Le ville e i giardini medicei rappresentano un vero e proprio microcosmo attorno a cui ruota la vita di corte. In questi luoghi i Medici prima, i Lorena e i Savoia poi si dedicarono alle proprie passioni: l’arte e il mecenatismo, la vita nella natura e la caccia, la convivialità a corte e la buona tavola. Per la ricchezza di arredi, motivi decorativi e tecniche artigianali custodiscono veri e propri tesori, testimonianze materiali delle arti minori del nostro territorio.
Stazione Utopia, in collaborazione con il Polo Museale della Toscana, propone una serie di attività ricreative e di formazione, laboratori e visite guidate finalizzate a far conoscere la storia e le opere conservate nelle ville e nei giardini, attraverso metodologie inclusive e una varietà di tematiche e approcci pensati per pubblici sempre più articolati e differenziati: dalle scuole, agli adulti, alle persone con bisogni educativi speciali.
A partire dalle potenzialità offerte dalle lavagne interattive, si propongono lezioni frontali in cui grazie a diversi supporti (video, interviste, immagini, rendering) si illustrano temi di ampia portata e vasto respiro.
From decolonial walks to traces of violence in paintings, from architectural barriers to slavery in the 15th century, from homosexual communities in the Renaissance to exotic plants in botanical gardens, from the Mosque to the Ethiopian ambassador at Santa Maria Novella — the workshops, screenings, guided tours, and urban walks, led by people with a migratory background, offer dissenting narratives that explore lesser-known topics, erased histories, and experimental social practices. From the margins — in the past as today — these experiences nourish the collective construction of new imaginaries and symbols, reclaiming public space and visibility.
Uncomfortable Tours is a project by Stazione Utopia, part of the Amir | Alleanze, musei, incontri, relazioni initiative. It was carried out with the support of Estate Fiorentina 2025, an initiative proposed in the City of Florence's Operational Plan.
The program runs through September.
25 free events, including 5 dedicated to summer camps, informal groups, volunteer associations and social promotion.
*Based on an idea by Alice A. Procter, UK – www.theexhibitionist.org
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PROGRAM
All tours are part of the Amir Project | alleanze, musei, incontri e relazioni
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“BLACK HEADS FROM LISBON”, STORIES OF ENSLAVED PEOPLE IN THE RENAISSANCE
City itinerary, Historic Center of Florence – meeting point in front of Palazzo Medici Riccardi.
A walk through the city centre, from the Cappella dei Magi—where a black man is depicted—to the Cappella Feroni, built to honour one of the early traders of enslaved people, discovering the traces of a little-known history: the presence of slavery in Renaissance Florence.
° Thanks to the Metropolitan City of Florence and Justin Randolph Thompson with Black History Month, Florence.
01.06 h. 11.00
07.09 h. 11.00
ON THE MARGINS: ARABS AND AFRICANS AT SANTA MARIA NOVELLA
Guided visit to the Church of Santa Maria Novella – meeting point in front of the church.
A tour of the Dominican complex, which between the 14th and 15th centuries was one of the city’s main sites, also hosting the 1439 Council between the Eastern and Western Churches. By observing the frescoes of Andrea Bonaiuti, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Filippino Lippi, we will focus on the often overlooked figures of Arabs and Africans. These characters, marginalised in society, offer new ways to interpret the artworks through reflections on interreligious and intercultural relations in Florence’s past.
° With the scientific consultancy of Jonathan Nelson
° In collaboration with the thematic museum network Musei di Tutti
*RESERVATIONS: info@musefirenze.it – +39 055 0541450
01.06 h.15.30
07.09 h.15.30
COLONIAL FLORENCE
City itinerary, Historic Center
Meeting point in Piazza Adua.
In the cradle of the Renaissance, the city’s colonial past remains barely noticeable, yet streets, monuments, and plaques still recall the deeds and figures of a history long suppressed.
° Thanks to Postcolonial Italy
° Thanks to The Recovery Plan, with special consultancy by Carmen Belmonte and Agnese Ghezzi.
05.06 h. 11.00
20.06 h. 17.00
19.09 h.17.00
MARSEILLE – BRUSSELS – FLORENCE
PRACTICES TO DECOLONIZE PUBLIC SPACE
What we see—and what we don’t
—is what has been erased.
Since 2020, Stazione Utopia, through the AMIR project, has been part of the International Mediation Platform promoted by Aflam, aiming to create spaces for reflection, experimentation, and transmission regarding cultural mediation in the Euro-Arab region. Building on decolonial cultural mediation practices, the Florence days offer a series of meetings with activists working on the phenomena of celebration and invisibilization of colonial heritage in urban spaces and museums, exploring Florence, Marseille, and Brussels through the material traces of domination and resistance.
PROGRAM with
Virginia Pisano, Sandra Iché, and Charlotte Deweerdt, Aflam, Plateforme Internationale de Médiation (Marseille)
Thierno Aliou Balde, Collectif Mémoire Coloniale et Lutte Contre les Discriminations (Brussels)
05.06, 11:00
City itinerary, Historic Centre of Florence, as part of the Amir project
COLONIAL FLORENCE
In the cradle of the Renaissance, the city’s colonial past remains barely perceptible, yet streets, monuments, and plaques still recall the exploits and protagonists of a suppressed history.
05.06, 19:00
The Recovery Plan, Via Santa Reparata 19R
DECOLONIAL CINEMA: ARCHIVES, ANIMATED AND EXPERIMENTAL FILMS
A series of films presented at the Aflam festival in Marseille or created during mediation workshops, exploring the role of archives in shaping collective memory; including the screening of the feature film À Fidai (78', English subtitles) by Kamal Aljafari, Palestinian director and visual artist.
06.06, 17:00
MAD, Murate Art District, Piazza delle Murate, seminar
DECOLONIAL PRACTICES IN PUBLIC SPACE
The colonial/decolonial museum: the case of the Africa Museum, with Thierno Aliou Balde (Collectif Mémoire Coloniale et Lutte Contre les Discriminations, Brussels), Virginia Pisano, and Charlotte Deweerdt (Aflam, Plateforme Internationale de Médiation, Marseille).
07.06, 11:00 | UNCOMFORTABLE OFF
Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology, University of Florence, Via del Proconsolo 12, visit
ANTHROPOLOGICAL EXPLORATION: the case of a colonial museum
A collective and unstructured visit to observe, discuss, and reflect on the construction of the museum.
A NEW MOSQUE IN FLORENCE
Visit to the Mosque, Via dei Martiri del Popolo, 39/R.
In the Sant’Ambrogio district, there are three important places for the local community, which has long been actively engaged in promoting interreligious dialogue and mutual respect among the major monotheistic religions. Here, between the green dome of the Synagogue and the historic Church of Sant’Ambrogio, the new Mosque was recently inaugurated—a place of gathering and worship for collective prayers, featuring an ablution area and a space reserved for women. Although the building lacks domes and minarets, it fully respects the organisation and liturgy of the Islamic rite, serving as a visible symbol of the Muslim community in Florence, which has long been rooted in the area.
° In collaboration with the Islamic Community of Florence
10.06 h. 18.00
23.09 h. 18.00
QUEERING FLORENCE
City itinerary, Historic Center
Meeting point in Piazza Santa Croce, under the statue of Dante.
The need for purification demands scapegoats, and in late medieval and Renaissance Florence, these were identified among women and sodomites. Adopting the theology of a God who punishes the entire world for the sins of a few, the city authorities intermittently sought to safeguard the purity of society by defending the unity of the city-family and its urgent demographic growth. This visit explores the various ways cultures have historically constructed sexual identity through norms, prohibitions, and rites of passage—sometimes choosing repression, and other times celebrating diversity.
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13.06 h.17.00
26.09 h.17.00
STORIES OF TRAVELLING PLANTS AND PEOPLE
Visit to the Botanical Garden of Florence, Via Micheli 3.
Starting from the 16th century, plants collected from the Far East, Africa, and South America began to populate the gardens of European villas, greenhouses, and botanical gardens. Generation after generation, a cultural and botanical heritage from other countries took root in Europe and Florence, where it was catalogued and renamed according to an Enlightenment-era classification system. In this adaptation process, much of the knowledge about their culinary, medicinal, and traditional uses—as well as their original names in native cultures—was lost. The walk weaves together the knowledge of cultural mediators with that of curators, giving space both to the stories of the biological and ecological peculiarities of the species and their ethnobotanical uses, often unknown or overlooked.
° In collaboration with the Museum System of the University of Florence.
03.07 h.17.30
10.07 h.17.30
11.09 h.16.30
18.09 h.16.30
LA PETRAIA AND THE PASSION FOR THE EXOTIC
Visit to the Medici Villa La Petraia, Via della Petraia 40.
06.07 h. 11.00
21.09 h. 11.00
Between the 16th and 18th centuries, geographical discoveries opened up an unknown horizon of lands, peoples, cultures, artworks, and botanical species from distant worlds: from the portrait of a young albino from Angola to Chinese watercolours and porcelain, these objects tell the story of Europe’s gaze upon the world.
SACRED VIOLENCE?
Talks at the University of Florence, Via Capponi 9.
Curated by Andrea De Marchi, University of Florence
Frescoes, altarpieces, crucifixes, reliquaries—Florentine art and beyond portray violence not only as a narrative event but also as a moral, ideological, or political metaphor. This depiction able to help process, sublimate, justify, or exorcise violence, depending on the context. Heroes, martyrs, sinners, and traitors are thus exposed to cruelty and spectacular acts of violence. The lecture explores some of the city’s symbolic sites, addressing the dynamics of violence and its representation.
30.06 h. 17.15
08.09 h. 17.15
22.09 h.17.15
BARRIERS: The Experience of Moving in a Wheelchair
City itinerary
The visit to the historic centre of Florence offers a group of people without specific mobility challenges the direct experience of architectural barriers as disabling elements: climbing a flight of stairs in a wheelchair, reading street signs, overcoming small steps, and navigating through a crowd of distracted tourists. The visit provides an opportunity to experience Florence from a different perspective.
20.09 h.11
27.09 h.11
