The winning artists of the competition to embellish Florence’s courthouse, in Novoli, have been announced.
Japanese Shigeru Saito’s Before Sunrise, Antonio Violetta’s Justice, Kosovar Sislej Hxafa’s J, Virginia Zanetti’s The starry sky above me, the moral law in me, and Mauro Pace’s Metabole are the contemporary artworks that will add colour Novoli’s much maligned Palazzo di Giustizia.
The City of Florence received 228 applications in the international search for art by talented emerging artists launched in August 2015. The call for applications was made possible by the application of Law 717/1949, which allows public administrations that have erected new public buildings to earmark part of the total expenditure for the creation of decorative works. Florence is one of the few municipalities to have applied the law.
Artists Mauro Pace and Virginia Zanetti will receive 70,000 euro each as both are under 35, while the other winning designers will be paid 136,000 euro each.
As stated in the contest rules, the art must “promote and underline the importance in our society of values such as justice, respect, equality, impartiality, and the rights and duties of individual human beings”.
The works will take up residence at the Palazzo di Giustizia by the end of 2017.
