RADICAL UTOPIAS Beyond architecture: Florence 1966-1976

Curated by Pino Brugellis, Gianni Pettena, Alberto Salvadori

October 20  2017 –January 21 2018

La Strozzina Gallery, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

Opening  October 19 2017, 7pm

 

The exhibition presents a wide selection of the work – design objects, videos, performances, installations -  of the so-called radical architects who developed  their research in Florence about a half century ago, beginning in 1966, by using innovative languages and forms that, although different the one from the other, had as a common aim a radical revision of the traditional instruments of architecture, in the same way as this had been done in the UK and Austria just a few years earlier.  Very detailed panels give precise information about  the origin, inspiration and motivation of each of the architects presented, whether single person or groups, while also explaining the reason why what can by now be defined as a movement  was originated in Florence in years characterized by social and political  turmoil as well as by a general climate of renewal in the arts.  Moreover, also supported by a fully documented catalogue, the exhibit shows and testifies of the path of continuity that started with the visions of the critical utopias begun in Florence and, in the following generations, turned out  to be  a new, internationally spread approach in research for architectcs, designers, historians and critics.