Piero Gilardi

BIOGRAPHY

EXHIBITIONS

CATALOGS

WORK

Turin, 1942
He was born in Turin in 1942. In 1963 he was the first personal machine for the future. Two years later he made his first works in polyurethane foam and exhibited in Paris, Brussels, Cologne, Hamburg, Amsterdam and New York. Starting in 1968, he stopped producing works to participate in the technical development of the new artistic trends of the late 1960s: Arte Povera, Land Art, Antiform Art. In 1969, he began a long experience
transcultural direct to the theoretical analysis and practice of the Arte Vita conjunction. As a political militant and animator of youth culture, he leads various experiences of collective creativity in the urban and global peripheries: Nicaragua, Indian reservations in the USA and Africa. In 1981 he resumed his activity in the artistic world, exhibiting installations accompanied by creative workshops with the public. In 1985 he began artistic research with new technologies through the development of the IXIANA Project, a technology park in which the general public can experiment with digital technologies in an artistic sense. Over the last few years he has developed a series of interactive multimedia installations with intense international activity. Together with Claude Faure and Piotr Kowalski, he formed the international association Ars Technica. As head of the Italian section of Ars Technica he promotes Arslab international exhibitions in Turin. Methods and Emotions (1992), Arslab. The Senses of the Virtual (1995), Arslab. The labyrinths of the body at play (1999) and numerous study conferences on the art of new media. He has published two books of theoretical reflection on his various researches: From art to life, from life to art (La Salamandra, Milan 1981) and Not for Sale (Mazzotta, Milan 2000 and Les Presses du réel, Dijon 2003). He writes articles for various art magazines such as Juliet and Flash Art. He promoted in Turin the project of the large Living Art Park, inaugurated in 2008, in which all his artistic experiences are summarized and of which he is the art director.