We talk about gaze and seeing in the Milanese exhibition that showcases the work of a photographer (Stefano Graziani) and an architectural firm (Office) who worked for the South Tyrolean company Finstral and transformed corporate photography into an artistic object. Or rather, philosophical.
Because at the center of their work is the question regarding the frame, the gaze and the exhibition support: who shows whom? Who looks at whom? These are the questions they try to answer at the ICA Foundation in Milan.
We also talk about photography in Rovigo with the exhibition dedicated to the gaze that a master dedicated to Italy, that of Henri Cartier-Bresson. If we then turn our gaze to the media and to our own culture of belonging, that of Korea and the Far East, we end up talking about rabbits and moons, themes dear to tradition and transformed into wooden sculptures in the shape of rabbits and moons shown on TV.
It is the work of Nam June Paik that is on display at the MAO in Turin together with works by contemporary artists who dialogue with him. Gazes are also spoken of in fashion, or rather in the brilliant path of Monica Bolzoni who, returning from America in the 70s, opened her atelier and transformed it into a territory of experimentation.
An exhibition at the Triennale di Milano talks about it, which also inaugurates a new exhibition path of its Museo del design and an exhibition on Ettore Sottsass focused on his very personal idea of architecture and nature. Diller Scoffido arrives at the MAXXI in Rome to talk about movement in architecture, while the Roman museum also hosts an in-depth study on the Torre Velasca following the acquisition of the BBPR archives.
Turin instead welcomes the fantastic and frightening works of Giger, the father of Alien, while in the province of Asti the works of Patrick Tuttofuoco inaugurate Palazzoirreale: the gaze, this time, turns on the fantastic. Finally, living, the right to housing and possible forms of coexistence are discussed at the Farout festival that for ten days will animate Spazio Base (and surroundings) in Milan.
Stefano Graziani and OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, Picture Window Frame, Fondazione ICA Milano, from 3 October to 30 November
Three elements, the window, the photograph and the exhibition device of museum or archive installations. If you try to make them dialogue, important philosophical questions immediately emerge because all three elements have to do with looking: who looks at whom? This is precisely what the photographer Stefano Graziani and the architects OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen thought about, who worked together on a project commissioned by Finstral (this is the second stage), a South Tyrolean company of windows and frames, among the largest in Europe.
The invitation to Graziani was to observe the production process and the art collection started by the founder of the company Hans Oberrauch starting from the Seventies. But then things changed dramatically.
Because the photographer and the architects involved started from the meaning of looking and documenting to reconnect with the history of art and architecture, ending up reflecting on the act of showing and being shown, in the relationship between work and context. And the very concept of exhibition is in crisis. It starts with the display: does the display show the work or vice versa? The display is certainly not a neutral element, it conditions the public's gaze and its movements in space. Just like a window and a photograph…
Who will like it: those who love investigating behind the scenes of exhibitions, those who enjoy playing with art, philosophy and architecture.
Useful information: Fondazione Ica, via Orobia 26, Milan, open on Wednesdays from 2 to 6 pm; Thursday to Saturday from 12 to 19.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Unstable Architecture, Maxxi Museum, Rome, from October 25 to March 2
It is not essential that architecture designs immobile buildings. This is what the design studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro tells us, which is exhibiting itself at the Maxxi with a reflection on movement. In architecture, of course: buildings that change configuration, that have mobile elements, that can rotate or even inflate.
In an exhibition set up by the same studio, we will talk about mobility, adaptability, operativity and ecodynamism, the four pillars on which the resistance to the rigid inertia of the architecture that animated the post-war period was also based.
What does it mean? Mobility allows buildings to be physically relocated, either by choice or to avoid demolition. Adaptability allows them to be reconfigured, while operability makes buildings machines, tuned to the needs of their inhabitants. Finally, ecodynamism speaks of a flexibility between the building and the environment. The exhibition invites us to rethink architecture and the very idea of a building along these extremely current and useful themes for reflecting on the future.
Who will like it: architects, designers and visionaries.
Useful information: MAXXI Museum, via Guido Reni 4/A, Rome, open Tuesday to Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm.
Torre Velasca: a focus curated by Maria Vittoria Capitanucci and Tullia Iori, Museo Maxxi, Rome, from 25 October to 23 February
A second appointment at the Roman museum tells the story of the Torre Velasca, the first "Italian-style skyscraper", an icon of Milan and of a historical period, the 1950s, marked by the economic miracle.
The exhibition proposal is to take a leap into history thanks to the recent acquisition by the museum institution of the archives of the studio BBPR, the author of the Milanese skyscraper. Which has been loved as much as hated, criticized as much as praised, certainly part of the urban fabric of the city, but also of the taste of an era, as well as an ambitious project from an architectural and engineering point of view.
It will be possible to explore it in augmented reality (AR) and immersive (VR) and, for the main sections of the exhibition, tactile models are planned, useful for the understanding of the space and the creative process by visitors with visual disabilities. On the occasion of the exhibition, the complete inventory of the Studio BBPR archive will be published in the Quaderni del Centro Archivi del MAXXI Architettura Collection.
Who will like it: history and costume enthusiasts
Useful information: MAXXI Museum, via Guido Reni 4/A, Rome, open from Tuesday to Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm.
Ettore Sottsass, Architectures, Landscapes, Ruins, curated by Barbara Radice and Iskra Grisogono of Studio Sottsass with Marco Sammicheli, Triennale Milano, from 4 October to 13 April 2025
Landscape, photography and drawing are the glasses through which to look at architecture in this new in-depth study dedicated to Ettore Sottasass.
With the scientific collaboration with Studio Sottsass and the creative consultancy of Christoph Radl, a visual story is composed based on drawings and sketches linked to the themes of architecture, landscape and ruins belonging to a period after Memphis, together with a text entitled Ruins and other reflections.
This brings us to the fifth event dedicated to the figure of the architect and designer from Innsbruck that Triennale is setting up around his Casa Lana.
Who will like it: young architects, those who love nature and landscape and their dialogue with architecture.
Useful information: Triennale Milano, viale Alemagna 6, open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10:30 to 20:00.
Monica Bolzoni, Il modulo, curated by Marco Sammicheli and Anna Di Cesare, Triennale Milano, from 25 October to 12 January 2025
Monica Bolzoni was an institution in Milan: her shop, Bianca e Blu, in via De Amicis, opened imaginary and fantastic worlds to anyone who looked into her window. It was impossible not to, because that little magic box brought the creative freedom of Los Angeles and New York to Italy in the years of Andy Warhol's factory.
Bolzoni's education dates back to those places, but she then identified her own personal and decidedly autonomous path, which puts the female body at the center, between memory and innovative materials. It was 1981 when Bolzoni opened his Milanese store that three years later transformed into an atelier for research and experimentation of new fabrics and materials, and then approached Japan. The story is long, but it is characterized by an experience between fashion, art and architecture that will become his most interesting feature.
All this will be discussed in the exhibition that Triennale dedicates to the Italian stylist and designer, placing the emphasis on the project. With the occasion of this exhibition (also on October 25) the new exhibition path of the Museo del Design Italiano will also be inaugurated. Italian and international fashion will in fact dialogue with some significant objects of Italian design, in a comparison of compositional methods, the use of materials and production, along an installation project curated by Luca Stoppini.
Who will like it: those who look for creativity in the project, those who think of fashion as wearable architecture and design as giving shape to creativity.
Useful information: Triennale Milano, viale Alemagna 6, open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10.30 am to 8 pm.
Beyond Alien: H.R. Giger, Mastio della Cittadella, Turin, from 5 October to 16 February
Hans Ruedi Giger is the father of Alien. The artist who created the imagery of the legendary film by Ridley Scott as well as the figure of the alien par excellence. His imagery then designed the cinema of science fiction horror and monstrous imagery, giving life to impressive biomechanical figures.
Turin dedicates a great tribute to him in the exhibition curated by Marco Witzig, the leading international expert on Giger, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of his death. Witzig brings to the stage the different faces of Giger, a multifaceted artist, sculptor, designer, and, above all, one of the greatest masters of the airbrush. And his imaginative worlds have influenced fashion, design and music: he is responsible for some of the legendary covers of LPs by artists such as Debbie Harry, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Magma, Dead Kennedys. And he is also responsible for the works for the never-made first adaptation of Dune, an epic project by Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky. Just as he is responsible for the surrealist drawings on the theme of cosmic horror inspired by the words of the writer H.P. Lovecraft. A journey into the design of Giger's fantastic world.
Who will like it: fans of science fiction and monstrous cinema.
Useful information: Mastio della Cittadella, Turin, Corso Galileo Ferraris, 0 - corner of Via Cernaia, open Monday to Friday from 9.30 to 19.30; Saturday and Sunday until 20.30.
Nam June Paik, Rabbit Inhabits the Moon, MAO - Museo Arte Orientale, Turin, from 19 October to 23 March 2025
Nam June Paik (Seoul 1932 - Miami 2006) was a pioneer of video art in an interesting contamination between the capitalist mass media culture and conquest of the West with that of poetry, music and the Korean cultural and shamanic tradition. Thus the title of the exhibition exemplifies his artistic work: that rabbit on the moon is a typical figure of much Far Eastern literature, with Paik it becomes a wooden sculpture that observes the moon on the screen of an old television.
Not only that, Paik is a musician and musicologist by training and music is a central element in his artistic expression. The exhibition at the Museum of Oriental Art in Turin develops around these nuclei, which for some time has been questioning its own role. And its own collection.
Curated by Davide Quadrio, director of the Museum, and Joanne Kim, a Korean critic and curator, with Anna Musini and Francesca Filisetti, Rabbit Inhabits the Moon is first and foremost a dialogue between different generations. The exhibition in fact brings together new productions by Korean artists and video works and installations from the collection of the Nam June Paik Art Center with famous works by Paik – mostly on loan from the Bonotto Foundation – and precious traditional artefacts from prestigious institutions, including the Musée Guimet - Musée national des Arts asiatiques, the Museum of Oriental Art “E. Chiossone” in Genoa and the Museum of Civilizations in Rome.
Who will like it: lovers of cyberpunk, video art and dialogue between different generations.
Useful information: MAO, via San Domenico 11, Turin, open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm.
Patrick Tuttofuoco, Palazzoirreale, casa spumantiera Bosca, Canelli (AT), until December 8th
Hands are the protagonists of the work that Patrick Tuttofuoco has developed for the Bosca sparkling wine house in Monferrato. The idea of the winery is to give life to a new narrative of the spaces that for a long time have hosted (and in some cases continue to host) the family business through a project conceived by the architect Diana Berti and the gallery owner and curator Giorgio Galotti.
Thus was born Palazzoirreale in via Bosca 2, a group of buildings heterogeneous in function that now host the works of Patrick Tuttofuoco, the first artist to inaugurate the project. Which starts, precisely, from the hands, symbol of the landscape, the population and the territory and also the common thread in an anthological exhibition of works from the early 2000s to the most recent, such as Shape Shifting from 2024 and a site-specific work on the belvedere of the historic headquarters of Bosca. A way of making art and architecture together, thinking about reuse, transformation and new ways of narrating the past, present and future.
Who will like it: those who think that contemporary art is an activator of ideas.
Useful information: Palazzoirreale, via Bosca 2 Canelli (AT), open from Friday to Sunday from 10 am to 7 pm; Wednesday and Thursday by reservation.
Henri Cartier-Bresson and Italy, Palazzo Roverella, Rovigo, until January 26, 2025
The French photographer's relationship with Italy began very early, already at the beginning of the 1930s, when Cartier Bresson took a pleasure trip to the Belpaese in the company of his friend André Pieyre de Mandiargues, a young poet and writer, and his companion, the painter Leonor Fini. He had just made the decision to abandon painting to devote himself exclusively to photography and it was during this trip that he took some of the most famous photos in his repertoire.
Thus begins the exhibition path of this great show dedicated to telling how the photographer looked at his country: there are over 200 pieces on display including photographs, newspapers and letters for a journey within the journey of Cartier Bresson.
Who returned to Italy in the 50s, in particular in Abruzzo and Lucania and then between the 50s and 60s on several occasions to create photographic services for the great illustrated magazines of the time, including “Holiday” and “Harper’s Bazaar”, dedicated above all to Rome, Naples, Venice, but also Ischia and Sardinia. Interesting then the work on Matera carried out at different times that shows the changes but also the permanence of local traditions and identities. Curated by Clément Chéroux and Walter Guadagnini, the exhibition is the largest Italian monograph dedicated to Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Who will like it: those who love photography and those who are curious to immerse themselves in a distant time.
Useful information: Palazzo Rovellara, via Laurenti 8/10, Rovigo, open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 7 pm; Saturday and Sunday until 8 pm.
Farout Festival Live Arts Festival, Spazio Base, Milan, October 3-13
This new edition of the Milanese festival is about conviviality, or rather, as the curators explain, convivialism. 20 artistic presences and 45 events invite the public to explore new ways of being in the present, considering the body, the city, the planet and history. In particular The Convivial Laboratory: Inhabiting the unabitable is a reflection on the right to housing and living as well as on coexistence and its possible reorganization between collective and personal experiences.
Why Farout, then? The distance indicated in the name of the festival is the one deemed necessary by its creators to avoid falling into pre-established trajectories and to offer a new point of view on the issues of our time. The inauguration of the festival is entrusted to the German artist Ulla von Brandenburg who will unveil her installation Terra solida, Vento liquidi at 6:30 pm, but then for nine days inside and outside Spazio Base and Silos Armani, meetings and performances on the theme of urban coexistence will be held.
Who will like it: those who are passionate about urban planning, architecture and shared (and shareable) creativity
Useful information: Spazio Base, via Bergognone 34, Milan