From January 31 to February 6, 2022, Fabio Petani collaborated with Street Levels Gallery on a public art project in Florence’s Quartiere 4. ‘Figurative Herbarium’ represents a significant initiative for the regeneration of urban furnishings; the self-cleaning toilets in Piazza dell’Isolotto are a type of service necessary to the community but also impacting the urban landscape. Urban art proves itself capable of combining public utility and culture, transforming public space into an environment of common belonging. The initiative, promoted by the Municipality of Florence and curated by our gallery, calls on Fabio Petani’s social and creative commitment. The artist from Turin becomes the interpreter of a specific operation: to put his own expressiveness at the service of the needs of the city.

The residential area of Isolotto, strongly characterized by a landscape that is both urban and naturalistic, represents the premise of continuity with the imagination of the designated artist.

The surroundings of the square are characterized by toponyms dedicated to plants and trees. They are symbols of the naturalistic background that preceded the progressive architectural development and demographic growth of the district. Street Levels Gallery commissioned Fabio Petani precisely because of his personal creative identity, able to convey the historicity and urban actuality of the territory. The “Figurative Herbarium” thus acquires another level of meaning: a tool capable of raising awareness of environmental issues, botany and specific flower varieties, integrated into the mural through the nomenclature of the plant species that inhabit the area.

ALTRO