藝術
1968年的政治動蕩仍在迴響
2013年06月08日
Ugo Mulas
1968年威尼斯雙年展上一位被捕的抗議者。
倫敦——1968年6月18日，來到雙年展公園(Giardini della Biennale)參加第34屆威尼斯雙年展的藝術評論家們發現佩戴警棍的警察們守在門口。一些政治活動家佔領了若干國家館，把展品堆到牆邊，或者用反戰旗幟蓋住它們。
那一天以警察鎮壓了聖馬可廣場上的示威遊行告終。如今，一
艘艘熠熠閃光的超級遊艇正向威尼斯駛來，參加本周的第55屆藝術雙年展開幕式，當年的暴力似乎已經很遙遠了，但他們（以及其他不那麼招搖的遊客）會發現，
要不是1968年的抗議者，如今的雙年展會大不相同。正是因為他們，後來雙年展的組織者們才安排了更精彩刺激的展覽日程，還安排了藝術討論的論壇。
威尼斯的抗議者們對意大利的設計行業也起到了同樣戲劇性的
衝擊效果，他們激勵着年輕設計師與建築師們追求自己的政治與社會理念。新書《意大利先鋒藝術，1968-1976》(The Italian
Avant-Garde, 1968-1976)記錄了「激進設計」(radical design)運動如何在那屆雙年展的摩擦之後湧現出來。
該書由歷史學家卡特琳娜·羅西(Catharine
Rossi)和阿歷克斯·科爾斯(Alex Coles)編輯，是柏林的斯坦伯格出版社(Sternberg
Press)計劃出版的系列圖書中的第一部，這套圖書探討設計、藝術與建築之間的聯繫，其標題《EP》是指老式EP黑膠唱片或磁帶，其音樂內容比單曲碟要
多，又比完整專輯要少；此外也是來自20世紀中期英國建築師艾莉森(Alison)與彼得·史密斯遜(Peter
Smithson)夫婦，他們為《經濟學人》的倫敦總部設計了經濟學人大廈，並把經濟學人大廈入口和街道之間的突起地帶命名為「EP」。史密森夫婦設想，
人們在進入大廈之前，可以在這片中間地帶駐足一下，做做準備。
從這個系列的第一本書可以看出，這個名字可謂恰如其分。書
中收入短小的隨筆，討論激進設計運動的核心元素，以及主要當事人的回憶錄和他們當初的舊作。《意大利先鋒藝術》不僅是提供了一份綜合調查研究，也希望喚醒
那次運動的精神，激發讀者進一步探索。這本書令讀者得以窺見那個時代評論界的發展、流浪漢般的人物與政治導火索，描述了現代設計史上最引人入勝也是最動蕩
的時期之一。
這本書中的明星是20世紀60年代以來在意大利湧現出的那
些心懷政治意圖的設計師與建築師群體。藝術評論家傑諾曼·塞蘭特(Germano
Celant)為他們創造了這樣一個術語「激進建築」(Architettura Radicale)，後來又變成了「激進設計」(Disgeno
Radicale)。和許多地下運動一樣，激進設計運動非常零散，但其擁護者們有着共同關注的東西。他們對自己的前身既現代主義的原則，以及戰後的消費主
義感到幻滅，從而致力於發明新的設計實踐形式：它們富於智力創新，在政治上包容性強，有環保意識。
其中的若干團體，如「Superstudio」、
「Archizoom」和「Gruppo
9999等」，是由佛羅倫薩建築學院的本科畢業生組成，如今已被視為20世紀設計與建築的傑出貢獻者。在這本書里，「Gruppo
9999」的創始人之一卡洛·卡爾蒂尼(Carlo
Caldini)描述了他們當年怎樣設計1969年在佛羅倫薩開張的「空間電子」迪斯科舞廳。它被設想為激進主義者和行動主義者們的文化圖書館，邀請先鋒
音樂家和劇團來演出，在舞池主辦試驗建築課。1971年S空間世界藝術節(Superstudio on the S-Space Mondial
Festival)期間，「Gruppo
9999」與「Superstudio」兩個團體曾在這裡合作，把其中一層改造為一面湖泊，另一層改造成一個巨大的菜園，試圖引起人們對環境危機的關注。
《意大利先鋒藝術》中的其他名字就遠遠沒有那麼如雷貫耳
了。「Take Cavart」是1973年一群佛羅倫薩的年輕學生組成的團體，由米切爾·德·拉克西(Michele De
Lucchi)領導。羅西在《意大利先鋒藝術》中描述，「Cavart」以電影和辯論的形式來宣傳自己的環境生態觀點，經常在偏僻的地點舉行，其中包括維
琴察鄉間一座廢棄的軍用鐵路橋。
當時一些年長設計師們同情年輕激進分子們的政治觀念，對他
們表示支持，其中包括埃托·索特薩斯(Ettore
Sottsass)，他參加了「Cavart」的「鐵路」辯論會，此外還有亞利桑德羅·門迪尼(Alessandro
Mendini)，他在這本書中講述了自己當時作為《Casabella》、《Modo》和《Domus》等一系列雜誌的編輯，是如何捍衛這場運動的。
1973年，他邀請了大約30名設計師、建築師和知識分子來到《Casabella》的辦公室，參加「環球工具」(Global
Tools)系列研討會的第一場，討論設計在孕育社會變革與避免環境危機中所扮演的角色。
這之前的一年，紐約的MoMA舉辦了「意大利：國內新景
觀」展覽，把激進設計介紹給世界，MoMA資深建築與設計策展人寶拉·安東尼里(Paola
Antonelli)在書里描述了這次展覽。恩佐·馬利(Enzo Mari)在這次展覽上展品最多，此次展覽策展人埃米利奧·安巴茲(Emilio
Ambasz)說他是：「唯一一個可以生活在這種矛盾中的人——早上設計最豪華的煙灰缸，晚上又去電視台譴責消費社會。」
MoMA展覽的衝擊促使紐約的庫珀-休伊特國家設計博物館(Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum)與明尼阿波利斯的沃爾克中心(Walker Center)各自主辦了關於激進運動的主題展。
但到20世紀70年代後期，許多激進派設計師開始轉向將後
現代主義應用於設計和建築。索特薩斯與門迪尼合作創立了阿基米亞工作室(Studio Alchimia)計劃，之後又創立了孟菲斯集團(Memphis
group)，其成員包括「Cavart」的德·拉克西與「Archizoom」的安德烈·布朗奇(Andrea Branzi)。
《意大利先鋒藝術》描繪出一幅引人入勝的畫卷，展現出它們
在那個沉浸於反文化瘋狂與狂熱意識形態糾紛的年代裡的旅程。這本書還追溯了激進設計對馬丁諾·崗普(Martino
Gamper)與Formafantasma工作室等當代意大利設計師的影響。它提醒我們，在設計承擔社會與生態責任、強調設計工作中合作與自我表達的重
要性，以及其他當今設計師所面臨的熱點問題之中，這場運動扮演了先知角色。
本文最初發表於2013年5月28日。翻譯：董楠
Design
Political Unrest of '68 Still Reverberates
June 08, 2013
LONDON — On the opening day of the 34th Venice
Biennale, June 18, 1968, art critics arrived at the Giardini della
Biennale to discover baton-wielding policemen guarding the entrance.
Political activists had occupied some of the national pavilions and had
turned the artworks to face the walls in others, or shrouded them in
anti-war banners.
The day ended with a police
crackdown against a demonstration on Piazza San Marco. Distant though
the violence may seem to the passengers on the blingtastic super-yachts
heading to Venice for the opening this week of the 55th Art Biennale,
what they — and less showy visitors — will find there would be very
different if not for the 1968 protesters. Thanks to them, the organizers
adopted a stronger, more provocative curatorial agenda for subsequent
Biennales, and established them as forums for cultural debate.
The Venice protests had an equally dramatic impact
on Italian design by inspiring young designers and architects to pursue
their political and social ideals. A new book, “The Italian Avant-Garde,
1968-1976,” charts the emergence of the “radical design” movement after
the eruption at the Biennale.
Edited by the design
historians Catharine Rossi and Alex Coles, it is the first in a planned
series of books exploring links among design, art and architecture to be
published by the Berlin-based Sternberg Press. The title of the series,
EP refers to old-fashioned vinyl records or cassette tapes that
contained more music than singles and less than albums. It was also the
name given by the mid-20th-century British architects Alison and Peter
Smithson to the raised area between the street and the entrance to the
Economist Plaza, which they had designed as the London headquarters of
The Economist magazine. The Smithsons envisaged it as an intermediary
space where people could pause and prepare themselves to enter the
building.
Judging by the first book
in the series, it is an apt title. Combining short essays on key
elements of the radical design movement with the reminiscences of its
protagonists and reprints of their writing, “The Italian Avant-Garde”
sets out not to provide a comprehensive survey, but to evoke the spirit
of the movement, inspiring the reader to explore further. By offering
glimpses of some of the critical developments, picaresque characters and
political flashpoints of the era, the book describes one of the most
compelling and tumultuous periods of modern design.
The stars of the story are
the groups of politically engaged designers and architects that emerged
in Italy from the late 1960s onward, prompting the art critic Germano
Celant to coin the term “Architettura Radicale,” which eventually became
“Disgeno Radicale” or radical design. Like many underground movements,
radical design was highly fragmented, but its proponents shared some
concerns. Disillusioned with the Modernist principles of their
predecessors and postwar consumerism, they strove to devise new forms of
design practice, which were intellectually dynamic, politically
inclusive and environmentally responsible.
Several of these groups,
like Superstudio, Archizoom and Gruppo 9999, all founded by graduates of
the architecture school in Florence, are now recognized as important
contributors to late 20th-century design and architecture. In the book,
Carlo Caldini, co-founder of Gruppo 9999, describes how it designed the
Space Electronic discotheque that opened in Florence in 1969. Conceived
as a cultural laboratory for radicals and activists, Space Electronic
staged performances by avant-garde musicians and theater groups, and
hosted an experimental architecture class on the dance floor. When
Gruppo 9999 worked with Superstudio on the S-Space Mondial Festival
there in 1971, one floor was transformed into a lake and another into a
giant vegetable garden in an attempt to focus attention on the
environmental crisis.
Other names in “The Italian
Avant Garde” are far less familiar. Take Cavart, which was founded in
1973 by a younger group of Florentine students led by Michele De Lucchi.
As Ms. Rossi describes in “The Italian Avant Garde,” Cavart aired its
ecological concerns in films and debates, which were often organized in
remote locations, including a disused military railroad bridge in the
Vicenza countryside.
These young radicals were
supported by older designers and architects who sympathized with their
politics, including Ettore Sottsass, a participant in Cavart’s “railway”
debate, and Alessandro Mendini, who describes in the book how he
championed the movement as editor of a succession of magazines:
Casabella, Modo, then Domus. In 1973, he invited about 30 designers,
architects and intellectuals to Casabella’s office to attend the first
of a series of Global Tools seminars, which discussed design’s role in
fostering social change and averting environmental crisis.
The previous year radical
design had been introduced to an international audience in “Italy: The
New Domestic Landscape,” an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in
New York, which is discussed in the book by Paola Antonelli, who is
senior curator of architecture and design there. Enzo Mari, who
contributed more exhibits than any other designer, was described by its
curator Emilio Ambasz as: “The only man who could live with the conflict
of designing the most splendid ashtrays in the morning, and then go on
television to denounce consumer society at night.”
The impact of the MoMA show
prompted two other American institutions, the Cooper-Hewitt National
Design Museum in New York and the Walker Center in Minneapolis, to stage
their own exhibitions on the movement.
But by the late 1970s, many
radical designers had moved on to pioneer the application of
Post-Modernism to design and architecture. Sottsass collaborated with
Mr. Mendini on the Studio Alchimia project, before founding the Memphis
group, whose members included Cavart’s Mr. De Lucchi and Andrea Branzi
of Archizoom.
“The Italian Avant Garde”
paints an engaging picture of their journey in an age steeped in
counterculture nuttiness and passionate ideological disputes. The book
also traces radical design’s influence on contemporary Italian
designers, like Martino Gamper and Studio Formafantasma. And it reminds
us of the movement’s prescience in championing design’s social and
ecological responsibilities, the importance of collaboration and
self-expression, and other burning issues for designers today.
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