ARTVISOR LONDRA
presents the exhibition
Ugo La Pietra
Nature / Architecture
Follies, Shelters, Places of Decompression
curated by Piero Tomassoni
opening: 20 February 2024
Until 20 April
ARTVISOR
7 Hanover Street, W1S 1YD Mayfair, London
Ph © Laila Pozzo for Doppia Firma
Artvisor is delighted to announce Nature/Architecture. Follies, Shelters, Places of Decompression, a new solo exhibition of Ugo La Pietra curated by Piero Tomassoni, opening in London on 20 February 2024.
The exhibition focuses on the artist’s long-standing research into how the natural and built environments interact and coexist. Starting from the assumption that “Nature always wins”, La Pietra offers a humorous and astute perspective into the ways in which contemporary architects and city designers have often tried to integrate ‘some green’ into their developments as a commercial or aesthetic ploy, and not as a real effort to create substantial and adequately planned green areas within the urban texture.
The ‘projects’ presented in the exhibition are hypothetical places of decompression: structures offering respite from metropolitan noise and pressure. The exhibition features two series of works about ten years apart, exploring the symbiotic relationship between nature and urban environments and the dynamics between public and private spaces in urban settings.
The Forest in the City series (2014) is a satirical take on the famed ‘Vertical Forest’ residential complex in Milan, providing a number of variations on the theme, resulting in fable-like projects for houses, huts, cabanes, and other structures, each imagined for a specific purpose, type of dweller, or geographical location. From the same period and series, the exhibition also includes two glazed ceramic works (a material and technique that has always played an important role in La Pietra’s practice) in which small house-like structures are vases containing living plants, bringing the ideas explored in the drawings to life and allowing tridimensional fruition.
The other set of drawings is from the more recent and ongoing Gazebos series (2023), with most of the works presented being shown for the first time. It continues in the vein of Forest in the City, with an added emphasis on natural, garden-like elements and less concern with the ‘inhabitability’ of the structures. These colourful and slightly larger designs are more akin to follies and pavilions than houses and shelters, enhancing the whimsical and fantastical nature of this strand of La Pietra’s research.
Ugo La Pietra.
Nature/Architecture: Follies, Shelters, Places of Decompression
a cura di Piero Tomassoni
20 February -20 April 2024
ARTVISOR
7 Hanover Street, W1S 1YD Mayfair, London
info: office@artvisor.com