entrare nell’opera Entering the work ACTIONS AND PROCESSES IN Nov. 30th 2019 - may 3rd 2020

PRESS KIT

press ContactS Lucas Martinet [email protected] Tél. + 33 (0)4 77 91 60 40

Agence anne samson communications Federica Forte [email protected] Tel. +33 (0)1 40 36 84 40

Clara Coustillac [email protected] Tél. +33 (0)1 40 36 84 35

USEFUL INFO MAMC+ Saint-étienne Métropole rue Fernand Léger 42270 Saint-Priest-en-Jarez Tél. +33 (0)4 77 79 52 52 mamc.saint-etienne.fr [email protected]

Giovanni Anselmo, Entrare nell’opera, 1971, black-and-white print on canvas, 336 x 491 cm, coll. Fundação de Serralves - Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto, Portugal. © Giovanni Anselmo, courtesy Archivio Anselmo. entrare nell’opera the Curator’s foreword The exhibition Entrare nell’opera/Entering the work: actions and processes in Arte Povera, explores in depth Entering the work and for the first time the performative dimension intrinsic to the movement – which was more of a collective ACTIONS AND PROCESSES IN ARTE POVERA adventure than a group, one interspersed with multiple actions and events in Italy in the 1960s and 1970s. th rd Nov. 30 2019 - may 3 2020 Beyond the mention of simple materials suggested by its name, the term ‘poor art’ was initially borrowed from Jerzy Grotowski’s theatrical term by the critic and mentor of this group phenomenon, . His legendary exhibition Arte povera più azioni povere, organised in 1968 at Amalfi, from the outset placed the necessity of action at the heart of these young artists’ considerations. Echoing with the social and political needs of that time, they stand for rejection of the traditional value of the artwork and the use of a unique technique for proposing collaborative experiences, gestures and attitudes, rather than objects to be contemplated.

PRESS KIT Focused on the early years of Arte Povera, the exhibition Entrare nell’opera reveals the strong commitment of its protagonists to the notion of performance and the intensity of their interest in creating an interaction between object, body, temporality and space. For the purpose of formulating new approaches to art production, each artist in this exhibition worked with a broad range of media in an individual way, exploring new materials and using the simplest means to create poetic statements based on the events of everyday life. Their aim was to integrate as many forms of expression as possible, combining visual arts with movement in space and event-driven dynamics. press ContactS Lucas Martinet The exhibition brings together nearly a hundred emblematic works, produced between 1963 and 1978, accompanied by [email protected] Tél. + 33 (0)4 77 91 60 40 almost three hundred photographic and filmic documents, a substantial archive that is partially unpublished. The first two sections, entitled “Theatre” and “Time and place”, present works and visual documentation in a dialogue that contextualizes Agence anne samson communications the actions. The following two sections, “Actions” and “Entering the work”, allow visitors to interact with an entire series Federica Forte of objects and installations, becoming directly involved with them. [email protected] Tel. +33 (0)1 40 36 84 40 The crucial role of participation, essential in Arte Povera, revolutionised the relationship between work, space and Clara Coustillac [email protected] spectator. Referring both to the concepts of the Gesamtkunstwerk [total work of art] and ‘open work’ (the latter formulated Tél. +33 (0)1 40 36 84 35 by Umberto Eco), these experiments make Arte Povera, fifty years after its emergence, an art of the present, an art still vital. USEFUL INFO MAMC+ Saint-étienne Métropole The exhibition, conceived in close collaboration with artists or their successions, is a production of the Kunstmuseum rue Fernand Léger View of the exhibition Entrare nell’opera. Prozesse und Aktionen in der Arte Povera at the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Lichtenstein in partnership with the MAMC+, based on the original curation by Christiane Meyer-Stoll, avec Nike Bätzner, 42270 Saint-Priest-en-Jarez Vaduz, 7 June – 1 September 2019. Photo credit: Stefan Altenburger © Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein / © ADAGP, Paris 2019 Maddalena Disch and Valentina Pero. Tél. +33 (0)4 77 79 52 52 From left to right: mamc.saint-etienne.fr Mariza Merz, Scarpette, 1968, copper and nylon thread, each 4 x 22 x 7 cm. Fondazione Merz, Turin. [email protected] Gilberto Zorio, Odio, 1969, rope and swing, varying sizes. Collection Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein. A richly documented illustrated catalogue is published by Walther König editions, with texts by Nike Bätzner, Lara Conte, , Albero di cinque metri, 1973, wood, 470 x 20 x 15 cm. MAMC+ collection. , Mappamondo, 1966-1968, metal wire, newspaper, varying sizes. Maddalena Disch, Pasquale Fameli, Marco Farano, Francesco Guzzetti, Teresa Kittler, Daniela Lancioni, Christiane Meyer- Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella. Stoll, Valentina Pero and Elena Zanichelli.

Alexandre Quoi Curator in charge, Chief curator of MAMC+

p. 3 the exhibition circuit

Section 1 - The Theater

Theatre, the stage, role-play and the question of the distance between the actors and the audience: so many points of reference shared by the protagonists of Arte Povera. The latter work with elements of theatre, they use masks and dress up, adopting a wide range of different roles.

Arte Povera artists have an acute sense of sensorial phenomenon and immediacy of PRESS KIT experience. For them, thought and emotion combined lead to knowledge. Their works embody the intellectual forces that encourage us to break down antiquated structures and modes of thought. Their works are about fluids, potential energies, and invisible forces that exist in each space and each thing. They bear witness to a process of transformation, such as the ambient humidity that is transformed into ice in Un flauto dolce per farmi suonare by Pier Paolo Calzolari in the exhibition. This first room also reflects the sense of Michelangelo Pistoletto, Fini del Pistoletto [Mask], 1967, printed paper, , Abito [Dress], 1967, PVC, water, fish, 84 x 50,5 cm. private collection / Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein. Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein , Pierro Derossi.© ADAGP, Paris 2019 time, the confluence of objective and subjective time represented by Alighiero Boetti’s Lampada annuale based on the principle of a random timer. The Piper Pluriclub After a focus on the events of the Piper Pluriclub, a Turin nightclub, display cases The Piper Pluriclub in Turin was a discotheque where legendary exhibitions and artistic activities took place between presenting photographs of theatre productions by Jerzy Grotowski’s company, as well as 1966 and 1969. Designed by the architects Piero Derossi, Giorgio Ceretti and Riccardo Rosso following the new lan- The Living Theatre, which put on political plays during his exile in Italy after 1965. Other guages of 1960s Italian design, it became established as a lively venue for artists, musicians, writers and documents show collaborations from and at the Teatro film-makers. Stabile with Carlo Quartucci, an Italian stage director, in the tradition of Antonin Artaud’s One performance at the Piper Pluriclub was Michelangelo Pistoletto’s La fine di Pistoletto in which twenty-five people, theatre of the absurd and theatre of cruelty. Theatre was just as important for Michelangelo each wearing a mask of Pistoletto’s face, held reflective metal plates in their hands, slowly making the plates to vibrate. Pistoletto, who performed in the street with Lo Zoo group. Finally, photographs of dance The Living Theatre’s Mysteries and Smaller Pieces premiered here, presented her space-filling Sculture shows staged in galleries in Italy illustrate the pioneers of American postmodern dance: viventi [Living Sulptures], and Alighiero Boetti, Annemarie Sauzeau Boetti and Piero Gilardi presented their fashion Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rainer, and Simone Forti. designs at the Beat Fashion Parade (which included a plastic minidress featuring water and live fish). One of these clothes created by Alighiero Boetti is exhibited, as is one of the masks of La fine di Pistoletto. Clino Trini Castelli, a young designer who at that time also worked for Olivetti with Ettore Sottsass, was responsible for the Piper Pluriclub’s visual identity and communication. He designed this Piperic Timeline installation, based on his collection of original objects and posters, especially for this exhibition.

OG2.indd 8 23.05.19 11:12 Michelangelo Pistoletto & Lo Zoo, Teatro baldacchino [Canopy Theatre], Turin 1968. Photo : Marco Farano View of the Piper Pluriclub, Turin. Courtesy Clino Trini Castelli p. 4 p. 5 Giulio Paolini, Apoteosi di Omero [Apothéose d’Homère], 1970-1971 Section 2 - Time and place In his works Giulio Paolini deals with a complex set of themes involving image, gaze, This second section has a focus on archives, showcasing places selected from Azioni Povere [Poor Actions] like Aktions- authorship, viewer and space. The phenomenon of vision plays a particularly crucial raum 1 in Munich and Fernsehgalerie by Gerry Schum. Organised by artists, this room brings together documentary images role. His installation Apoteosi di Omero recalls Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s relative to key actions, as well as photographic works and works on paper drawing on a temporal and/or spatial process. famous canvas L’Apothéose d’Homère (1827). Celebrated by Dante, Plato, Socrates, and Virgil, the scene depicts Homer personifying inspiration. Photographic documentation assumes an essential role in keeping a record of these ephemeral performances. The artists Paolini places thirty-three music stands in a room. The ‘music’ on the stands depicts of Arte Povera were thus careful to stage themselves before the lens of professional photographers such as Claudio Abate, photographs of actors playing historical figures (Marlon Brando as the Mexican Giorgio Colombo, and Paolo Mussat Sartor, who provided numerous photographs for this exhibition, some of which have revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, Peter O’Toole as Lawrence of Arabia or Greta Garbo as not previously been exhibited. These photographs, whose status oscillates at times between artwork and document, often Maria Walewska). On one music stand is a list of all of the individuals and roles that remain the only means of access to many of these artistic events. they play. Similar to a musical score, the photographs invite the viewer to extend at will the play of interpretations. Involved in the fiction of recitation, the viewer becomes complicit in the artifice of representation. As in Ipotesi per una mostra (1963) the public observes other figures, is mirrored in a public of actors (in this case reproduced PRESS KIT as photographs rather than as real figures), and finds itself participating in an ambiguous situation positioned between reality and fiction, in the role of both viewer and actor.

Luciano Fabro, Bekleidung, Aktionsraum 1, Munich, 18 avril 1970. , Allestimento teatrale (Cubo di specchi), 1967–1975. Photo credit: Giorgio Colombo, Milan Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Marzona Collection. © all rights reserved © droits réservés

Aktionsraum 1, Munich Aktionsraum 1 opened its doors in a vacant factory building in Munich on 18 October 1969. For a year (after which the building was demolished), the initiators – Eva Madelung (patron), Peter Nemetschek (artist), and Alfred Gulden (writer and filmmaker) – created an experimental space for the artists. This site supported the new performative, participatory, and multidisciplinary art practices of actionism, conceptual art, and Arte Povera. Giuseppe Penone’s ten-day action, einen Balken en die Zeit zurückbringen, in ein 25 jähriger Baum [Restore a beam to the time when it was a 25-year-old tree] took place there, while Alighiero Boetti gave a conference there (Besprechungsvortrag) which started in Esperanto and continued in Italian. Luciano Fabro also performed his action Bekleidung [Clothing] at Aktionsraum 1, a modelling of “clothing” on the chests and bodies of male and female models.

Giulio Paolini, Apoteosi di Omero [Homer’s Apotheosis], 1970–1971, 32 black-and-white photographs, 33 pages, plexiglas, lecterns, sound. Private collection, courtesy of the Fondazione Marconi, Milan. View of the exhibition Entrare nell’opera. Prozesse und Aktionen in der Arte Povera at the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, 7 June – 1 September 2019. Photo credit: Stefan Altenburger © Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein

p. 6 p. 7 Fernsehgalerie Gerry Schum Section 3 - Actions The first proposal for a Fernsehgalerie One important characteristic of the artists associated with Arte Povera is that objects play a key role in their actions. They [Televised Gallery], a new and act “with something”, transforming the object devised into an action. In this way, the works make the processes from unprecedented format, dates from the which they were derived visible as well as the actions to which they pertain. They do not stay static and involve actions, spring of 1968. In the Italian magazine for example Buco [Hole] by Luciano Fabro, which makes us move when we stand in front of this mirror. They attest to the Data (1972), German filmmaker Gerry history of their creation, like Giuseppe Penone’s tree. They exist at once in space and over time: for Jannis Kounellis, pain- Schum (1938–1973) explained: “I was tings are considered events. The works can also exist outside of the exhibition space, such as Michelangelo Pistoletto’s unsatisfied with television Mappamondo, a sphere made out of newspaper that he set rolling along the street. Reactivations of these last two major programmes about art. […] I wanted works will take place during the exhibition period. to find artists who would create objects especially for television.” Land Art, This section is framed by three works by , who considered that the notion of “action” provided food for thought the first televised exhibition of this regarding artistic activity and the action itself. In 1968, the context of a revolutionary climate aimed to master new free- kind was broadcast on 15 April 1969 at doms and create broader scope for idealism – from the political affirmations of students and workers to the counterculture 10:40 pm on the major German channel of ideas and morals. Mario Merz therefore designed artworks that express a desire to fluidify thought, emancipating them PRESS KIT ARD. from static and unequivocal associations, and making them as open as possible, with no limits on processes. An invitation The second production of the to think freely, which is a fundamental aspect of the Arte Povera movement as a whole. Fernsehgalerie, Identifications, was created in 1970 and broadcast on the airwaves of Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen / Südwestfunk Baden- Baden. This 50-minute film included, Mario Merz , among others, contributions from Untitled, 1978, steel, wood, fencing Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, wire, neon digits from 1 Pier Paolo Calzolari, Mario Merz, and to 21, lance made of wood and wax, Gilberto Zorio. In addition, a project Kunstmuseum with Giuseppe Penone was planned Lichtenstein Collection. View of the exhibition but never completed. Entrare nell’opera. Despite the lack of interest on the part Prozesse und Aktionen in der Arte Povera at the of the official television channels, Kunstmuseum these broadcasts had a resounding Liechtenstein, Vaduz, 7 June – 1 September impact within the art world. 2019. Photo credit: Ines Identifications was presented in the Agostinelli © Kunstmuseum following galleries in 1971, in Italy Liechtenstein / ADAGP, alone: Sperone in Turin, L’Attico in Paris 2019 Rome, and Toselli and San Fedele in Milan.

Gerry Schum, Identifications, 1970. 16 mm black-and-white film, Ursula Wevers, Cologne. Giovanni Anselmo, Untitled, 1970, 1 min 10 sec. Alighiero Boetti, oggi è venerdì ventisette marzo millenovecentosettanta [Today is Friday 27 March 1970], 1970, 2 min 05 sec. Mario Merz, Untitled, 1970, 1 min 20 sec. Gilberto Zorio, Untitled, 1970, 1 min 01 sec. © ADAGP, Paris 2019 Mario Merz , Igloo with Marisa Merz, Berlin, 1973. Photo credit: Angelika Platen © 2019, p. 8 ProLitteris, Zürich p. 9 Jannis Kounellis, Senza titolo (Da inventare sul posto) [Sans titre (Pour inventer sur place)], 1972 The large-format painting shows notes from the ‘Tarantella’ section of Igor Stravinsky’s ballet Pulcinella (1919–1920). The painting becomes a score while it is ‘reinvented’ and enacted when a violin interprets the notes while a ballerina improvises to them. Every time, the game begins afresh, with the performers transforming the immutable painting into an event-image. Pulcinella, a piece written for the Ballet Russes in Paris and Monte Carlo, derived from an XVIIIe Neapolitan farce, is based on the Commedia dell’arte and a score by the Baroque composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. This pastiche marked the beginning of Stravinsky’s neoclassical period. Kounellis decontextualised the fragment, but also used methods pursued by this very late: appropriation and alienation. He deliberately opted for a traditional setting – a dancer in a tutu – as an allusion to middle-class culture stuck in an endless repetitive loop. At the same time, this system creates a PRESS KIT poetic, almost melancholy image. Kounellis presented Senza titolo (Da inventare sul posto) for the first time in 1972 at the L’Attico gallery in Rome and, shortly afterwards (as a re-enactment), as part of his contribution to in Kassel.

OG1.indd 5 23.05.19 09:33 , Buongiorno Michelangelo, 1968-1969, black-and-white film, 18 min.

Michelangelo Pistoletto The Sfera di giornali [Newspaper Sphere] belongs to Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Oggetti in meno [Minus Objects], a series of artworks made between 1965 and 1966 that seek to break down the barriers between art and life. Pistoletto refrains from defining these objects as sculptures, he instead considers them more as a means of extending the pictorial dimension into the space occupied by the spectator. The different versions of the Sfere di giornali comprise soaked newspaper pages pressed together. They have been designed as a physical articulation of the dynamic events that are constantly evolving in everyday life. The collective promenade with the Sfera di giornali, created in the streets of Turin in December 1967, marks the first action by Pistoletto in public space. On the occasion of the Arte Povera event Con-temp-l’azione, he used a medium- sized sphere, renamed Scultura da passeggio [Walking Sculpture], which he rolled in the streets with other artists from the exhibition and occasional passers-by, thus bringing the object out of its institutional framework. Since 1967, this

Jannis Kounellis, Senza titolo (Da inventare sul posto) [Untitled (To Invent on the Spot)], 1972, paint, partition, action. Photo credit: Elisabetta Catalano. performance has been reproduced several times; it will be revived once again in the streets of Saint-Étienne during the © ADAGP, Paris 2019 exhibition.

p. 10 p. 11 Section 4 - Entering the work Gilberto Zorio, Microfoni [Microphones], 1969 Gilberto Zorio’s early work already directly incorporated the viewer. By creating interactive sculptures that invites the Entering the work is the clearest formulation of the desire to be directly involved in the viewer to initiate processes of combustion or cleaning by means of simple gestures, the artist expresses how important world, to do something involving a genuine emotional and physical investment. In the action is to him. eponymous photograph, Giovanni Anselmo, who considers art a “way of being and The installation Microfoni, first exhibited at Galleria Sperone in 1969, consists of a number of loudspeakers spread participating in the world”, chose, rather than staying behind the camera lens, to be around a room and microphones suspended from the ceiling. Visitors are invited to step onto concrete blocks on the captured at the very moment he entered the real space of the landscape. ground and speak into a microphone; their voices are recorded and sent to the loudspeakers that amplify them and add an echo effect. The utterances multiplied by this system thus fill the room, enveloping the audience. The Arte Povera artists wanted to reduce the distance between the work and the spectator, Zorio explains: ‘I like to talk of fluid and elastic things, things without lateral and formal perimeters … A word that is to bridge the gap between art and life, and broaden perception. Michelangelo Pistoletto absorbed by a microphone and repeated several times by a loudspeaker, loses its literal meaning and becomes an found his artistic inspiration in mirrors. Therefore, in his works, the spectator does not see incomprehensible sound that is nevertheless mentally and physically perceptible.’ The fluidity refers to the smooth an “image”, but becomes an integral part of “the image”. This expression allowed chain of exact moments, from the position of the viewer standing on the block to the emission of the voice, thento its Pistoletto to fuse space and time, subject and object, spectator and artwork. transformation by the electronic devices of microphones and speakers, up to the final diffusion of sounds. Fluidity is the distinctive feature of the whole action, taking place in a specific space during a specified time. PRESS KIT The idea of participation played a new and crucial role for the artists of Arte Povera. They involved the spectators directly in artistic activities, as in Pistoletto’s Quadro da pranzo [Dining Table] or Eliseo Mattiacci’s Essere [To Be], challenging the power of their imagination. By participating, the public truly updates or completes the work. This is also what happens with Anselmo’s slide projectors, which make the visitors parts of the exhibition, the detail (Particolare) of a continually updated whole. Gilberto Zorio’s interactive work Microfoni [Microphones] encourages spectators to raise their voices in exhibition rooms. Meanwhile Luciano Fabro’s cubes, which visitors can enter, address the experience of the users in this special situation that secrets them away, thus becoming almost a private space.

All of the artworks in this last room illustrate another fundamental interest of the Arte Povera artists: their relationship to the scale of the human body.

Gilberto Zorio, Microfoni [Microphones], 1969. View of the exhibition Entrare nell’opera. Prozesse und Aktionen in der Arte Povera at the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, 7 June – 1 September 2019. Photo credit: Ines Agostinelli © Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein / ADAGP, Paris 2019 Luciano Fabro, In Cubo [In cube], 1966 In Cubo [In Cubes] is a light fabric cube that can be opened by the viewer to enter inside. The volume, with five sides, consists of a wooden framework and fabric panels fastened with Velcro. It is tall and wide enough to host a person with their arms outstretched: one exemplar is based on the artist’s own measurements, while another is based on the measurements of the critic Carla Lonzi. In Cubo is custom-made for an individual user and must also be ‘worn’: indeed, the finished side is the internal one, while the side featuring the structure is instead visible. Inside the cube viewers are on their own, everything depends on their attention and their sensitivity; viewers measure and inhabit the space surrounding themselves, experiencing it through its borders, with their bodies – hands, arms, legs, feet, heads. Nonetheless, the viewer’s experience cannot be separated from the external space, which is experienced through the Luciano Fabro, In cubo [In cube], 1966, wood and canvas, 202 x 202 x 202 cm. Private collection light and the sounds filtered by the cloth. A ‘private’ space is born between those who are inside (the individual Photo credit: Giorgio Colombo, Milan. © all rights reserved experience inside the cube, invisible from the outside) and those who are outside in a ‘public’ space (the outside context). p. 12 p. 13 14 artists:

Giovanni Anselmo (1934) Alighiero Boetti (1940-1994) Pier Paolo Calzolari (1943) Luciano Fabro (1936-2007) Jannis Kounellis (1936-2017) Eliseo Mattiacci (1940-2019) Mario Merz (1925-2003) Marisa Merz (1926-2019) Giulio Paolini (1940) (1935-1968) Giuseppe Penone (1947) Michelangelo Pistoletto (1933) PRESS KIT Emilio Prini (1943-2016) Gilberto Zorio (1944) one hundred artworks

300 film and photographic Archives

1 000 m2 exhibition

From left to right, top-down:

Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mappamondo, 1969, archive privée.

Gilberto Zorio, Microfoni, 1969, Galleria Sperone, Turin, janvier 1969. © ADAGP, Paris 2019. From left to right, top-down: Giovanni Anselmo, Lato destro, 1970. Photo : Paolo Mussat Sartor. Alighiero Boetti, Manifesto (1967), 1971. Photo : Paolo Mussat Sartor. © ADAGP, Paris 2019. Pino Pascali, Senza Titolo (con Missile o Colomba della pace), Eliseo Mattiacci, Rifarsi / Neuerschaffung, 1965. Photo : Claudio Abate. Mailand 1973. Photo : Claudio Abate. © droits réservés Emilio Prini, Senza titolo, 1968. Mario Merz, Coperte, Strand von Fregene, 1970. Photo : Claudio Marisa Merz, indossa «Scarpette», Galleria Abate © ADAGP, Paris 2019. L’Attico, 1975. Photo : Claudio Abate.

Piero Calzolari, Usura Amore e Jannis Kounellis. Misericordia, Galerie Folker Photo : Claudio Abate. © ADAGP, Paris 2019. Skulima, Berlin, 18 mai 1973. © ADAGP, Paris 2019. Giuseppe Penone, Rovesciare I propri occhi, 1970. Photo : Massimo Piersanti. © ADAGP, Paris 2019.

p. 14 p. 15 Entering the collections of MAMC+ : When materials become form As an epilogue to “Entrare nell’opera”, two rooms were designed to serve as a junction between the exhibition and the new hanging of the museum’s collections, “Maurice Allemand, ou comment l’art moderne vint à Saint-Étienne (1947–1966)” [Maurice Allemand or how modern art came to Saint-Étienne (1947-1966)]. This focus allows Arte Povera to be considered within a broader context, based on postminimalist art collections and works from the Supports/Surfaces group. It illustrates, on the one hand, shared concerns at the time of the emergence of Arte Povera and, on the other, the policy conducted by the museum’s director, Bernard Ceysson, in favour of the most innovative contemporary research. The issues dealt with by Arte Povera were extended into other art trends of the same period. The works of artists such as Daniel Dezeuze, Barry Flanagan, Sam Gilliam, Bernard Pagès, Claude Viallat, or Franz-Erhard Walther tend to blur the distinction between painting and PRESS KIT sculpture. They sometimes establish a connection between floor and wall, often bearing the traces of the creative process, reveal their own materiality, or require activation. Related to the museum’s major design collection, it is also a matter of showcasing the artist, architect and designer Ugo La Pietra. This major figure of the radical Italian scene of the 1960–1970s developed experimental research in symbiosis with Arte Povera. A partisan of the decompartmentalising of disciplines, he also wanted to extend the spectator’s field of press ContactS perception and render it active, notably through immersive frameworks. Lucas Martinet [email protected] Tél. + 33 (0)4 77 91 60 40

Agence anne samson communications Federica Forte [email protected] Tel. +33 (0)1 40 36 84 40

Clara Coustillac [email protected] Tél. +33 (0)1 40 36 84 35

USEFUL INFO MAMC+ Saint-étienne Métropole rue Fernand Léger 42270 Saint-Priest-en-Jarez Tél. +33 (0)4 77 79 52 52 mamc.saint-etienne.fr [email protected]

From left to right:

Franz-Erhard Walther, Rote scheibe mit vier bändern II [Red Disc with Four Ribbons II], 1963, cotton and wood, 440 x 400 x 2,5 cm. On long-term loan from the CNAP – French Ministry of Culture, MAMC+. Photo credit: Yves Bresson © ADAGP, Paris 2019

Bernard Pagès, Untitled, 1972, sheet metal and painted wood, 250 x 520 x 90 cm. Donated by the artist, MAMC+ Collection. Photo credit: Yves Bresson © Bernard Pagès

Opposite:

Ugo La Pietra, Quadro Immersioni, 1968-1969, photo printed on pannel, ink drawing, 78 x 70 cm. Purchase with Fonds Régional d’Acquisition pour les Musées, cofinanced with French State and Rhône-Alpes Region, 2010. MAMC+ collection. Photo credit: Cyrille Cauvet © Ugo La Pietra