Superstudio: Superstudio 50

A major retrospective on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of one of the most influential groups in radical Italian architecture.

Transverse, metaphysical, indefinable, ever-new, ever outré, Superstudio is one of the most influential groups in Italian “radical architecture,” founded in 1966 by Adolfo Natalini and Cristiano Toraldo di Francia, who were later joined by Gian Piero Frassinelli, the brothers Roberto and Alessandro Magris and Alessandro Poli.

50 years on from its foundation, MAXXI is devoting a major retrospective to the group: Superstudio 50 (from April 21 through September 4, 2016), an exhibition conceived by Natalini, Toraldo di Francia and Frassinelli themselves, together with the curator Gabriele Mastrigli.

This exhibition brings together and presents over 200 pieces, ranging from installations to objects, from graphic works to photographs and through to publications covering the entire career and development of the group; materials largely drawn from its own archives, some never previously displayed and many of which will progressively enter MAXXI’s architecture collection.

An exhibition on Superstudio by Superstudio—which for the occasion is producing a special exhibition design project—a kind of scientific autobiography that reviews fundamental chapters in its history, from the exhibition Superarchitettura (1966), in which together with Archizoom, the group proposed for the first time a radical rethinking of architecture and design, replacing the traditional domestic images with a world of alienating objects and visions.

Part of the exhibition is devoted to the group’s videos, including the previously unseen Continuous Monument, a project from 1969 of which only the storyboard existed and which has been produced by MAXXI for this exhibition with direction by the videomaker Lucio La Pietra.

Superstudio 50 is moreover completed by the work of a number of artists who have given specific interpretations of Superstudio’s work—from the videos of Hironaka & Suib and Rene Daalder, through to the documentary research of the photographer Stefano Graziani—helping us appreciate the freshness and currency of the message.