Ugo La Pietra
Doppia Firma pays tribute to Ugo La Pietra, the great artist, architect and designer, intellectual and cultural promoter who, for more than fifty years, has shown untiring commitment and passion for artistic crafts and genius loci, more than anyone else on the Italian scene, constantly working for the knowledge, protection and promotion of great expertise. Awarded the Compasso d’Oro (Golden Compass) in 1979 and a lifetime achievement award in 2016, he has often conducted his theoretical and practical action in solitude and with a strongly critical spirit and he has had a fundamental bearing on the survival and at times the relaunch of craft activities linked to our communities: a unique heritage of skills and a great cultural and productive resource. His has been a long artistic journey – made up of hundreds of objects designed “for and with” artisans and craftspeople and an equally long critical journey made up of magazines, books, programme manifestos, exhibitions and collections.
This journey still raises fundamental questions on the relationship between art, applied arts and design, in a cultural, but also in an ethical, social and environmental perspective. Ugo La Pietra takes part in Doppia Firma as a special guest with a series of outdoor vases in terracotta, earthenware and enamel, made with various Italian craftsmen of excellence between 2014 and 2018: it is a collection that well represents his extraordinary creative talent and at the same time underlies a subtle critical reflection on the topic of greenery, nature, architecture and the city, which La Pietra has dealt with several times in his work as an artist and theoretician.