JR’s “The Wound” at Palazzo Strozzi

The facade of Palazzo Strozzi has been transformed by the acclaimed French contemporary artist JR, who has reinterpreted the frontage of the Renaissance palazzo with a site-specific installation.

Rising 28 metres high and 33 metres wide, JR’s high-impact installation offers a sort of cross-section of Palazzo Strozzi, which is real and imaginary at the same time. Designed as a black-and-white photographic collage, in accordance with the artist’s hallmark style, the installation is constructed as anamorphosis, an illusion that, when observed from a certain point of view, opens up various spaces of Palazzo Strozzi (the colonnade in the courtyard, an imaginary exhibition hall and a library), as if one were actually inside the wound. By referencing a real place like the library of the Institute of Renaissance Studies, the French artist provides a forthright reflection on the accessibility to cultural centres during the pandemic.