Liu Bolin’s camouflage on show in Florence until September 18th

September 17, 2023

Piazza della Signoria, Firenze (2022), photo courtesy Galleria Gaburro

Hiding in Florence, the new solo exhibition by Chinese artists Liu Bolin, is on show at Sala d’Arme of Palazzo Vecchio in Florence until September 18th 2023. The exhibit brings together 6 new photographic works with the videos unveiling the backstage secrets, through the footage realised during the production of the shots. The videos document the making of the creative process encouraging the audience to participate to a more immersive and performative experience. The show draws from the 2022 eponymous artistic project carried out in Florence as a major collaboration between Galleria Gaburro, the exhibition curator Marco Bazzini and the Municipality of Florence. The Florentine exhibit comes as a continuation and culmination of a more extensive series, Hiding in Italy, that the artist has developed in some of the major cities in Italy, such as Milan, Venice, Verona, Rome and Caserta.

Liu Bolin (Shandong, 1973), dubbed as “the invisible man” for his distinctive camouflage work, is internationally renowned for his signature performances that create a perfect blend between the artists himself and the surrounding background thanks to an accurate body painting. During his artistic interventions the artist is portrayed in front of a variety of natural and artistic backdrops within which he completely conceals himself by standing still as a statue and merging with the environment. Over the years, he has been photographed in front of the main landmarks in the world as well as art pieces, bookshelves, supermarket shelves, mountains of waste and among migrants.

Liu Bolin is a multidisciplinary artists using painting, photography, sculpture and performance to identify the space existing between the individual and the community, between presence and invisibility, mankind and nature, cultural identities and individual experience. Through his creative practice he explores and questions the relationship between thought and politics as well as between freedom and control, by reiterating the duality of presence and invisibility, of expression and silence. His artistic development is based on the concept of “Invisible presence” that he uses as a key to build a dialogue between historical memories and the individuals, who can choose to be transparent and to annul themselves in order to stress the lost of identity of the modern individuals or can decide to play an active role and appear.

His latest project Hiding in Florence has involved the city institutions and historical landmarks that actively contribute to the promotion of a universal heritage: Piazza della Signoria, the Uffizi Gallery, Biblioteca Marucelliana, Palazzo Pitti and Palazzo Vecchio that hosts the exhibit.

“The art of Liu Bolin integrates with the essence of Florence thanks to the artist’s attention to the city’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage. “