LUIGI PRESTINENZA PUGLISI

(in "This is Tomorrow.  Avanguardie e architettura contemporanea", Testo& Immagine, Torino 1999)

(…) in 1968 Christo makes the ‘wrapping’ of the Berna Kunsthalle and in 1969 Robert Smithson starts working on his Spiral Jetty on the Great Salt Lake, while in 1967 in Italy the ‘arte povera’ begins and in 1968 Gianni Pettena experiments with his urban and environmental performances(…)

(…) The intersection points between the radical architects’  and the land artists’ research  are numberless. And this is because, while the former  intend to get as far as possible from their professional practice following instead the paths of environmental utopia, the latter are the ones who objectively plan and organize complex operations on the environment.  So, it happens that several architects and designers – for example the American Ant Farm and Site, the Italian Pettena and UFO, the Austrian Hollein and Coop Himmelb(l)au – may be working on the delicate ridge that divides architectural research and land art.  And viceversa the artists – Christo, Heizer, Long, Oppenheim – may take upon themselves roles and functions that usually pertain to landscape architects.