Like the previous editions of ARTIGIANATO E PALAZZO craft workshops and their commissions, the next 15th edition of the Exhibition will bring together, in the splendid Corsini Garden in Florence, over one hundred of the most extraordinary and capable Florentine, Italian and European craftsmen, involving some 8,000 attentive and curious visitors during the three days of the exhibition alone. In addition to the important cultural and popular contribution in itself, the Exhibition will stimulate a moment of in-depth study on the “minor arts”, with the intention of bringing them ever closer to our everyday life, thus breaking away from the traditional canons of other Exhibition-Markets.

The ARTIGIANATO E PALAZZO Exhibition was mainly born from the idea of re-evaluating and reframing the figure of the craftsman and his work in our times, considering it a high expression of quality and technique, linked to the client, but insisting on the idea of a craftsmanship that is ‘modern’ by nature, without forgetting the fundamental element of tradition. There was also a desire to emphasise the strong social relevance of the craftsman of the past whose workshop often thrived around the palace, understood as a ‘showcase’ and a place for experimentation, in continuous exchange with patrons of all classes, benefiting from a direct relationship with the population and tradition as the holder of social aesthetics. Also for this 15th edition, we start from the idea that in the handicraft, creation never ends and each work is not equal to another.

And speaking of ‘handicraft’ (from the Latin ‘manu facere’: to make with the hands), the exhibitors at ARTIGIANATO E PALAZZO are once again called upon to demonstrate live the various working techniques in which they excel.
The Palazzo Corsini sul Prato, commissioned to Bernardo Buontalenti at the end of the 16th century, hides one of the most interesting Italian gardens in Florence, designed and realised by Gherardo Silvani, with a wide central avenue adorned with statues of degrading sizes to accentuate the perspective effect, flower beds, box hedges, bases for lemon basins and its spacious and luminous Limonaie (lemon houses) that rise up behind the boundary wall delimiting the garden on Via della Scala, from where they have their entrance.

PROGRAMME

Friday 15 May
10.00 a.m. public opening of the Exhibition
11.00 a.m. inauguration of the Exhibition “The Young Florentine Genius: Fucecchio Leather
Competition on Creativity and Leather Workmanship (Loggia of Palazzo Corsini)
5.30 p.m. Open meeting with the candidates for Mayor “The role of craftsmanship in the future of Florence” (Androne di Palazzo Corsini)
8.30 p.m. evening closure

Sunday 17th May
10 a.m. public opening of the Exhibition
7.00 p.m. awarding of the “Perseo Prize – Banca CR Firenze” (Loggia) drink
8.30 p.m. closing of the Exhibition

Every day
Free guided tours of the Corsini Garden by the Hidden City Association
Friday and Sunday 12.00 – 15.00 – 16.00 – 17.00
Saturday 12.00 – 16.00 – 17.00 – 18.00

Home-made bar and restaurant