Erasmus Effect. Italian Architects Abroad
6 December 2013–6 April 2014
MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts
Via Guido Reni
4A – 00196 Rome
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11–19h,
Saturday 11–22h
info [at] fondazionemaxxi.it
An urban lantern in wood and glass in Norway, a structure for collecting water in Ethiopia, the MoMA in Chengdu, China, a museum in a tunnel for submarines in Albania, a house that blends into the landscape in Israel, not to mention Brazil, the United States, Russia and Germany: Erasmus Effect. Italian Architects Abroad is an exhibition composed of journeys, experiences and returns and telling the stories of the many Italian architects to have found success abroad.
The phenomenon of “migratory” Italian architecture, of designers who open their studios abroad and who establish themselves as respected professionals of international standing is not new: from the pioneers such as Lina Bo Bardi in Brazil or Romaldo Giurgola in the USA and later in Australia through to Renzo Piano and Massimiliano Fuksas, who have built abroad the success that has allowed them to come to the fore in Italy. Among the most recent, to name but a few, the exhibition presents Benedetta Tagliabue, working in Barcelona for a couple of decades, Lot-Ek—responsible for the exhibition design—and Elisabetta Terragni, both in New York, Carlo Ratti in Boston, the LAN studio in Paris and many others.
Erasmus Effect. Italian Architects Abroad documents the “trajectories” of Italian architects who frequently leave as students or recent graduates in search of work, but who ever more frequently transfer established independent practices in search of new markets.
