Mario Cucinella comes to SpazioFMG for The Architects Series

Netflix-mania, the passion for TV dramas, has even had an impact on architecture: The Architects Series is a new format presented by The Plan for SpazioFMGperl'Architettura, the gallery and showroom of the Iris Ceramica and FMG Fabbrica Marmi e Graniti brands in the Iris Ceramica Group.
With a new exhibition installation for the occasion, SpazioFMG began The Architects Series on February 22 with “A documentary on: MC A” a short film about MC A Architects and its founder, architect Mario Cucinella, curator of the Italian Pavilion at the Biennale in Venice in 2018.
The video took the audience at SpazioFMG behind the scenes in architecture, into the studio of architect Mario Cucinella to see how a building is born, from concept to construction.
The screening was followed by a conversation between architect Mario Cucinella and Nicola Leonardi, director of The Plan, entitled “MC A Empatia Creativa - Progetti recenti e Arcipelago Italia alla 16a Biennale di Architettura 2018” (MC A Creative Empathy – Recent projects and Arcipelago Italia at the 16th Architecture Biennale in 2018).
Only a few days before the presentation of Arcipelago Italia to the press, the project that will be presented in the Italian Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Show at the Biennale in Venice, it was inevitable that the audience’s attention should be monopolised by this fascinating theme and the opportunity to find out how it came about in the curator’s own words.

Architecture as a tool for relaunching Italian territories is the key concept underlying the Arcipelago Italia project. More than 500 projects were submitted in response to a national call for entries announced by curator Mario Cucinella. The projects presented reveal the state of contemporary architecture in Italian territories, with a clear prevalence of privately commissioned residential projects. The curating team selected about sixty small projects which not only represent good practice in architecture but underline dialogue with the history of the territories.
Cucinella talked about his lengthy travels through Italy’s plains, forests and villages, revealing profound divisions between north and the south, where investment in public facilities and spaces is still scarce.

The Italian Pavilion will also present five projects for five different Italian territories revealing how architecture can become a tool for relaunching territories. Cucinella asked six architectural practices to work on five hybrid buildings, five experimental projects that could become tools for discussion and aids for local government.
The five projects selected serve to reveal five themes the curator considers essential in these territories. In Sicily, the project for Gibellina and the restoration of the Teatro di Consagra focuses on the role of art and cities’ cultural heritage. Reconstruction and the relationship between the temporary and the permanent are applied in Camerino, a territory that needs to be rebuilt and relaunched after the earthquake. New healthcare facilities are the theme identified for Ottana, in Sardinia’s Barbagia territory, where people are particularly long-lived and a method of care is to be proposed that could serve as a prototype for the entire country. Mobility and connections, both tangible and intangible, slow and fast, are the themes identified for Matera and the Ferrandina and Grassano railway stations. Cucinella aims to invert a process, transforming the railway stations of the south, traditionally seen as places of “departure”, into places of “arrival” for culture, learning and experimentation. The fifth project has to do with the woods and the lumber industry and finds its application in the Forests of Casentino, among Italy’s most beautiful forests, spanning the boundary between Emilia Romagna and Tuscany.

The Italian Pavilion will open on May 26 when the 16th International Architecture Show opens its doors at the Biennale in Venice. The short film “A documentary on: MC A” in The Architects Series will be available for viewing at SpazioFMGperl'Architettura until April 6 2018.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Images courtesy of SpazioFMG, photo by Mauro Consilvio

Title: The Architects Series - A documentary on: MC A Mario Cucinella Architects
February 22 to April 6, 2018
Opening hours: Thursday and Friday: 16:00 – 19:00 (reservations available)
Location: SpazioFMGperl'Architettura, Via Ambrogio da Fossano Bergognone, 27 (Tortona district – metro M2) - 20144 Milan – Italy
www.spaziofmg.com

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