Gianni Pettena

 
Architect, artist and critic, professor of the History of Contemporary Architecture at the University of Florence and of Planning at California State University, Gianni Pettena (born 1940 in Bolzano) belongs to the original group—along with Archizoom, Superstudio and UFO—of radical Italian architecture. Without denying his background in architecture, he was convinced of the need to rethink the meaning of the discipline, just like the other “radicals”, using the languages of “spatial” research of Conceptual Art and American Land Art, instead of the traditional languages of architectural planning. This tendency emerges from the publication L'anarchitetto and from the performance-declaration Io sono la spia. As a critic and architectural historian, he readdressed the themes of “radicalism” in the exhibition “Radicals. Architettura e Design 1960-1975” at the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 1996 and in the exhibitions “Archipelago” (1999) and “Radical Design” (2004). He has also written on funk architecture, on radicalism, on “spatial” artistic research, as well as design and architecture.

(external link : www.giannipettena.it)
 
Gianni Pettena - 2/5
2022
no text
Captures - 2/5 Series
Four artist's posters.
Gianni Pettena - 1966-2021
2020
bilingual edition (English / Italian)
Mousse - Mousse Publishing (books)
sold out
The first book to cover the entire span of the “anarchitect” Gianni Pettena's career.
Gianni Pettena - Non-Conscious Architecture
2018
bilingual edition (English / Italian)
Sternberg Press - Monographs and artists' books
sold out
This publication surveys the work of Italian critic, architect, and visual artist Gianni Pettena. Focusing on a rich ten-year period of production that began in the mid-sixties, it brings new attention to the artistic and intellectual practice of a figure known primarily as one of the main exponents of the Radical Architecture movement.
Gianni Pettena - The Curious Mr. Pettena - Rambling around USA – 1971-73
2017
English edition
Humboldt Books - Artist's Travels
The Curious Mr. Pettena recounts various steps along a journey, through cities and wide open natural spaces, undertaken by the anarchitect Gianni Pettena at the start of the 1970s across the United States.


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