Gaetano Pesce: Time for Diversity

 26 June – 5 October 2014
Galleria 1 and Piazza del MAXXI in Rome

curated by Gianni Mercurio and Domitilla Dardi

Throughout his life Gaetano Pesce, architect, designer and artist of international repute, has engaged in theoretical debate regarding diversity, casuality, the breaking down of barriers between disciplines and freedom from conformism and predictability and has designed objects inspired by people that reflect the unpredictability of life, applauding defects and errors.

Diversity, casuality, the breaking down of barriers between disciplines, freedom from conformism and predictability, defect and error

 

The theme of diversity, underlying the entire exhibition, is expressed within the museum spaces through an evolving presentation: 40 mobile panels with drawings, renderings, sketches, original models and full-size objects emphasising the creative and conceptual aspects of the projects in a layout that encourages visitors to actively choose from among the seven thematic paths that illustrate Gaetano Pesce’s oeuvre from the 1960s through to the present: Non-standard, Person, Place, Defect, Landscape, Body, Politics.

From the labyrinthine forest of moveable panels, visitors pass through to an airier space in which the protagonist is a single work: an installation conceived and created specifically for MAXXI in which the focus is on Time.

Lastly, the piazza dominated by the giant version of Up 5&6, the iconic armchair in the form of a woman, created by Gaetano Pesce in 1969 in protest at the status of women.

The huge chair, also known as Donna e anche Mamma, brings together many of the recurrent themes in the artist’s work such as the link between the body and performance, along with a warning with regard to the female condition around the world.