Forms, syntax, signs and possible meanings of the spaces we inhabit, of the objects and images that in turn inhabit us, capturing our gaze and our daily habitat. Architecture, visual arts, design, technology: how do they evolve and how do they contribute to defining the codes and rituals with which we organise our lives? From which complex systems do they originate and how do they stimulate the production of private and collective stories, cultural dynamics, intuitions, relationships, economies and communities? Finally, how aware are we of their nature, their potential, their thousand symbolic layers?
A vast theme, which a theoretical workshop at the Academy attempts to develop together with the students. Curated by Gabriele Simongini, Lecturer in History of Contemporary Art, the project arose from an idea by Fabio Sindici – journalist and television writer – who will lead 6 lessons between 16 April and 1 June 2019. “The Vitruvian Artist” is the title, reminiscent of Leonardo, which immediately emphasises the hybrid, plastically interconnected vocation of modern and contemporary creative processes. The subtitle effectively summarises the complex interweaving of ideas underlying the project: “Domestic Utopias, Urban Dystopias: from the Bauhaus to Alexa, collaborations and cross-fertilisation between architecture, art, design, cinema and technology in living spaces”. A very dense interweaving of languages, disciplines and fields of knowledge, investigating – as Sindici explains – “the ideas, the frictions, the sparks that derive from these contacts”.
And here he is, going through the themes of the workshop, with a roundup of ideas and examples: “You can think of the very close relationship between the architect Richard Neutra and the photographer Julius Shulman: the houses and the resulting photographs not only convey the spirit of the time but also the sense of a utopia. Another example is the studio created by the designer-craftsman-artist-experimenter Pierre Chareau for Robert Motherwell, one of the most sophisticated exponents of the New York School alongside Rothko and Pollock. Chareau used materials of military origin, as did Castiglioni later for some of his lamps. Then there is the collaboration between Lucio Fontana and the architect-entrepreneur Osvaldo Borsani. Today, technology inspires artists like Doug Aitken and new generations of architects.”. The taste for crossing, the virtuous practice of grafting and dilution.
And in recent decades, in terms of pop, artistic, cinematographic, literary, media and political images, spaces have often been utopian, in some cases dystopian, in which the idea of the future has been expressed through daring flights and inevitable collapses, fears and desires, idealistic impulses and disengagement, fluid bodies and simulacra, data economies and virtual technologies, forms in the making and multiple transgressions. A long history of creative effervescence, with the “Vitruvian” artist mixing ethics and aesthetics, becoming a builder of worlds and visions. And to affect that everyday life that is made up of spaces, things, rituals and devices, through which the thought and gaze of the community continue to evolve.
“Art,” continues Sindici, can be inserted in innovative ways within an architectural structure: walls that become screens, computer art in customised furniture. Artists design hotel rooms. Even swimming pools. But if you look closely, Gio Ponti did that in the 1960s. In reality, many of today’s solutions originate in the multidisciplinary nature of the Bauhaus, in the fertile and problematic dialogues between architecture and cinema, and in artists’ residences. The most interesting cases of artist studios will be the subject of one of the events, as will the relationship between creativity and location in the residences where many young artists are hosted in ad hoc programmes.”.
HM
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“The Vitruvian artist. Domestic Utopias, Urban Dystopias: from the Bauhaus to Alexa, collaborations and cross-fertilisation between architecture, art, design, cinema and technology in living spaces”.
A workshop by Fabio Sindici
Curated by Gabriele Simongini
Great Hall
16*, 26** April | 3*, 18**, 25** May | 1** June 2019
* 4:30 pm, ** 2:00 pm
16.4.19 MICRO AND MACRO
The mobile in the city. Aesthetic and functional visions of details and landscapes, art and architecture, from the “machines for living in” of Le Corbusier and Neutra to the smart cities of the contemporary future
26.4.19 INFLUENCES AND INTERFERENCES
Totalitarian architects, Promethean artists, starchitects, pop designers, artisans of yesteryear. The splinters of utopia
3.5.19 ADVENTUROUS RELATIONSHIPS
The collaborations between Richard Neutra and the photographer Julius Shulman, between the designers Charles and Ray Eames and Eero Saarinen, between Frank Gehry and Claes Oldenburg, between Lucio Fontana and Osvaldo Borsani, between Robert Motherwell and Pierre Chareau. The friendship of Antonio Sant’Elia and Umberto Boccioni. The short circuit between Frank Lloyd Wright and Hollywood. Villages transformed into contemporary art museums in Tuscany. Real architecture and imaginary spaces, from Metropolis to virtual and augmented realities.
18.5.19 DAMNED ARCHITECTS
Thirty-eight years after the publication of Tom Wolfe’s pamphlet, a re-examination of the public and critics’ perception of contemporary art and architecture. Utopias and dystopias, between Chandigarh and Zen (of Palermo). The (possible?) dialogue between the masterpieces of the past and the interventions of the architects and artists of our day. The revolution of the modern and the counter-revolution of the post-modern. Anthropological criticism and technological aesthetics.
25.5.19 ART, DESIGN, THE MARKET AND NEW COLLECTIONISMS
The home as a work of art, distributed museums, exemplary ateliers, environmental installations. Living room galleries and art infiltrated into co-working
1.6 THE CHAMELEON HOUSE
From the Bauhaus to the Acid house of artist Doug Aitken. Echoes from the past, signals from the future: digital technologies, ideas of space, ecological needs and hypotheses for art integrated into the 21st-century domus