Where and when
Author Mauro Pratesi in conversation with Marcello Ciccuto and Carlo Sisi
With an innovative approach to the many aspects of Gio Ponti’s activity, the book aims to provide a new synthetic vision of this great protagonist of the 20th century, who was at the same time an architect, an artist, an interior designer, a columnist, an essayist, publisher, editor and magazine founder. Crossing all the activities of Ponti, the book proposes a reading “not technician” and as much as possible adherent to the profile of the author. The study is not limited to individual specific aspects of his activity but offers a reflection on the multidisciplinary work pursued during his life, as well highlighted by Cesare de Seta in the preface. Taking up what has already been authoritatively stated by Alessandro Mendini, the book recognizes Ponti as an undisputed artist and one of the fathers of 20th century architecture.
Mauro Pratesi
Is Professor of Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. Previously he taught History of Contemporary Art at the Faculty of Arts and Architecture of the University of the same city. Author of essays published in the magazines “Bollettino d’Arte”, “Prospettiva”, “Paragone”, “Dialoghi di Storia dell’Arte”, “Antichità Viva”, he has published for Laterza editions in collaboration with Enrico Crispolti and for Marsilio in collaboration with Giovanna Uzzani. He has also published for Mondadori, Electa, Skira, Silvana and Giunti. Assistant and consultant for the art of the twentieth century by Luciano Pistoi during the eighties, he curated important exhibitions on aspects of Italian art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Marcello Ciccuto
Is professor of Italian Literature at the University of Pisa. He has taught at various European and American universities. He is scientific director of the magazine “Humanistica”, “Studi rinascimentali”, “Letteratura & Arte” and member of the Jury of the International Literary Prize Viareggio-Rèpaci. For more than twenty years he has been dealing with the relationship between figurative art and literature, to which numerous essays and volumes have been dedicated, including The Image of the Text. Episodes of figurative culture in Italian literature (Rome 1990); The cross marks. Italian literature of the ‘900 and figurative art (2 vols., Lucca 1998 and 2002); Artist figures. The birth of images at the origins of literature (Florence 2002).
Carlo Sisi
Was President of the Marino Marini Museum in Florence and Director of the Galleria d’Arte Moderna and of the Costume Gallery in Palazzo Pitti, where, in parallel with his work as a conservator, he undertook to promote, through exhibitions and other initiatives, knowledge of the art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From the same Gallery, he edited the entire revision, with the edition of the general catalogue. Author of important volumes and interdisciplinary essays, including the series entitled L’Ottocento. Le arti sorelle (I/Neoclassicismo, II/Romanticismo, III/Realismo), has curated numerous exhibitions, including, in recent years: Ottocento: da Canova al Quarto Stato (Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale); 1861, the painters of the Risorgimento (2010, Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale); Americani in Florence. Sargent and the Impressionists of the New World (2012, Florence, Palazzo Strozzi); Les Macchiaioli. Des impressionistes italiens? (2013, Paris, Orangerie); Corcos. The dreams of the belle époque (2014, Padua, Palazzo Zabarella).