UGO LA PIETRA | Catalogo della mostra Interno-Esterno

Born in 1938, since 1962 he has been developing a practice focused on the relationship between the individual and the environment. Since 1960, he has explored various artistic movements (sign art, conceptual art, environmental art, social art, narrative art, artist cinema, new writing, extra-media, neo-eclecticism, radical architecture and design) and promoted research groups (Gruppo del Cenobio, Gruppo La Lepre Lunare, Gruppo Design Radicale, Global Tools, Cooperativa Maroncelli). He created experimental environments in 1968 at the Milan Triennale and in 1972 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; He was curator of the Audiovisual Section at the 1979 Milan Triennale, of the "Cronografie" exhibition at the 1980 Venice Biennale, and of the "Naturale-Virtuale" Section at the 1996 Milan Triennale. The Interno–Esterno catalog is presented as a dossier, a collection of materials, images, notes, and reflections that reveals the profound dynamics of Ugo La Pietra's work. Not a simple volume of documentation, but an editorial object designed to approach the layered nature of his research: an intimate, almost domestic collection that showcases the articulation of a thought through forms, spaces, and visions. The ring binding—exposed and declared—emphasizes the open and processual dimension of the project. The catalog thus takes the form of an intimate archive, constructed through layers and gestures, in which the boundary between documentation and narrative becomes porous. Each element in the catalog is the result of a physical and manual process, the fruit of careful and intentional care. Labels, notes, scans, signs, imperfections: these are not graphic simulations, but convey the tangible and direct character of a work constructed through layers, signs, and gestures. In this context, Elisabetta Longari's critical contribution is not limited to the text, but insinuates itself between the pages in the form of handwritten annotations, marginal observations, and pen notes, a real intervention into the heart of the artist's archive. The volume contains a selection of environmental views of the exhibition, completing the reflection on the relationship between interior and exterior, inhabited space and designed thought.