The sculpture exhibition, established in 1971, in one of the most beautiful Italian gardens.

Forms in the Green is an international exhibition of contemporary sculpture hosted every year from July to October at the Horti Leonini in San Quirico d’Orcia, one of Italy’s best known and most unique parks. The exhibition was conceived in 1971 by Mario Guidotti, who seized the intuition to demusealize art by making it more alive, closer to people and everyday life. It was inevitable for Mario Guidotti to imagine concrete sculptures, the expression of a contemporary art, in the sea of green, rippled by the geometric lines of the typical Italian garden, of the Horti Leonini, a creation that Diomede Leoni made to a design, it seems, by Michelangelo.

The winning formula of the dozens and dozens of editions of the exhibition, “bringing works into the green,” has brought works by the most prestigious names in Italian and international sculpture to the heart of the Val d’Orcia: from Costantino Nivola to Augusto Perez, from Sinisca to Kurt Laurenz Metzler, from Tagliolini to Spender to Ogata.

Art then as an expression of the landscape and part of it, with statues that, like pieces, go to fit into the green of the hedges. Art within art then, because the garden of the Horti Leonini that serves as a precious “container” constitutes one of the most important jewels that San Quirico d’Orcia puts on display all year round.