MAY LIST

Le Corbusier

L'arte Decorativa

a cura di Domitilla Dardi

Quodlibet 2015

Pubblicato nel 1925 come raccolta degli articoli polemici di Jeanneret sull’arredamento e le arti applicate apparsi su «L’Esprit Nouveau», la rivista fondata insieme con il pittore Amédée Ozenfant e Paul Dermée, L’arte decorativa non è soltanto il tentativo di applicare alla sfera dell’arredamento il nuovo criterio modernista della produzione in serie e quindi uno dei primi libri in assoluto sul design – parola non ancora in uso negli anni Venti del secolo scorso, segno che Walter Benjamin aveva ragione a pensare che ogni epoca sogna la successiva. L’arte decorativa è anche e soprattutto uno snello trattato estetico sugli oggetti che ci circondano quotidianamente e ci aiutano a vivere, distinguendo fra quelli futilmente decorativi e gli utensili o attrezzature, vale a dire utili a soddisfare i nostri bisogni in maniera corretta. Come avverte Domitilla Dardi nell’introduzione a questo saggio – qui riproposto in una nuova edizione il più possibile fedele all’ultima rivista e ampliata dall’autore nel 1959 – sopravvive la traccia autobiografica di un’eredità del passato e di una formazione che necessariamente devono essere sacrificate in nome della nascita dello “spirito nuovo” perché «il passato non è un’identità infallibile… Ha in sé cose belle e cose brutte».

Pertanto, Le Corbusier, forzando anche le convenzioni tipografiche del tempo, giustappone immagini di arredi e manufatti di ogni epoca, anticipando così di decenni leb atmosfere pop o postmoderne. Non solo: scrivendo questo libro in parallelo al coevo Urbanistica, tratta insieme la piccola e la grande scala senza soluzione di continuità così come nel padiglione dell’«Esprit Nouveau» presentato all’Expo del 1925.

Adrian Paci
Transit
Mousse 2013

Published on the occasion of the exhibition “Adrian Paci – Lives in Transit” at the Jeu de Paume, Paris, the PAC Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan, and the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, in 2013-2014.The work of Adrian Paci (born 1969 in Albania, lives and works in Milan) underlines one of the paradoxes of human intelligence, which consists of becoming aware of reality through unreality. Often inspired by subjects close to him and stories arising from his everyday life, Adrian Paci lets them slide poetically towards a fiction, which in its turn creates wider realities. In 1997, Adrian Paci escaped violent riots in Albania to take refuge, with his family, in Italy. On his arrival in the country, he temporarily abandoned painting and sculpture in favor of video, thus exploring new cinematic languages. His experience of exile, the shock of separation and adaptation to a new place defined the context of his first videos, through which he attempted to discover the roots of his past. Gradually, Adrian Paci has distanced himself from his personal experience to treat collective history, in projects that emphasize the consequences of conflicts and social revolutions, revealing how identity is conditioned by the socio-economic context. Working with non-professional actors, men and women in difficulty, he explores many of the existential and social issues of our times, such as migration, loss, displacement, globalization, nostalgia and memory.

  

Carsten Höller 

2001-2010184 Objects, Experiments, Events

Edited by Barbara-Brigitte Mak, graphic design by Interkool

Hatje Cantz 2010

This book features all of Carsten Höller’s works from 2001 to 2010, made either alone or in collaboration, including created and exhibited objects, experiments, and events. Every work is accompanied by an explanatory text and extensive information on techniques, production, exhibition history, and more. With almost three hundred pages and over five hundred illustrations, this is a comprehensive catalogue raisonné of Höller’s oeuvre from the past decade. It showcases the entire range of his work, from the famous slides, large installations, and architectural works, to videos, audio works, and social events, as well as texts, proposals, drawings, paintings, and works with live animals. 

Abbas Kiarostami

Pluie et vent

Préface de Christian Boltanski

Gallimard

Par un jour orageux de 2007, Abbas Kiarostami décide de s'échapper de Téhéran : «J'ai fait mon sac, sans oublier mon appareil photo et ma caméra numérique. La pluie tombe depuis hier soir, ponctuée d'éclairs, mais ce n'est pas ce qui va me faire changer d'avis, bien au contraire.» À l'abri dans l'habitacle de sa voiture, le cinéaste iranien prend à la volée des photos du paysage urbain et de la campagne. Cette série donne à voir, à travers le ruissellement de la pluie sur le pare-brise, des hautes silhouettes d'arbres dégoulinants, l'éclat tremblé des phares des voitures, ou encore, au bord de la route, un pan de mur jaune. Des images en couleurs, mais où dominent les gris et les noirs, et qui sont autant de tableaux.

Rutter Carroll

Ryder and Yates

Riba Publishing 2009

For the first time a comprehensive account of the outstanding work of Ryder and Yates has been chronicled in this new book by Tyneside architect Rutter Carroll. Formed by Gordon Ryder and Peter Yates and heavily influenced by Le Corbusier and Berthold Lubetkin, the practice dominated the development of modern architecture in the North East of England from the early 1950s, where their visually astounding modernism put them in stark contrast to their contemporaries.

Structured by building type, the book attempts to reveal the principles of design particular to the practice of Ryder and Yates. It tells how, from its formation in Newcastle in 1953, it quickly established a reputation for innovative and highly individual buildings situated almost exclusively on Tyneside. Discussing key works in the Ryder and Yates portfolio such as Norgas House and the Engineering Research Station in Killingworth, it reveals the level of influence this practice had over the region.

Lavishly illustrated with images and plans from the Ryder and Yates private archive, this book is an essential read for architects, students, architectural historians and modernist enthusiasts interested in learning more about one of the 20th century’s most intriguing British practices.

Marco Delogu

Luce Attesa

Punctum 2014

Passare una notte di luna piena in solitudine al Palatino è una delle cose più belle che può succedere a un romano: in poche ore si cancellano dalla memoria molte visioni negative della città, finisce l’inquinamento acustico, e ci si libera anche dall’altro inquinamento, quello del cinismo e della retorica.La retina si abitua alla luce della luna e improvvisamente ti trovi proiettato indietro nel tempo senza automobili, senza sacra romana chiesa, monologhi con i telefonini, turisti al seguito di bandierine (sì, come i cani del vecchio cinodromo che seguivano la lepre di pezza), camion -bar, pubblicità abusive, e generone romano.In questa personale macchina del tempo ho passato la notte tra l’undici e il dodici giugno 2014, la famosa “luna di miele”; insomma ho fatto un viaggio di nozze, insolito e solitario, nella mia città: consolidavo il mio grande amore verso di lei iniziando, dal Palatino, a fotografarla senza persone, e le dicevo anche che la mia personale e autoimposta “prigionia” dentro le Mura Aureliane e il grande raccordo anulare era finita. Era per questa libertà acquisita che volevo stare da solo con lei, e amarla illuminata dalla luce che in questo periodo sento più mia: quella della luna.

GIPI

Il mio lavoro

Comicout 2014

Una nuova collana internazionale bilingue (italiano e inglese), che punta sull’immagine, gli inediti e le grandi firme. Si comincia con un volume dedicato a Gipi che è il maggior autore italiano contemporaneo, in gara anche al Premio Strega, amato e apprezzato in Italia e all’estero. Dopo l’enorme successo de LMVDM alcuni anni fa, Gipi è tornato di recente al graphic novel con Una storia. Questo volume offre illustrazioni inedite, schizzi, progetti e disegni preparatori.

Manuel Orazi

Yona Friedman

The Dilution of Architecture

Park books 2015

Yona Friedman is recognized as one of the most eminent proponents of 1960s avant-garde urbanism. His best-known work is the concept for a Spatial City (“La Ville Spatiale”, 1956), in which he aimed to provide maximum flexibility through “megastructures” over existing cities and other locations. Inhabitants were meant design their dwellings within these structures. Friedman sought to provide people in every part of the world with the knowledge and fundamental structures to determine their own environment for living and to enhance their independence and self-reliance

This new book offers a unique collection of brief texts and annotations as well as an abundance of images, sketches, drawings, watercolors etc. by Friedman himself. It also features a vast range of documents related to his work. In part II, Manuel Orazi gives an analysis of Friedman’s oeuvre, based on extensive research. He follows the architect’s progress through disciplinary and geographic areas apparently remote from one another, in which Friedman has been moving erratically and incessantly. Orazi also expands on historical, social and political contexts. A documentation of Friedman’s intellectual relationships and other resources, an interview with Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi about Friedman, and a comprehensive bibliography round out the book.

Gilbert Garcin

MISTER G

TESTI di Christine Ollier e Yves Gerbal

Garcin ci commuove ancora grazie alle sue piccole messe in scena abilmente costruite. E se la magia avviene, con le sue “piccole filosofie” finisce col parlarci di cose che ci riguardano tutti: di come la vita passa, del tempo che fugge, della tenacia che bisogna mantenere malgrado tutto, e che la falsa modestia non ha senso, ma che bisogna avere il coraggio di esporsi.

LUDO

Dualitè

Gallimard 2015

Ludo has a unique and recognizable aesthetics among of all. The artist combines, with skill and precision, mechanical objects and plants to transform them into hybrid creatures.

As green is his favorite color, he also developed his own tint of green and he uses it on each of his works, no matter of its size or its location. This color emphasizes the natural elements by diverting their function. 

Urban artist, Ludo expresses himself with the display all over the world. Duality is a mantra for the artist, visually because he uses all the time the same colors (gray / black / green) in his works but also because he creates in places apparently opposite (street and workshop). Thus, on 17th April, the editor Gallimard put up for sale the book Dualité which traces the recent production of the artist.