Artist's book: a pamphlet designed as a DIY guide on making works with foam rubber.
In this artist's book, Piero Gilardi reveals his working methods and
explains how to create sculptures like those he has produced since the
early 1960s. A pioneer of
Arte
Povera and a proud advocate of an ecologically concerned undertaking
in the visual arts, Gilardi is also a political activist. The technique he
developed for his sculptures has often been applied to produce masks,
signs, and props for rallies and demonstrations, as this book and an
interview with
Andrea Bellini explains.
For all this and for much more—his design and fashion creations, his
social endeavors, etc.—Piero Gilardi is emblematic of the
evolution of art and society over the last five decades. He is an
artist whose works and theoretical research are still relevant to map what
art might achieve and how art might be useful in the "real world."
Piero Gilardi (1942-2023) was a pioneer of
Arte Povera and a proud advocate of an ecological-concerned undertaking in visual arts. He was a peripatetic artist who gathered information about experimental art and creators in the 1960s, promoting the work of Richard Long or Jan Dibbets, and introducing Bruce Nauman or
Eva Hesse into Europe. He was also a political activist who marched with FIAT workers in the 1970s, and who founded, in the 2000s the Living Art Park, commissioning earthworks to contemporary artists such as
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster or
Lara Almarcegui.
For all this and for much more—his design and fashion creations, his social endeavors, etc.—Piero Gilardi is emblematic of the evolutions of art and society since the mid-20th century. He was an artist whose works and theoretical researches are still relevant to map what art could achieve and how art could be useful in the "real world."
