Broken
The Power of the Fragment in Sculpture

Palazzo Strozzi presents Broken. The Power of the Fragment, a major exhibition celebrating the evocative power and enduring fascination that the fragment has exercised in the history of sculpture, from archaeology to contemporary art.

Organized in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the exhibition offers an exciting journey across cultures and histories from around the world through more than eighty works from some of the world’s most important museums, highlighting not only their aesthetic value but also the compelling historical narratives and the powerful political and symbolic meanings contained in every sculptural fragment.

The project spans different periods and geographies, from ancient Egypt and classical Greece to Cambodia and Mexico, exploring the circumstances that have led to the fragmentation of sculptures, from wars to natural disasters, from political reasons to deliberate artistic choices.

Alongside masterpieces by great masters in art history, including Giovanni Pisano, Michelangelo, Antonio Canova, and Auguste Rodin, the exhibition presents sculptures by contemporary artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Huma Bhabha, Robert Gober, Francesco Vezzoli, and Danh Vo, who have chosen the fragment as a starting point for new expressive possibilities. On the occasion of the exhibition, Palazzo Strozzi also presents a new installation by Dutch artist Marc Manders, conceived for the Renaissance Courtyard.

The exhibition investigates the reasons and circumstances that have led to the destruction or damage of sculptures, from ancient and modern iconoclasm to wartime devastation, from vandalism to natural disasters. The itinerary leads through crucial moments in history, including wars and religious reforms, the French Revolution, the world wars, and the Florence flood of 1966, allowing for a broad reflection on the political value these works acquired through their breakage.

If fragments are fundamental to our understanding of the past, they are far more than simple remains of a lost unity. They exist as autonomous objects, worthy of being observed and interpreted as works of art in their own right, capable of transcending their original context to tell stories of transformation, destruction, and rebirth. Over time, their meaning has evolved: from symbols of traumatic events, they have become stimuli for the imagination, generating a continuous and dynamic dialogue between past and present.