The internationally renowned artist has “disappeared” in front of many monuments all over the world, as well as in front of supermarket shelves, mountains of waste and in the midst of masses of migrants. His process of hiding, “to become a thing among things”, seeks to vanish within the whole, causing us to question being and not being, and what is known and yet not known.
Famous Florentine monuments are made mysterious by the artist who stares at us intently, yet it may take us a minute to see him. Rigid rules of geometric perspective are adhered to in order not to be seen (at a first distracted glance), inspired by the drawing method that was invented here in Florence in the early 15th century. The artist has long been passionate about the cradle of the Renaissance, as curator Marco Bazzini noted, “just like those travellers who came to Italy on the Grand Tour, Liu Bolin could not resist stopping in Florence”.