Farewell to Piero Gilardi, master of Arte Povera. Famous are his Tappeti-nature

Piero Gilardi, master ofArte Povera and among the most internationally renowned Italian artists of his generation, has passed away at the age of eighty. Through his art, he interpreted some of the epochal changes that affected society beginning in the 1960s.

Born in Turin in 1942, he made his first solo exhibition Machines for the Future in 1963. Two years later he made his first works in polyurethane foam, his Tappeti-natura, which he exhibited in Paris, Brussels, Cologne, Hamburg, Amsterdam and New York. Beginning in 1968 he interrupts the production of works to participate in the elaboration of the new artistic trends of the late 1960s: Arte Povera, Land Art, Antiform Art. And he collaborates on the two first international exhibitions of the new trends at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Kunsthalle in Bern.

In 1969 he began a long transcultural experience directed at the theoretical analysis and practice of the Art Life conjunction. As a political militant and animator of youth culture he leads various experiences of collective creativity in urban and “world” peripheries: Nicaragua, Indian Reserves in the USA and Africa.

In 1981 he resumed activity in the art world and exhibited in galleries installations accompanied by creative workshops with the public. Beginning in 1985 he began artistic research with new technologies through the elaboration of the IXIANA Project, which, presented at the Parc de la Villette in Paris, anticipated a technological park in which the general public could experience digital technologies in an artistic sense. During the 1990s, he developed a series of interactive multimedia installations with intense international activity. Together with Claude Faure and Piotr Kowalski, Gilardi formed the international association Ars Technica. As head of the Italian section of Ars Technica he promoted in Turin the international exhibitions Arslab. Methods and Emotions (1992), Arslab. The Senses of the Virtual (1995), Arslab. Labyrinths of the Body in Play (1999).

He has also published two books of theoretical reflection on his various research: From Art to Life, From Life to Art (La Salamandra, Milan 1981) and Not for Sale (Mazzotta, Milan 2000 and Les Presses du réel, Dijon 2003). He has written articles for various art magazines such as Juliet and Flash Art.

He promoted the PAV - Parco Arte Vivente project, opened in Turin in 2008, in which all his experiences related to the Nature/Culture dialectic are summarized.

Farewell to Piero Gilardi, master of Arte Povera. Famous are his Tappeti-nature

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