The most representative works were: Il giardino all’italiana (The Italianate garden) made in Bologna (entirely of industrial-ceramic tiles) and dedicated to the ceramic production area around Imola; the monuments to Bathing culture in Cattolica (using Faenza ceramic and Ravenna mosaic); and the monument to Salento (in Lecce stone). It is above all the collections of objects, made in various places, that demonstrate his commitment to the material culture that in the ’90s still seemed alien to design culture.

Consider, for example, the collections Prima colazione (Breakfast) for Faenza Italia and Faenza town council, the ceramic wine jugs (Boccali per il vino) for the Friuli Venezia Giulia regional craft development board, the Volterra alabasters, the Ravenna and Monreale mosaics, the objects made from Carrara marble, Apricena stone, lava stone, travertine, the ceramic oil containers from Grottaglie, and the museum merchandise collections for the Ecomuseo in Fontanabuona (in slate) and in Cursi (in Lecce stone). The latter collections exemplify all the theories and studies from the ’80s and ’90s on an extremely difficult, complex subject: the souvenir.

From exhibitions on Souvenirs (Cattolica, 1989) to experiences presented at Ferrara Fair or Gubbio town hall, there were many occasions when La Pietra sought to restore design and production values to this sector. He created a particular type of souvenir in the mid ’90s for sale in Italian museums (under the Ronchey law).

He would make many objects, always to “demonstrate” and to “teach”, to reinvigorate the great tradition of Italian artistic craftsmanship. But his creativity in this sector could not have flourished as it did (with over 1,500 objects) were it not continually nourished by his artistic endeavours. Drawings and acrylics often complemented his objects and installations, works that had achieved a symbolic, allusive quality, such as the “credenza in ceramica” (ceramic dresser) (The architecture of the object), the objects dedicated to the Casa virtuale e Casa naturale (Virtual house and natural house) at the 1992 Milan Triennale, and the Unità del Mediterraneo (Unity of the Mediterranean) installation at Lyon’s Musée d’art contemporain in 1991.

It was at the Milan Triennale in 1996, invited to exhibit in the Italian section, that La Pietra would articulate his position as an artist-architect, by creating an Architectural fragment. It was a distillation of his theories of the relationship between interior and exterior and his interest in craftsmanship and handmade goods married to industrial design.

The Inside /outside, together with the slogan Abitare è essere ovunque a casa propria (Living is being everywhere at home), were the pillars of his theory and practice towards an urban space with the quality of private domestic space. This aspiration (and, with it, a design model) had informed his entire oeuvre since the ’60s. It found tangible expression in his designs for two projects in Milan: the Colonne area redevelopment in San Lorenzo and the urban spaces in the Montecity initiative.

He is above all a communications researcher, in fact his works are not especially well thought of in the art world, a world that he has always called into question. Similarly, despite having been an active protagonist in the architectural disciplines, none of his works have been built, and precious few of his design objects have entered production. What this all means, as time has told, is that La Pietra has been and is still the one who looks, explores and decodifies.

He always uses his method of the Disequilibrating system. He could be found deploying his subtle irony to decodify the Transgenics (in an exhibition at Galleria Borgogna, 1999), using objects and designs to highlight how distant a prospect European unit” was, and putting on exhibitions such as Aspettando… (Waiting…), where waiting for the second Republic, waiting for the millennium, waiting for summer, waiting for the Pope’s Jubilee, etc., encapsulated the sense of a society that, having seen the great utopian ideas evaporate, was forever waiting.

Consider, for example, the collections Prima colazione (Breakfast) for Faenza Italia and Faenza town council, the ceramic wine jugs (Boccali per il vino) for the Friuli Venezia Giulia regional craft development board, the Volterra alabasters, the Ravenna and Monreale mosaics, the objects made from Carrara marble, Apricena stone, lava stone, travertine, the ceramic oil containers from Grottaglie, and the museum merchandise collections for the Ecomuseo in Fontanabuona (in slate) and in Cursi (in Lecce stone). The latter collections exemplify all the theories and studies from the ’80s and ’90s on an extremely difficult, complex subject: the souvenir.