Claudia Roselli is the winner of the Artist Call open to artists that are working or that are living in Tuscany. She presents to the public a contemporary art project related to the unique presence of Islamic and Jewish communities in the same neighborhood in Florence. Selected for the high quality of her proposal related to the territory and for the particular issue of strong social sensitivity, Claudia Roselli, urban researcher and artist, started a path of knowledge to create an art project that has its roots in a particular area of Florence: Sant ‘Ambrogio. The neighborhood is a meeting point of Jewish and Islamic communities in the city of Florence; place where it is also located the space of Le Murate, Progetti Arte Contemporanea.
From the late nineteenth century, in Sant’Ambrogio neighborhood, there is a Synagogue, while the presence of the Mosque, in Borgo Allegri, is really more recent, The two places of worship have been the starting point for the analysis of this urban area, that become a special zone of encounter between different cultures and sensitivities. Claudia Roselli was stimulated to begin a project here, thinking in how to develop a dialogue between the two communities. She was interested also in the woman group belonging to both the communities, but before start a dialogue with them, she needed a formal permission from the spiritual guide of the communities about her ideas and her intentions. The artist has focused her interest not only to the religious meeting places of the non-Catholic communities, to their prayers and their belief, but she also listened the rhythms of the two communities, their questions and also some individual and particular story. Through photo shoots and two video conversations with the Rabbi Joseph Levi and the Imam Elzir Izzedin, the artist will introduce to the audience, the beginning of her art project focused on the encounter between two religious realities and the various rituals on the same territory, stimulating a reflection on the sharing of urban areas by different social groups and their interaction with the city. The project will have a continuation.
At the vernissage on 18 February will be present two community representatives: Shulamit Furstenberg, for that Jewish community and Sanaa Amhed for the Muslim community; together with the artist, they will speak about the next evolutionary stages of labor. The project received the official patronage of the Islamic Community of Florence and Tuscany and the of the Florentine Jewish Community.The project was realized with the support of the Tuscany Region and the Centre for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci within the regional project “Cantiere Toscana Contemporanea”. Vernissage on February 18 at 18.00 Piazza delle Murate, Florence. Free admission Info Tel: +39 055 2476873 Mail: info.pac@muse.comune.fi.it