Florence continues to surprise not only for the grandeur of its historical heritage, but also for the vitality of its contemporary scene. Until 12 July, the city hosts Dis/Enchanted Interiors, the first institutional exhibition in Italy by artist Anna Perach, in a project presented by MAD Murate Art District in collaboration with the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology – University Museum System.
Curated by Veronica Caciolli and Valentina Gensini, the exhibition invites visitors to immerse themselves in a universe where art, memory, migration, folklore and the representation of femininity intertwine in a visual narrative that is at once fascinating and unsettling.
For those who wish to discover a less obvious side of Florence, more experimental and deeply connected to the languages of the present, this is an exhibition well worth adding to the itinerary.
An artist between sculpture, performance and cultural memory
Born in Zaporizhzhia, in the former Soviet Union, in 1985 and now based in London, Anna Perach develops an artistic practice rooted in folklore, mythology and narrative traditions, exploring themes such as identity, cultural migration, gender stereotypes and family heritage.
Her work stands out for its use of tufting, a technique traditionally associated with carpet making, which the artist transforms into textile sculptures of striking visual presence. Many of these works inhabit an intermediate space between object, body and skin, acquiring a new dimension when activated through performance.
The carpet, in particular, takes on a central symbolic role in her research. At once a domestic element and an object of displacement, it becomes a starting point for reflections on belonging, migration and cultural memory.
Dis/Enchanted Interiors: enchantment and unease
Presented across MAD Murate Art District and the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology, the exhibition traces the key themes of Anna Perach’s artistic production over the past decade. At once a retrospective and a site-specific exhibition, Dis/Enchanted Interiors explores colonialism, exoticism, folk traditions and the construction of femininity through works that move between the familiar and the uncanny.
The title itself suggests this ambiguity. On the one hand, there is the dimension of enchantment: the allure of textile objects, folkloric narratives, domestic interiors and mythological figures. On the other, there is the breaking of that enchantment, when those same images reveal power dynamics, symbolic violence, control over the body and processes of cultural exoticization.
Highlights of the exhibition
Among the works on display, Mother of Monsters draws on a short story by Guy de Maupassant, published in 1883, to reflect on the forms of control and discipline imposed on the female body. The work revolves around the figure of the corset, presented as an ambiguous object: at once a structure of containment, protection and oppression, capable of compressing the body and making visible the tension between transformation, violence and generation.
Another key work in the exhibition is Alkonost, inspired by the bird-woman figure of Slavic mythology. In Perach’s interpretation, this character transforms from an abandoned and vulnerable woman into a hybrid creature that is seductive and threatening. The work offers a reflection on femininity as a force of metamorphosis and resistance, questioning the roles traditionally imposed on women within a patriarchal framework.
In Uncanny Valley, meanwhile, the artist presents a series of embroidered heads that evoke the macabre procession associated with Baba Yaga, a character from Russian folklore. The result is unsettling: figures that appear both familiar and alien, reinforcing the link between cultural memory, folklore and visual unease.
The exhibition also includes Dismembered Venus, a work that engages with the historical fragmentation of the female body. Drawing on archetypal references and the so-called “anatomical Venuses” of the eighteenth century, Perach constructs a reflection on objectification, dissection and the representation of femininity, revealing the ways in which the female body has, for centuries, been observed, controlled and reconstructed through the male gaze.
An autobiographical dimension at the Museum of Anthropology
One of the most compelling sections of the exhibition is the work developed by Anna Perach for the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology, where the artist begins with her own family history.
The daughter of emigrants from the former Soviet Union, Perach revisits the interiors of the home where her family lived in southern Israel after the collapse of the communist regime. In this domestic setting, opulent wallpaper, fabrics inspired by French and Italian traditions, African masks and Asian porcelain coexisted: objects that, from a Soviet perspective, represented status, exoticism and the idea of a distant and desired West.
By reclaiming this domestic imagery, the artist transforms the home interior into a space for reflection on identity, desire, memory and cultural construction. It is precisely in this overlap between the private sphere and collective history that the exhibition finds one of its richest dimensions.
When sculpture becomes performance
Anna Perach’s practice also extends into performance, an essential element in understanding her work. Many of her sculptures are not simply objects to be observed, but presences activated in space, bringing body, gesture and narrative into dialogue.
For this reason, Dis/Enchanted Interiors is not only an exhibition to look at, but also an experience to move through: a journey in which textile matter, folkloric symbols, mythological references and corporeal presence come together to create a visual language that is at once delicate, uncanny and deeply expressive.
A Florence beyond the obvious
Florence is, naturally, the city of the Renaissance, of great masters and historic palaces. But it is also a city that continues to welcome projects capable of placing the past in dialogue with the urgent questions of the present.
For guests of Antica Torre Tornabuoni, exhibitions such as Dis/Enchanted Interiors offer the opportunity to discover a less predictable side of the city: a Florence that, alongside its monumental heritage, opens itself to contemporary research, to the encounter between art and anthropology, and to new reflections on identity, memory and belonging.
And perhaps this is one of the privileges of experiencing Florence from the heart of its historic center: moving from the legacy of centuries of art and beauty to cultural experiences that continue to renew our gaze upon the city, before returning to the comfort of a historic residence that is itself part of that very story.
Useful information for visiting the exhibition
Anna Perach. Dis/Enchanted Interiors
When: from 14 May to 12 July 2026
MAD Murate Art District
Piazza delle Murate, Florence
Tuesday to Saturday, 2:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology – University Museum System
Via del Proconsolo 12, Florence
Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm