Honor imperfection as a hidden intention
For the XXI Triennale, Onsitestudio proposes a cabinet of wonders, a small Wunderkammer.
The exhibition examines certain aspects of making architecture in the contemporary world: through the careful arrangement of different sets of objects, finished or unfinished things, production tools, surfaces, couplings, molds, raw materials – all elements that have the charm of the catalogue and their own objective beauty at the same time – the exhibition reflects on the present possibility of granting architecture physical presence, applying both industrial production and craftsmanship.
The investigation thus focuses on the atmospheric qualities of buildings, the possible ambiguities between industrial production and craftsmanship, including the loss of the physical dimension due to the industrial process and human interaction inside contemporary production processes.
Through the observation of this series of industrial elements, a latency of human presence emerges.
The careful presence of “inaccuracies,” even within serial industrial processes somehow detached from any human interaction, attempts to mantain a human dimension of these objects and the buildings they can be used to make.
In relation to the strong virtualization and hyper-industrialization of production processes, architecture loses materiality, and the sense of it.
This leads to the need to recover the physical quality of buildings, the sensation of their materials, the perceptive qualities related to variations and imperfections of bodies (constructed or otherwise).
This may happen by going back to the working tools, reasserting craftsmanship in the concrete presence of the unfinished materials, coming to terms with the physical quality of architecture, made of materials that are always different, like the people who produce them.
These sets of objects refer to three projects by Onsitestudio in Milan: the Hotel on Piazza Duca d’Aosta, the BASE cultural center at the former Ansaldo site, and the public school in Cascina Merlata.
XXI Triennale Esposizione internazionale Milano 2016
Accademia di Brera
2 Aprile — 12 Giugno 2016
Curated by Onsitestudio – Angelo Lunati and Giancarlo Floridi with Florencia Andreola, Tommaso Brambati, Michele Miserotti, Chiara Molinari, Jo Fonti, Filippo Fagioli, Sebastian Sanchez, Simone Marmori, Stefano Passamonti, Daria Vybornova, Marco Fancelli, Nicolò De Paoli
With the support of Francesco de Agostini – www.deagostiniarchitetti.it
Graphic design Studio Temp – www.madeintemp.com
Photography Anders Sune Berg and Giovanna Silva
The project is made possible by
Agrob Buchtal – www.agrob-buchtal.de
Edilbeton – www.edilbetonperugia.it
Petersen Tegl – www.petersen-tegl.dk
