DRIFT: Shy Society

A dazzling, interactive light display in a Renaissance courtyard connects the history of art with the age of technology

The Dutch duo Lonneke Gordijn (born 1980) and Ralph Nauta (born 1978), working together as DRIFT, have gained an international reputation at the head of a multidisciplinary team of 64 artists and designers who create works able to transform and choreograph space. After interventions at Burning Man in the Nevada desert, NASA and the Victoria & Albert Museum, the duo proposes a performance in the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi that is a breathtaking blend of art and technology. Fusing installation, sculpture and music, Shy Society turns the Renaissance courtyard into an enveloping stage, setting up a dialogue between nature and technology, knowledge and intuition, and science and poetry. The work is an invitation to look again at the historical context of the building as a new and evocative venue and setting, where each visitor becomes the protagonist of a multisensory experience that prompts a reconsideration of the space that surrounds us.