Maryam Kazoun-First Act Contemporary Art Exhibit in Palazzo Pitti Florence

How do we create a new world free of pollution, environmental disasters, and global warming? The Lebanese-Canadian artist Marya Kazoun answers through an installation inspired by the Nativity scene: the protagonists are the almost tree-like silhouettes of the Magi, made of cotton wadding – 2.60 metres high – and covered in a milky white fabric. They do not bring gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh but clean energy, represented by the wind turbines that extend out from their summits. The installation is named First Act, and will broadcast its environmental message throughout the Christmas festivities until the 29 January from the Sala Bianca, the most prestigious space within the Pitti Palace in Florence.

Within the artwork the wind, which represents those things that are transitory and elusive, acts as the vital breath of the universe and those who inhabit it. In opposition to it, the ominous presence of a swarm of locusts, made of Murano glass, symbolises the climatic ruin increasingly looming over the fate of the planet.

The artist thus associates the ancient biblical disaster with the current ecological crisis, in order to prompt the viewer to reflect and act. The birth of a new world – the spherical sculpture in the centre – is admired by six figures arranged in pairs, representing the union between human beings. Following the Christian tradition, the figures of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, the ox and the donkey, who watch over the newborn caringly, are not missing. The metaphysical space of Marya Kazoun’s Nativity – where nightmares, symbols, and utopia merge – is inhabited by creatures that open a window onto possible futures, from which the viewer can look out to investigate themselves  and the reality that surrounds them.