Transhumances II

Following the first iteration of their nomadic art and design residency last summer - Transhumances I in Le Sauvan, in the southwest of France - Galerie Philia continued its journey heading this time to Florence, at Palazzo Galli Tassi, where emerging designers settled down in July. Their brand-new works will be unveiled in an exhibition taking place in the same location, from 9 October to 2 December 2021.

Eight artists from France, Canada, Germany and The Netherlands have been invited to take part in Tranhumances II: Cédric Breisacher, Isac Elam Kaid, Sylvia Eustache Rools, Jérôme Pereira, Frédéric Saulou, Flora Temnouche, Elisa Uberti and Willem van Hooff. They have each experimented with the creative techniques used during the Renaissance, for instance with natural dyes, when extracting colour pigments from flowers and other organic materials, sourced locally in Tuscany. Vibrant colours are a recurrent feature in their work, and the techniques of knife-painting and tempera, involving mixing egg yolk with ground colour pigments to form an emulsion thinned with water, have also been explored. Scagliola, a plaster technique which fully flourished in the final century of the Renaissance, is another process residents have investigated; it was used as a substitute for marble, made from selenite, glue and natural pigments, imitating the more expensive stone. Other locally sourced materials include clay, Impruneta terracotta, Sienna pigments, silk, Paesine, marble and earth.