Timeless sculptures
Courtyard Conversations at Palazzo Strozzi
from 10 October 2026
to 23 January 2027
On the occasion of the exhibition Broken. The Power of the Fragment, the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi hosts a large installation by Dutch-Belgian artist Mark Manders. Situated in the palazzo’s “public square”, the work provides an ideal starting and finishing point for the exhibition itinerary on the Piano Nobile, which features sculptures from distant periods and geographical regions.
The monumental sculpture Tilted Head, which forms part of Manders’ installation, appears fragile, unfinished and modelled in clay; it resembles an artefact from a lost ancient civilisation, an enigma waiting to be solved. In reality, the work is a resin cast of the original clay model, produced specifically for the exhibition, blurring the boundary between appearance and reality.
Manders’ artistic practice centres on a conceptual exploration of sculpture, developed through the relationship between material, idea and perception. Within his work, the fragment emerges as a recurring condition, suspended in time and space.
Courtyard conversations
Every Saturday afternoon from 3.00 to 6.00 pm, students from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze and the Art History programme at the University of Florence engage visitors in informal conversations about this “timeless sculpture”. These encounters offer an opportunity to explore the artist’s practice, his approach to sculpture and the way in which his large-scale installation relates to the exhibition itinerary at Palazzo Strozzi.
Free activity; no booking required.
From Saturday 10 October 2026 to Saturday 23 January 2027
Courtyard Conversations will not take place on Saturday 26 December.
Collaboration
The Courtyard Conversations project has been developed in collaboration with the SAGAS Department at the University of Florence and the Art Education programme at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze. The activity provides a training experience for future art professionals while offering all visitors to Palazzo Strozzi an opportunity to engage more closely with the work of Mark Manders.
Biography
Mark Manders (Volkel, the Netherlands, 1968) lives and works in Ronse, Belgium. Developed through sculpture, installation, drawing and architecture, his practice is based on the idea of a continuously expanding self-portrait: spaces, figures and objects appear to belong to a single evolving work, suspended between archaeology, memory and imagination. Manders represented the Netherlands at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013) with Room with Broken Sentence and has exhibited at major international institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Louvre in Paris, the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich and the Bonnefanten in Maastricht.
Information
Education Department
edu@palazzostrozzi.org
Cover: Mark Manders, Tilted Head, 2015 – 2026, fiberglass-reinforced resin, painted bronze, aluminium frame, paper. Courtesy Xavier Hufkens, Bruxelles, e Tan Bonakdar Gallery, New York © Mark Manders. Photo: © Hugard & Vanoverschelde
