From bollards to gazebos
The exhibition refers to Ugo La Pietra's research on the individual/environment relationship and in particular the collective urban space. Since the end of the XNUMXs, La Pietra has investigated the urban territory, a formalized expression of the contradictions of social life. From the suburbs (Degrees of Freedom, Recovery and Reinvention) to urban equipment, signs that clearly underline the difference between domestic living and urban living.
The "Urban Equipment" analyzed by the author are an emblematic expression of the problems afflicting our society: from the lack of a cultural project to the design of a collective habitable space.
The exhibition develops through a series of two-dimensional works, furnishings, three-dimensional objects, films, a ballot box, cards for the public.
"Starting from small things, from small objects, apparently insignificant or in any case neglected like those that crowd our urban spaces, La Pietra puts its finger on the many sores of the idea of citizenship" says the President of ADI – Association for Industrial Design Luciano Galimberti. “Cities are now in a global competition to attract flows of citizens in a more or less stable way, some for work, some for study, some in search of the thousand lights of the city, some inexorably excluded or worse expelled because inadequate or fragile”.
The sections of the exhibition I'm: Analysis – Living is being at home everywhere “Design conversion” (1979), Decoding – Reading of urban and housing contradictions “The city without morals” (2000), Metaprojects – Urban equipment for the community “To furnish and live in the city” (2000), Referendum – The best bollard “Vote the best bollard for the city of Milan” (2023), Places of decompression – Urban equipment for the community “Recovery of environmental values” (2023), Gazebos (2023)
“Today, in the absence of a project and failing to transform our cities, what I have been thinking and planning for some time could come our way: places of decompression. More and more spaces should be created conceived as moments of suspension, compared to the "too much" that characterizes cities: too much noise, too much traffic, too many people, too much air pollution..." declares Ugo La Pietra.
On the occasion of the exhibition, a volume will be published, published by Manfredi editions, with critical contributions by Marco Meneguzzo and Luca Molinari and with an introduction by Luciano Galimberti, President of ADI. The exhibition and publication are edited by the Ugo La Pietra Archive.
Ugo La Pietra
Urban equipment for the community. From bollards to gazebos
From 15st June to 10th September
Piazza Compasso d'Oro 1, Milan
Opening hours: Saturday to Thursday, 10.30am to 20pm (last admission at 19.15pm)
