Anarchitecture

Press visit and opening : Friday 9 February 2024.

“Anarchitect”: this provocative term is how Gianni Pettena defined himself in a 1973 manifesto. An unclassifiable figure, Gianni Pettena escapes categories and chooses to make architecture without architecture, exploring the expanded
field of art and critical theory. Between the visual arts, performance, teaching and writing, he never ceases to question the foundations of architecture, while challenging the established order, functionalism, capitalist and consumerist logics at work in society , and more specifically in the way cities are designed today.

Claiming a non-professional, intuitive and sometimes amusing stance, Gianni Pettena proposes ways of building that can link human beings to their natural environment, working with earth, water, wind, or materials such as paper or
cardboard. Born in Bolzano in 1940, Gianni Pettena grew up in the mountains of northern Italy, a landscape he would later call his “school of architecture”.

The exhibition at Crac Occitanie is an exceptional opportunity to discover iconic works by Gianni Pettena, reactivated for the occasion, or even produced for the first time: the show opens with Sound Tunnel, one of the very first works conceived and designed by Pettena in 1966, but never realized until now. Several site-specific installations are presented inside, and an outdoor installation literally sets the building in motion.

Marie Cozette