the european biennial of contemporary art
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artists

Gianni Pettena

1940, Bozen, IT Lives in Florence, IT

Archipensieri (Archithoughts), 2008 Installation of five iron elements, 19 × 10 m Mappe recinti territori itinerari (Maps Enclosures Territories Itineraries), 1987 Hanging-carpet, 210 × 210 cm Testimonianze di Architettura (Testimony of Architecture), 1978 15 color photographs, 18 × 24 cm each About non conscious architectures, 1972 10 b/w photographs, 30 × 40 cm each Grass Architecture, 1971 3 sketches, 30 × 40 cm each

ROVERETO

Bozzetto_opt

Together with Archizoom, Superstudio and UFO, Gianni Pettena belongs to the original nucleus of the Radical Movement in Italy, a major influence on contemporary experimentation in the fields of architecture and design. Using the vocabulary of conceptual art and the rhetoric of political discourse, Pettena analyzed the transformation of physical space in the urban context. His book L’Anarchitetto (1973) is a combination of visual invention and photographic diary. It has been perceived as a manifesto for the expanded idea of architecture. Pettena’s contribution to Manifesta 7 presents important aspects of his multi-faceted work, including utopian desires to blend architecture with nature, to oppose the geometric rigor of modernism. The sketches of Grass Architecture set architecture free, promoting the use of natural materials as a symbiosis of architecture and landscape. Itineraries Territories Maps Enclosures is made up of small tapestries, referring to 11 subjects that define the space inside or outside the “magic circles” that are the walls of a city. His monumental installation for the façade of ex-Peterlini, Archipensieri , is a “lesson in spatial perception.” An iron structure composed of vertical poles is soldered with horizontal and slanting poles to correct the anomalous perspective using the golden section. The structure changes depending on point of view. Only the frontal view offers the profile of a classic temple.


Location

ROVERETO

ADAM BUDAK: "PRINCIPLE HOPE"

EX PETERLINI, VIA SAVIOLI 20 – MANIFATTURA TABACCHI, P.ZZA MANIFATTURA 1 -STAZIONE FERROVIARIA, PIAZZALE ORSI, I-38068 ROVERETO, ITALY

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