Piero Gilardi (Turin, 1942 – 2023).
In 1963 he held his first one-man show, Machines for the Future. In 1965 he created his first pieces in polyurethane foam and exhibited them in Paris, Brussels, Cologne, Hamburg, Amsterdam, and New York. As of 1968, he stopped producing regular artworks to engage in the new artistic trends of the late ’60s, such as Arte Povera, Land Art, and Antiform Art. He took part in the first international exhibitions dedicated to Arte Povera at Walker Art Centre, and relevant solo shows such as Italy: the new domestic landscape, MoMA, New York, USA.
In 1969 he started a long trans-cultural experience to analyze and practice the Art/Life combination conceptually. As a political activist and animator of youth culture, he organized several occasions of collective creativity on urban and “world” fringes, such as Nicaragua, Indian Reserves in the USA, and Africa.
In 1981 he resumed his activity in the art world and exhibited installations, accompanied by creative public workshops. In 1985 he started an artistic research project with new technologies with the elaboration of the IXIANA project, which was presented at the Parc de la Villette in Paris. This work consisted of a technological park where the public could artistically experiment with digital technologies.
During the ’90s, he developed a series of multimedia interactive installations with intense international activity. Along with Claude Faure and Piotr Kowalski, he formed the International Association Ars Technica. He presides over the international association Ars Technica which has promoted two Arslab exhibitions of neo-technological Art in Turin (Arslab. Metodi ed Emozioni in 1992, Arslab, I Sensi del Virtuale in 1995, Arslab. I labirinti del corpo in gioco in 1999). He has published two books of theoretical reflection about his varied forms of research: Dall’arte alla vita, dalla vita all’arte/From Art to life, from Life to Art, La Salamandra, Milano 1981 and Not for Sale, Mazzotta, Milano 2000 and Les Presses du reel, Dijon 2003. He wrote articles for several art magazines, such as Juliet and Flash Art.
He had promoted the project of PAV – Parco Arte Vivente which opened in 2008 in Turin, which will contain a compendium of all his experiences concerning the relationship between Nature/Culture. He received relevant solo shows such as at Magazzino Italian Art Foundation, New York, USA (2022), MAXXI Museum, Rome (2017), GAM, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Turin, (2016), Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (2012), Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli, (2012), Museè de Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris (2013).
He participated in many exhibitions, such as the Venice Biennale (1993, 2013), Hammer Museum (2022), Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain de Nice, Nice, France (2022), MART, Rovereto, Italy (2022), Museum of Tokyo, Japan (2020).
His works are part of prominent public collections such as MoMA, New York, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, MAMCO, Gèneve, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna, Turin, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea L. Pecci, Prato, Museum fur Gegenwartskunst, Karlsruhe Museum, Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Wien.
