Street artist JR offers glimpse 'inside' Italy's Palazzo Strozzi with new optical illusion

The artist's latest work offers a statement on accessibility to culture during the Covid-19 pandemic

Street artist JR has reinterpreted the facade of a Florence palazzo with one of his signature optical illusions, appearing to open up the building. AFP

'La Ferita' reveals a vision of an interior at once real and imaginary achieved with a black-and-white photographic collage. AFP

The installation will be on view until August 22. AFP

Viewers can glimpse well-known works inside the exposed galleries, such as Botticelli's 'The Birth of Venus'. Reuters

The piece was designed as a statement on accessibility to culture during the Covid-19 pandemic. Reuters

The piece can be view on the exterior of Florence's Palazzo Strozzi. Reuters

With Italy's museums once again closed, French street artist JR has provided an art-starved public in Florence with a museum opening – literally.

La Ferita (The Wound), the artist's latest work, is a black-and-white mural depicting a gaping hole cut into the side of Florence's Palazzo Strozzi, known for its contemporary art exhibits.

Beyond the rubble, the viewer glimpses some of the Renaissance city's best-known works inside the exposed galleries, such as Botticelli's The Birth of Venus.

"It's a message that's coming at a moment when we need an opening to the museums," JR said as the work was unveiled on Friday. The public art might bring some relief "before the real museums open", he said.

The artist is known for plastering huge, black-and-white photographs – usually faces of unknown people in close-up – on the sides of buildings and walls in locales as diverse as the West Bank, the favelas of Rio de Janeiro or the border between Mexico and the US.

The strict restrictions imposed across much of the world one year ago to deal with the coronavirus did not sap JR's creativity, although he acknowledged that "no one can be inspired by the quarantine, that's for sure".

"Every constraint for an artist is good in that it pushes us to think, to invent and rethink, and if that's not the role of the artist than what is?" he said, adding that he views the pandemic as "an extra challenge".

With his latest work, which is free of human subjects, he hoped to "involve people in the creative process".

The best position for viewing the work, which was commissioned by the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation and takes up half of one side of the 15th-16th-century palace, is not straight on but from across the street, JR said, inviting viewers to find it spontaneously by meandering around the plaza.

Travel both within Italy and into the country from overseas is currently tightly restricted owing to Covid-19 rules, but the artwork will be on show until Sunday, August 22.