The courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi with the site-specific installation SUPERFLEX. There Are Other Fish In The Sea. Photo by Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio. Courtesy of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation, Florence
Venus by Beatrice Brandini
In Florence, in the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi, from April 14 to August 2, 2026, the Danish collective SUPERFLEX imagines new ways of designing the world.
Press Conference Moments
La Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi e la Fondazione Hilary Merkus Recordati, presentano Thera Are Other Fish In The Sea, nuova istallazione site specific per il Cortile di uno dei palazzi più belli del mondo, Palazzo Strozzi.
Il collettivo SUPERFLEX, fondato nel 1993 daJakob Fenger, Rasmus Rosengren Nielsen e Bjørnstjerne Christiansen , è noto a livello internazionale per opere e progetti che ripensano al ruolo dell’arte in relazione alle dinamiche sociali, economiche e ambientali nei nostri giorni. Superare lo spazio costruito dall’uomo e per l’uomo, progettando modelli che pensano alle esigenze di altri organismi viventi.
Images of the Palazzo Strozzi courtyard with the work: SUPERFLEX. There Are Other Fish In The Sea
Curated by Alberto Galansino, Director General of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation, the installation engages in an unusual yet effective dialogue with the Renaissance architecture of the courtyard, communicating to us, the spectators, a profound reflection on the environmental transformations of our time.
Contemplating a near future in which rising sea levels will irreversibly alter human life, with “There Are Other Fish In The Sea,” SUPERFLEX proposes considering marine species as future inhabitants of our architecture.
A striking image of the installation “There Are Other Fish In The Sea”. Photo Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio. Courtesy of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation, Florence
A dystopian scenario, something we’ve seen a thousand times in Hollywood’s major disaster productions, yet it’s not far from reality.
Water, the central element of the work, also has a metaphorical meaning, as exactly sixty years ago, Florence was struck and scarred by the 1966 flood. It represents a link between past and future, between such a traumatic natural event and a possible scenario of what could easily happen again.
After the press presentation, I returned home filled with a thousand thoughts (art should stimulate precisely this), and a slight sense of anguish that has never left me.
Two images of the site-specific installation SUPERFLEX. There Are Other Fish In The Sea. Right image: Photo by Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio. Courtesy Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence.
The installation is beautiful and evocative, and you can visit it by crossing the courtyard, as it’s free. But it also leaves you with a sense of bewilderment and a recurring, yet banal, question: Why have we come to this, and why doesn’t man understand that the world is falling apart and persists in concentrating his efforts, through war?
Enjoy your life!
Beatrice