Castelli di Carte

The book by Paola Nicolin is presented at the Milan Triennale by Angela Vettese, Vittorio Gregotti and Roberto Zancan.

Castelli di Carte. La XIV Triennale di Milano, 1968
Paula Nicolin, Quodlibet, Macerata 2011 (270pp., €24)

Exhibits are like a house of cards; and it takes very little to make them collapse.
Giancarlo de Carlo's words from a June 11, 1968 article in the Unità open the new book by Paola Nicolin—dedicated to the XIV Triennale di Milano in 1968—who comes back to tackle problems of exhibitions and exhibition spaces [1].

Born from a 2004 study by the author, Castelli di Carte takes its name from the definition of "exhibit" given by De Carlo, creator and organizer of the XIV Triennial and at the center of the dramatic images of the opening day protest [2], which ended with eviction on June 8 followed by the resignation of De Carlo along with the entire Executive Committee.

The book has the merit of bringing to light the hidden story of an exhibition seen by no one but discussed a great deal ("a rumour in the imaginations of those who had not even visited the show" [3]) through the collection of archival documents, the reconstruction of the exhibition design, direct testimony and rich bibliographical information.

Pages from Domus 466, September 1968. Photos from the journal, Alessandro Nassiri Tabibzadeh.

The investigation moves on different levels, not only regarding problems of the Triennale del Grande Numero but the very nature of large international exhibitions, the role of the spectator and the relationship between visual arts and architecture. "With the choice of the theme of large numbers, the exhibit ... takes on sociological value, laying the foundations for the designer's responsibility to the community ... The XIV Triennial deserves to be considered a moment in which an exhibit/fair/exposition became a conceptual device" [4]. The exhibit's genesis, its relationship with the discussion regarding its evolution within the Triennale, the relationship with the contemporary architectural debate, the transformation of cities and the need to create an exhibit that could create a dialogue with society and with the public at large, are analyzed with precision in the book, along with the effects that these reflections have had on the history of exhibitions and issues relating to the exhibition in general, offering valuable tools to help read the contemporary condition.

The facade of the Palazzo dell'Arte after the occupation with the writing Milan= Paris. Courtesy of the Triennale di Milano image archive.

From this point of view, the book allows the reader to create comparisons and relationships at a distance, between the desire to create a "large scale system," an exhibition/organism organized cohesively around a theme and at the same time open to multiple readings, which was at the basis of the XIV Triennale as well as some current thinking, expressed for example in the 12th Istanbul Biennial, currently underway. Its curators, Jens Hoffmann and Adriano Perdrosa, said in the presentation of the Biennial significantly entitled Untitled, "In response to those today who devalue the exhibition as the primary format of artistic and curatorial expression, favoring instead ancillary events and programming (especially in a biennial context), the organizers of the 12th Istanbul Biennial advocate for renewed attention to the importance of the exhibition itself."

The book has the merit of bringing to light the hidden story of an exhibition seen by no one but discussed a great deal through the collection of archival documents, the reconstruction of the exhibition design, direct testimony and rich bibliographical information.

Gyorgy Kepes, drawings and floor plan of the project for the exhibition of the Grande Numero, <i>City by Night</i>. Courtesy of the Triennale di Milano image archive. — Gyorgy Kepes, drawings and floor plan of the project for the exhibition of the Grande Numero, *City by Night*. Courtesy of the Triennale di Milano image archive.

Many topics are addressed in the book, which reconstructs some of the key aspects of the Milan institution—from the programmatic foundations of previous editions to the one under study to the debate that led De Carlo and the Executive Board to define the project. Of great interest is the section that reconstructs the exhibition narrative, retracing the sections given over to some of the emerging architects, planners, artists, filmmakers and scientists at the time. Figures such as Arata Isozaki, Aldo van Eyck, Gyorgy Kepes, Shadrach Woods and Pfeufer Joachim, Alison and Peter Smithson, Saul Bass, Archigram, Hans Hollein, to each of whom a chapter is devoted, were invited to contribute to the Triennale with environmental interventions, complex installations in which the fusion of languages was meant to give life to an open reading of the Society of Large Numbers—articulated from a demographic standpoint, from that of the consumption of natural resources, industrial production, urban protests, etc., and with active participation of the viewer, a factor which perhaps had already planted the seeds of its destruction. "The final hypothesis of this study, or rather the beginning of new thinking, is to read the protest at the XIV Triennial as an event, emphasizing, in these terms, its nature as performance, happening and action resulting in an occupation that was as confused as much as it was a failure."[6]

The book also gives voice to some of the protagonists of the Triennale occupation a few weeks before that of the Venice Biennale, and concludes with three testimonials from the era: Ugo La Pietra, Gian Emilio Simonetti and David Boriani. The words of Boriani are of a somewhat disturbing topicality, "Milan competed with Paris and New York to become the leader in the field of the visual arts, but the city did not have a museum of contemporary art. Italian design was acclaimed throughout the world, but there were no design courses in the Italian universities (...) For a long time, an appeal had been made for the reform of the academies of fine arts, frozen by the 1926 Gentile law" [6].

NOTES:
[1] See Paola Nicolin, Palais de Tokyo. Sito di creazione contemporanea, Postmediabook, Milano 2006.
[2] See Domus 866, January 2004. The cover of the first issue under Stefano Boeri's direction was programmatically dedicated the the occupation of the XIV Triennale di Milano.
[3] Paola Nicolin, Castelli di Carte. La XIV Triennale di Milano, 1968; Quodlibet, Macerata 2011, p. 23.
[4] ibid, p. 27.
[5] Paola Nicolin, Castelli di Carte. La XIV Triennale di Milano, 1968; Quodlibet, Macerata 2011, p. 91.
[6] ibid, p. 256.

Anna Daneri is a contemporary art critic and curator.

Castelli di Carte

The book by Paola Nicolin is presented at the Milan Triennale by Angela Vettese, Vittorio Gregotti and Roberto Zancan.

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