Six exhibitions not to be missed and why go and see them in Savona, Treviso, Cesano Maderno, Merano, Rome and Milan

Living in space. This is the leitmotif of the exhibitions chosen for this week which investigate its meaning in artistic form.

It begins with the second edition of an architecture festival focused on holiday homes in three different regions and on the work of three different architects.

The journey is inaugurated by the experiment of Colletta di Castelbarco in the province of Savona, an abandoned village in the woods brought back to life by Giancarlo De Carlo, to then move on to the gulf di Baratti, near Piombino, in Tuscany , with the hexagonal houses of Giorgini and finally the experiments in Sardinia by Ponis at Costa Paradiso.

The photographed architecture is instead the subject of an exhibition dedicated to Sekiya Masaaki with a focus on the enormous (and never finished) work to portray the works of Carlo Scarpa: a double game of gazes on the landscape and on the building proposed in Treviso by the Benetton Foundation at Ca' Scarpa.

Still in the form of photos, in Merano mock-ups are discussed, models of architectural elements made on a 1:1 scale and portrayed by the Canadian David K. Ross as monuments of the fantastic, in a game between reality and fiction.

Which is also investigated by the artist Ann Veronica Janssens, on display in Milan, with her works created to invite the public to rethink their perceptions of space and time. Past and present together with an investigation into the relationship between sculpture and landscape is on stage at the Galleria Borghese in Rome with Universal Gestures by Giuseppe Penone: poor art dialogues with the classic art of the gallery, in a mix between marble and organic elements, between the garden and the bronzes. Finally, in CesanoMaderno, a municipality in the Brianza region, Frattini's design is on display, including his historical works and new interpretations, sketches and projects included.

Why see them: these exhibitions are a journey into design, from the holiday to the furnishing, from the artistic to the photographic one with a stop in the almost theatrical dimension of illusion.

Living the holiday, Colletta di Castelbianco (SV), Piombino (LI), Costa Paradiso (SS), from 15 to 30 April

Designing spaces for the holidays is the theme of this architecture festival which was born with the aim of promoting good practices for the protection of the territory, winning first place in the public notice for the second edition , promoted by the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture.

Three municipalities, three architects, three projects are the basis of a thought that began in the 60s. It begins in Liguria with the experiment of Colletta di Castelbarco, in Savona, where the architect Giancarlo De Carlo brought back to life a village that had been abandoned for years. He redesigns every part of it, rebuilds the houses, the flying buttresses, the narrow streets, without altering the urban form.

The intended function is the residence which will then be transformed into a holiday residence. During the festival there will be guided tours of the village but also creative actions in the woods that surround it with the GRRIZ collective (from 15 to 21 April).

We then move to Tuscany, to Baratti, Piombino, where the architect Vittorio Giorgini had created some absolutely brilliant and avant-garde holiday homes, the Casa Esagono and Casa Saldarini, between the end of the 50s and the 60.

Two distinct and very different entities, but conceived from the same study of the forms of nature (from 17 to 24 April). Between talks and scientific initiatives also the analysis of the restoration of buildings. Finally, the Sardinia of Costa Paradiso which was born with the architecture of Alberto Ponis and shortly after of Dante Bini (who designed the dome for Michelangelo Antonioni and Monica Vitti), until its transformation into a place of tourism mass (April 20 - 30).

Who will like it: those who are passionate about the history of architecture, the territory and Italy.

Useful information: three sites in three regions to visit between 15 and 30 May. All information on the website https://www.abitarelavacanza.it/

Carlo Scarpa/Sekiya Masaaki. Traces of architecture in the world of a Japanese photographer, Ca' Scarpa, Treviso, from 15 April to 16 July

Two visions of the world that intertwine to tell the story of architecture are at the center of this exhibition featuring the photographs of Sekiya Masaaki and the architecture of Carlo Shoe.

The exhibition itinerary developed by the Benetton Foundation is divided into four sections to tell the story of the work of the Japanese photographer who was also a talent hunter and architectural design consultant.

The exhibition itinerary begins precisely with his research work for young photographers with the shots of Hattori Aiko dedicated to street life in Tokyo in the 1980s, then moves on to the photographs of the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

The third part of the exhibition instead focuses on Otto Wagner's Vienna, concluding with the unfinished documentation of Scarpa's architectural work.

An enormous and never finished work that analyzes in detail the works of the Venetian architect and the landscape.

Who will like it: those who are passionate about Carlo Scarpa's work, those who love minimalism, those who study the landscape.

Useful information: Ca' Scarpa, via Canova 11, Treviso, open on Fridays from 3pm to 7pm, Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 7pm (extraordinary openings on April 25th and May 1st from 10am to 7pm ).

Ann Veronica Janssen, Grand Bal, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, until July 30

The perception of space is seamlessly connected with the psychic states of the subject. Thus Ann Veronica Janssens works on the relationship between the public and the exhibition space, complicated by the insertion of her works.

The mechanism is therefore characterized by objects to be experienced, built of light, shadows, territories to explore.

And if she has often been associated with the work of the group Light & Space by the artists Robert Irwin and James Turrell, Janssens dematerialises and deconstructs the artistic object.

Light, colours, mirrors, air and artificial fog invite the viewer to become aware of their senses to perceive places, architecture and the categories of space and time in a different way, through contrasts such as light and dark, sound and silence, emptiness and presence, tangible and incorporeal.

In this exhibition you can explore different moments of the artist's work, between historical works and new productions as in a dance between the exhibition space, the works and the visitor's body.

Who will like it: those who love experimental art and performance.

Useful information: Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, via Chiese 2, Milan, open from Thursday to Sunday from 10.30am to 8.30pm.

Gianfranco Frattini. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, Palazzo Arese Borromeo, from 14 April to 14 May

A journey into the design of Gianfranco Frattini, among original pieces taken from the archives of collectors, re-editions and new experiments, alongside sketches and drawings of architectural projects made available by CSAC - Study Center and Communication Archive of Parma and the Milan Polytechnic.

Here is what is found in this exhibition set up in Cesano Maderno, an unexpected place compared to Milan, the architect's city and where his contributions are better known, but equally important for his training.

Indeed, it is precisely in Brianza that Frattini meets artisans, cabinet makers and companies with whom he will give shape to his idea of his design.

Which here dialogues with the contemporary one, to present the work of the Milanese architect "Like a 'moving photograph' of his work - explains his daughter Emanuela Frattini - A window of memory that overlooks the present and projects his gaze towards the future of his legacy». Thus in the installation created with the support of Ebanisteria Kora there are pieces by Acerbis, Cassina, CB2, Ceccotti, Poltrona Frau and Tacchini, together with lamps by Arteluce, Artemide, FontanaArte, Gubi and Luci.

And again, the textile doors created jointly by Dooor and Torri Lana, with the contribution of Emanuela Frattini who, starting from her father's style, gave birth to her own original personal journey. A journey through time and into the present day of Frattini's drawings.

Who will like it: design enthusiasts and those wandering around the Fuorisalone.

Useful information: Palazzo Arese Borromeo, via Borromeo 41, Cesano Maderno, open from 10am to 1pm and from 3pm to 6pm.

Giuseppe Penone. Universal gestures, Galleria Borghese, Rome, until May 28.

The ones Giuseppe Penone stages in this exhibition are universal gestures to tell the relationship between man and nature, between the landscape and sculpture, between the museum and its marvelous park .

Over thirty works recount the artistic journey of the master of poor art, in a dialogue with the classical art of the Galleria Borghese collection, as if to seek something that is not present in the rooms.

Where marble prevails, Penone adds organic grafts of leaves, leather, wood, while outside the metals of his bronze sculptures will dialogue with the vegetation.

Thus, one crosses nuclei of lesser-known works such as the Vegetable Look, Breathing the shadow and the Blowing of leaves, to think about time and history, hosts in the Gallery.

Art and landscape, nature and sculpture, dialogue and confront each other in a project that also investigates the past and the present.

Who will like it: those interested in poor art and those looking for innovative proposals and interpretations of the relationship between art and landscape.

Useful information: Galleria Borghese, Piazzale Scipione Borghese 5, Rome, open from Tuesday to Sunday from 9 am to 7 pm.

Mock-Up. 1:1 scale architectural models. Photographs by David K. Ross, Kunst Meran, Merano Arte, from 15 April to 28 May

Reality and fiction mirror each other as on a stage where the wings tell the facts represented on the scene.

Or as in a construction site where the 1:1 scale mock-ups stage the possible, what could be if the project represented by the full scale model were realised.

Because the mock-up is just that, a model of what you want to build, built to scale for study purposes, but also to verify its feasibility. Widely used in architectural studios but rare on construction sites, except in Switzerland where a significant part of the production budget is destined for the accurate and elaborate realization of these objects, even on a 1:1 scale.

Then mock-ups become suggestive objects, almost, precisely, theatrical and capable of representing the dialogue between reality and fiction, between act and potential, to put it philosophically.

Thus the Canadian photographer David K. Ross portrayed them in the dark, illuminated by powerful flashes that eliminate the surrounding chaos, that of the construction sites, to make them real monuments, dramatic and fairy-tale architectures.

Who will like it: those who seek narratives in architectural expressions, those who love to investigate design and photographic research.

Useful information: Kunst Meran Merano Arte, Cassa di Risparmio building, via Portici 163, Merano, open from Tuesday to Saturday 10am - 6pm and Sunday 11am - 6pm.