CALABRIAN BLUEPRINTS
A reflection on the Calabrian landscape
INTRODUCTION
The Calabrian territory has always been considered a coveted destination for travellers coming in from all over Europe to witness a magical landscape, romantic at times. As the enlightenment century has redefined the meaning of the Grand Tour in the Southern part of Italy, the 19th century has changed the classic mith with economic misery and cultural backwardness; the enchanting with dramatic landscapes and the risk of a violent land being defined as “Africa” together with Sicily.
Calabria, as we know it today, has kept its introverted character, less prone to be understood. Over time, the image of mountains, forests, coasts, plains, and valleys has been irredeemably melting with viaducts, tunnels, wind turbines, dams and trellises. The result is a new vision of the Calabrian landscape, disregarding the elements, and identifying itself with them.
The relation between landscapes and architecture is indissoluble, creating a series of structures and artefacts specific to these places.
The relation between landscapes and architecture is indissoluble, creating a series of structures and artefacts specific to these places.
EXHIBITION SPACES
THE EXHIBITION
“Calabrian Blueprints” uses this “alphabet” to compose a new vision of the landscape, reinterpreting some of the iconic places of the Calabrian territory as a plan to build utopias. The landscape elements are synthesized in abstract, monochromatic signs who communicate the expressive strength of the landscape. The architectural alphabet of the golden grafts depicts monolmonolithic and stable structures, outlining firm shapes in a precarious balance between abandoned architecture and a golden future, which brings Calabria back to the 19th-century engravings.
The language conveys, through expressive parallel and heterogeneous forms, the graft of architecture among the cracks of the Calabrian landscape.
Making the relation between spontaneous natural/anthropical planning and global image aware planning, a crucial point of a vision of utopical architecture described in this exposition, intended to cause the will to rethink landscape.
Making the relation between spontaneous natural/anthropical planning and global image aware planning, a crucial point of a vision of utopical architecture described in this exposition, intended to cause the will to rethink landscape.
IMMAGINE
Ancient engravings which narrate the rural aspect of Calabria became the foundation for the graft of new architectures through the overlapping of a utopic golden layer.
The engravings used as the foundation are signed by Jules Coignet and found in the volume:
"Italie pittoresque. Tableau Historique et descriptif de l'Italie, du Piemont, de la Sardaigne, de Malte, de la Sicile et de la Corse" De Norvins, Nodier, Dumas, Didier, Walckenaer, Legouvé, Royer, Berlioz, De Beauvoir, Auger printed by Amable Costes, 1834, Parigi.
The engravings used as the foundation are signed by Jules Coignet and found in the volume:
"Italie pittoresque. Tableau Historique et descriptif de l'Italie, du Piemont, de la Sardaigne, de Malte, de la Sicile et de la Corse" De Norvins, Nodier, Dumas, Didier, Walckenaer, Legouvé, Royer, Berlioz, De Beauvoir, Auger printed by Amable Costes, 1834, Parigi.
MATERIA
On the orography of Calabria, unfinished architecture and abstract volumes are inserted. The models can be moved and rearranged to underline how the graft, detached from the context, becomes an essential part of the representation of the territory and alters its perception.
PERCEZIONE
A series of compositions, reinterpretations and synthesis of blueprints, which describes through a pictorial abstract language more rapidly and unbound from techniques and realism of the landscape engravings, representing the most immediate perception of the scenery, to the point of resulting in the exercise of the style itself.
ICONOGRAFIE
The textile work partially describes and classifies the elements that make up the symbolic alphabet of the new visions of the Calabrian landscape. Each symbol has its own history and value, proposing in the flag a synthesis for a new territorial identity.
ALTERAZIONE
The unfinished works are added and subtracted from the context, unveiling more layers of interaction with the landscape. The void left from the work’s materiality reveals a landscape that seems to lack an element which now belongs to the landscape itself. The subtracted and isolated architecture lacks a context to embed the consolidated mutual belonging.
Authors
Rita Elvira Adamo
Vincenzo Guarini
Pasquale Iaconantonio
Cristina Muto
Salvatore Sart
Exhibition Spaces
Powered by La Rivoluzione delle Seppie & London Metropolitan University
Biblioteca Comunale - Belmonte Calabro (CS), Italy
Nov 2018
Powered by CAGE, La Rivoluzione delle Seppie & C.R.A.C.
Sinestetica - Roma (RM), Italy
Apr 2019
Powered by Materia Indipendent Design Festival
MIDF 2019, Complesso Monumentale del San Giovanni - Catanzaro (CZ), Italy
Sep 2019
Powered by MIDF & Simple Fair
Spotted on Materia, Riviera Creative Space - Milano (MI), Italy
Oct 2019
Powered by London Metropolitan University
Making a Living Week
Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design - London, UK
Nov 2019