By Anna Benedetto
Photo: Riccardo Benassi
In the squares and in other locations of the City in the province of Lucca, the provocative urban monumental exhibition by Emanuele Giannelli scatters large and small figures who question us about the future. Until September 30, 2026, Barga is transformed into an exceptional setting for “I Visionari”, the solo exhibition of sculptor Emanuele Giannelli.
The event is organized by the Municipality of Barga, the Tuscany Region, the Oxo Collection Art Gallery and Giannelli sculptor, and offers a monumental outdoor exhibition with free access 24 hours a day that sees as protagonists the famous “giants” of the artist, curious investigators of progress who appear in various spaces of the historic center and also in the Valley, as well as an internal exhibition path that has its heart in the Oxo Gallery in Piazza del Comune n.5, where Giannelli’s solo exhibition will be set up, and also involves the premises of three restaurants in the center: Alfonso, Scacciaguai and Wine Not?, as well as the offices of the Unipol agency in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana and Gallicano. All these subjects are partners in the exhibition.
A City that dialogues with the world through art
“The exhibition of statues by the artist Giannelli, which will take place in the heart of the historic center of Barga, represents a cultural event of great prestige for our community – are the words of the mayor of Barga, Caterina Campani -. His works, recognized and appreciated internationally, bring to our city a contemporary artistic language capable of dialoguing in an intense and evocative way with the historical and architectural context of the City. Barga is once again confirmed as a “Borgo dell’Arte”, a natural meeting place between tradition and contemporary creativity, capable of welcoming important artists and offering citizens and visitors a widespread and accessible cultural experience.We are sure that this exhibition will be a strong attraction for the tourist season, helping to enhance the historic center, to promote the image of Barga beyond national borders and to strengthen the role of culture as an engine of development and attractiveness for our territory”.
“After Milan, Siena, after the big cities, I liked to bring an urban exhibition to a city like Barga, so full of history and beauty, one of the most beautiful in our mountains – declares Emanuele Giannelli -. I feel pleasure, interest and curiosity to exhibit in such a small and beloved center, handed down for generations, where art has an international flavor that can also be heard in the jazz notes that populate the streets in summer. An artistic atmosphere without boundaries that unites it to Pietrasanta. I like urban exhibitions because I love to get out of the canonical spaces of galleries and museums to go into public space, where art meets non-experts. This is because art is first and foremost communication, which opens up outside the ‘living rooms’ and provokes different emotions for each gaze”.
“Through these sculptures,” he concludes, going into the merits of his poetics, “we try to investigate the future: they are the projection of desires that are placed between dream and reality, through which to travel towards what will happen, bearers of the signs of progress which, embodied in technology, has an essential role. For these I called them The Visionaries. On the surface of these works, my intent to investigate and the readings of observers come together. There are many doubts, but I am certainly not the one who has the answer”.
The map of the exhibition
The widespread giants. In the octagon of Viale Marconi there is Mr Arbitrium Mirrored, visible to everyone even from a distance. But the tallest work is Korf, positioned at Porta Reale, outside the walls, almost as if he were a Guardian of the Citadel. In the atrium of Palazzo Balduini, in the middle street, there is Gravity and under the vault of the Menchi a Sospeso and Mr. Kiribati.The core of the solo exhibition is at the Oxo Gallery in Piazza del Comune, 5, with a proposal of works by the artist in Bronze, Raku and Resin, which can find space outdoors and indoors. And again, in the city. Two Korfs outside the Da Alfonso restaurant, in Piazza Angelio; the Monkey Tribu are located at the Scacciaguai restaurant, in Via di Mezzo; The Watcher is located at the Art boutique hotel Acchiappasogni, in Via di Mezzo (within which, in the list of the Oxocollection Private Collection), there is also a Mr. Arbitrium in Bronze and a Battle of Babel in resin; Is Capsule Hotel located at Wine Not restaurant? in Piazza Santissima Annunziata.Outside the walls: other works will be scattered throughout the Valley as well as in the offices of the Unipol agency in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana and Gallicano.
Emanuele Giannelli, born in Rome, lives in Versilia where his provocativeness is expressed in arousing emotions. A lover of contemporaneity and dual human nature, innovative and potentially capable of anything he wants, on the one hand, and profoundly self-destructive, on the other, he creates works in perfect balance between figurative and conceptual art. The chaos of contemporaneity thus finds expression without the weight of judgment: the observer looks at it, suspended between doubts and possibilities.OXO Gallery thanks the subjects who support the event: the Municipality of Barga, the Region of Tuscany, UNIPOL Assicurazioni of Cipollini, Orsi e Bordolesi of Castelnuovo Garfagnana, Ristorante Alfonso, Ristorante Scacciaguai, WineNot, Dimore Toscane.com_Houses in Tuscany.com, Acchiappasogni Art Boutique Hotel of Barga and SONHO.IT, the latter for having granted the installation of “Graviti Gigante” in the private atrium of the prestigious Palazzo Balduini.
Info: “I visionari”, di Emanuele Giannelli, mostra diffusa / Barga, fino al 30 settembre 2026
Sede principale: Oxo Gallery, Piazza del Comune n.5, Barga
Web: www.oxocollection.it / Instagram: @oxogallery / Mail: w.tognocchi@gmail.com / Tel: +39 350 1706165
