Accademia di Brera in Milan is pleased to announce a full-day conference dedicated to Alberto Garutti’s artistic practice. Garutti (1948–2023), artist and teacher who operated along the liminal territories between the institutional and the public space, has been one of the most influential figures on the Italian and European art scene over the last 50 years.
The seminar is conceived by the Academy’s Director, Giovanni Iovane, and curated by Laura Cherubini, Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, and Cloe Piccoli, in collaboration with Studio Alberto Garutti.
Since early phases of his career intent on investigating dynamics of relation between the artwork, the spectator and the institution, Garutti has been working on radically redefining the approaches to public art and its processes of conceptual formulation. His works in the urban context—commissioned by cities, biennials and museums around the world—are devices envisioned to re-imagine new forms of encounter between residents, spectators and the physical and social landscapes for which the works have been designed.
Parallel to his career as an artist, Garutti was an influential teacher. As Professor at the Brera Academy in Milan, IUAV in Venice and Polytechnic University of Milan, he played a key role in shaping entire generations of artists.
The seminar will feature four panels in which lecturers will discuss the key themes of Garutti’s artistic practice and his thirty-year experience as a professor. Prominent Italian and international guests—who have been in dialogue with Garutti for collaborations and projects—will join conversations and lecture series exploring and debating the radical thinking of an artist who since the 1970s has been questioning the ethical role of the artist in contemporary society.
Among the speakers: Stefano Boeri, Francesco Bonami, Maurizio Bortolotti, Barbara Casavecchia, Roberto Cuoghi, Anna Detheridge, Eva Fabbris, Beppe Finessi, Hou Hanru, Yuko Hasegawa, Francesco Manacorda, Paola Nicolin, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Mario Pieroni, Paola Pivi, Antonella Soldaini, Dora Stiefelmeier, Elena Tettamanti, Bart Van Der Heide, Angela Vettese, Andrea Viliani.
The full-day conference is happening in conjunction with the publication of the book Alberto Garutti, edited by Studio Celant, the most comprehensive monograph on the artist. The volume is available in two editions: published by Hatje Cantz (Berlin) in English and by a+mbookstore (Milan) in its Italian version.
The editorial project is supported by the Italian Council (13th edition, 2023), the program aimed at supporting Italian contemporary art in the world promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity within the Italian Ministry of Culture and promoted by Settore Musei Civici Bologna | MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna.
Conceived by Germano Celant in a long dialogue with the artist, the volume contains: an essay by Antonella Soldaini; a detailed historical-critical timeline edited by Eva Fabbris; seven thematic essays by Garutti written specifically for this publication.
The purpose of both the book and the seminar is to shed light on the main events of Garutti’s career, the experimental and innovative impact of his language based on several key concepts that have become indispensable for anyone approaching the theme of site-specific art: crucial aspects such as the idea of the anti-monument, non-invasive action, opposition to the rhetoric of the system, acute critique of the institutional landscape, the role of the viewer, the fundamental concept of the work as a form of open dialogue and conversation.
Many conferences in Italian and international museums accompanies the release of the book, which has already been presented in Museion, Bolzano; Madre, Naples; MAXXI, Rome; and MAMbo, Bologna.
The day after the seminar, on Wednesday, October 23, at 6pm, Triennale Milano will host a book launch event with Barbara Casavecchia, Eva Fabbris, Francesco Garutti, Antonella Soldaini, moderated by Anna Detheridge.
Next book presentations:
October 24, 2024: Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz (online)
October 26, 2024: mudac – Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts, Lausanne
October 30, 2024: Centre Pompidou-Metz