Antony Gormley. ESSERE, 2019

In a transitory space at the entrance to the main exhibition hall, an L-shaped sculpture called Present (2018) welcomes all visitors to Antony Gormley's Essere. It is positioned at the junction connecting the Uffizi's East Wing with the Aula Magliabechiana, where, since its opening in 2016, the museum's major temporary exhibitions have been hosted. Now, for the first time, this space is dedicated to a living artist; and for the first time, too, remarkable architecture of that space is not segmented by flexible, narrative-creating walls, but is presented as a whole, with its windows unconvered to let in natural light, setting the stage for the sculptures, which the artist has positioned in reference to the Aula's architectural grid and proportions.

Eike D. Schmidt, Director of Le Gallerie degli Uffizi in Antony Gormley. ESSERE, p.10, Giunti, 2019