The Design of a Resistant System Is a Creative Act

L’ideazione di un sistema resistente è atto creativo (The Design of a Resistant System Is a Creative Act) – part of the solo show Forza lavoro, curated by Matteo Lucchetti at Lia Rumma Gallery in Milan – references in its title Pier Luigi Nervi, just as the form of the installation reproduces a module invented by the engineer that is also used in the construction of the Palazzo del Lavoro in Turin (in collaboration with the architect Gio Ponti and the engineer Gino Covre), commissioned in 1961 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the unification of Italy. In fact, the large structure of pressed coal briquettes outlines on the floor, on a 1:1 scale, a module of the building’s isostatically ribbed floor slab, thought of as the formalization of the distribution of lines of force on a surface and thus a metaphor for labor as a creative force. The decision to offer a version made of coal bricks refers to the dependence of modernity and its symbols on fossil resources, still indispensable to energy production and responsible, through their effects on health, for the deaths of more than two people per hour in Europe.