An encounter among readers for a group debate on two texts addressing the relationship between man, nature and the climate: Philipp Blom’s The First Winter and Cal Flyn’s Islands of Abandonment
To tie in with theEco-existences: forms of the natural and the artificial exhibition (in conjunction with IED Firenze’s Master’s in Curatorial Practice) artist Nicola Toffolini has devised a shared reading and debating model devoted to two books addressing the complex relationship between man, nature and the climate: Philipp Blom’s The First Winter and Cal Flyn’s Islands of Abandonment.
The encounter has been designed to be a moment of collective debate with the aim of sparking critical thought on the present and of forging an alternative model for analysing one of the most hotly debated issues in recent years.
Participants are urged to read the two books ahead of the event in order to be able to play an active role in the debate.
In the months preceding the encounter, Nicola Toffolini has been working in close touch with a group of readers, selected by invitation, with whom he has developed a model for discussion and debate for application at the public event, thus facilitating the experience of involvement.Activity free of charge while places last.
The activity will be held in the workshops of Palazzo Strozzi.
Thank you to the participants: Elisa Pietracito, Benedetta Chiari, Alice Biffi, Marianna Nieddu, Federica Staci, Chiara Ciagli, Roberta Genualdo, Anna Flavia Rosati, Francesco Trantini, Virginia Fantuzzi, Paola Aidà, Nicole Donatiello, Giovanni Filieri, Dario Benvenuti, Elena Victoria Sinagra, Marica Pia Gualtieri.
Biography
Nicola Toffolini (1975, Udine) lives and works in Florence. In his work he alternates precarious balances in a style at once archaic and contemporary through drawings and installations. Each work introduces a variation into humdrum normality, eliciting the spectator’s discomfort. Midway between the fantastic and the scientific, his drawings, in their perfectly meticulous calligraphy, instil a gradual tension capable of subverting the rules of time and space: artificial islands as (human, natural, historical…) post-worlds crisscrossed by disturbing abstract elements that trigger short circuits with their hyper-realistic description of the landscape. He is a co-founder of the experimental theatre group Cosmesi (2003, with Eva Geatti) and of the Cickine studio (2017) in the world of design.
Cover illustration: Nicola Toffolini, Impatto asteroide (dettaglio), 2019. Courtesy l’artista
