Gaetano Pesce: the time of diversity

Tuesday 24 June 2014

Montanara, 2009

Running June 26 to October 5, a comprehensive retrospective at the MAXXI Museum of Rome will stage the work of Gaetano Pesce, the avant-garde Italian architect, designer and world-renowned artist.

Dalila Chair prototype, 1980

The theme of diversity underpins the exhibition: Pesce has always celebrated randomness and freedom from conformity and predictability, praising flaws and errors.

"The purpose of this exhibition, which questions women’s contemporary condition, is also to assert the need for today’s artistic work to be multifarious, as it was in the past. Certain Renaissance artists come to mind, artists who managed to show that there are no barriers between the different art forms," he explains.

Up 5 and 6 in wood

The exhibition is also enriched with a giant-sized rendition of Pesce's famous UP 5 and 6 La Mamma/Donna chair and ottoman, installed in the plaza. Designed in 1969 and manufactured by C&B Italia, the piece represents a female figure tied to a ball-shaped ottoman. "I conceived this chair, which metaphorically chains a female body to a ball, to denounce the state of imprisonment that women are subjected to due to male bias," says Pesce.

Lustre for Lille, 1997

The exhibition presents drawings, sketches, models and objects exploring his career from its origins in the 1960s right up to the latest research. Visitors can choose from among seven different thematic paths through the show: Not Standard, Person, Place, Flaw, Landscape, Body and Politics.

Sansone Table, 1980