but it is now totally up to date with WiFi and elevators.
This new building has me already dreaming of the fantastic world in the form of a gold circle, wondering what will be the next new exhibition?
Follow an updated list of future exhibitions: centropecci.wordpress.com
Looking forward to the grand opening, and looking forward to exploring once again...and you?
CENTRO PER L’ARTE CONTEMPORANEA LUIGI PECCI
Viale della Repubblica 277 - Prato
http://www.centropecci.it
Credit foto: Ivan D'Alì
