Vincenzo Trione

In the Futurist manifesto Antitradition, published in 1913, Apollinaire reserved 'mer...de aux critiques'. Just over a hundred years later that j'accuse has retained, intact, its scandalous force. Where is criticism today? Condemned to a slow euthanasia, it has become a residual genre: the figure of the critic has been replaced by that of the curator.And yet, at a time when works of art have become increasingly cryptic, this practice linked to the origins of modernity would play a decisive role. In order not to allow the esotericism and volatility of so many current art experiences to exclude us from pleasure. And to create a feeling of proximity to creations that are not infrequently repulsive. But, in order to still make sense, criticism can only go back to its original reasons. To remodel, through words, the painted signs. Reaffirm the centrality of the work. Telling how a painting came into being and what it represents; what its author's objectives were; how he formed himself; what techniques he used; what relations he had with the society in which he acted; what symbols he referred to. And again: teaching one to see better what is in evidence, but also what hides in the shadows. Finally, not to let oneself be seduced by the myth of the eternal beginning, to give oneself as a restless history of the present. And, at the same time, as a 'partial, passionate, political' exercise (in Baudelaire's words). Critics such as Roberto Longhi and Lionello Venturi, Giulio Carlo Argan and Francesco Arcangeli, Cesare Brandi and Filiberto Menna, Giuliano Briganti and Emilio Villa, Germano Celant and Achille Bonito Oliva, Carla Lonzi and Lea Vergine, among others, have interpreted this philosophy with different and distant sensitivities and cultures. To the topicality of their lecture is dedicated Armi improprie. Which suggests an exciting journey through ideas, theories, books, articles, projects, exhibitions, corsair experiences. Thus drawing the outlines of a possible canon of 20th century Italian art criticism.

This is a story of conversations that never took place and arrested developments; an adventurous tale, never yet fully told, whose protagonists include Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, Charles and Ray Eames and Yona Friedman, Bruno Munari and Frank Lloyd Wright, Giancarlo De Carlo and Ludovico Quaroni, Emilio Ambasz and Ettore Sottsass, Gaetano Pesce and Mario Bellini, Michele De Lucchi and Aldo Rossi, Superstudio and Andrea Branzi.  What these diverse players have in common is a deep fascination for film, the medium of the modern age. As the extraordinary art of "seeing space", it is a tool that can be used to explore architecture and describe its principles and volumes from the inside, a device that can be deployed to visualise the contemporary metropolis. Reluctant to embrace the rules of the film industry and grasp the specificity of cinematic language, these architects/directors see the seventh art as a free arena, a terrain to explore without having to pay lip service to customs and rituals, a place for the wildest experiments. Some elements are recurrent: the urgency of their accounts, their critical approach, their desire to recycle existing materials, their visionary momentum and conceptual attitude. While Le Corbusier and De Carlo used moving pictures to bring theoretical reflections already known to scholars and professionals to an audience of non-specialists, others - like Pesce, De Lucchi, Bellini and Branzi - adopted avant-garde models, rejecting the traditional dictates of discourse and the classic canons of communication. Others, like Acconci and Superstudio, use video to stage absurd, impossible projects.In this original book edited by Vincenzo Trione we meet many architects for whom the cinema, in the words of Giulio Carlo Argan, is not just a "pure and simple system of knowledge", but a "newly established system of meaning", the "most structuring" of artistic techniques.

In the lengthy history of Italian TV art has had a place right from the start: 3 January 1954, when the RAI began broadcasting, was also the date of the first cultural programme, Le avventure dell’arte (The Adventures of Art). And it was indeed an adventure: the outstanding communicative potential of the new medium, which took high culture into many Italian homes for the first time, soon came up against the scepticism, if not downright boycott of a substantial part of critics and intellectuals, as well as a way of navigating the minefield of translating culture from one medium to another.Sixty years on, the scenario and the protagonists of this story are vastly different, with the presence of private broadcasters and pay TV greatly expanding what is on offer, not to mention the switch to digital, and the natural evolution of television language and personalities, including artists and critics. But while the context has changed, the issues regarding the relationship between art and TV remain the same, first and foremost the legitimacy of a popular medium to convey high-brow culture, and the small screen's approach to art, including the various forms of art education which are held to be the main and most obvious use of the medium. This aspect is the focus of the essays gathered in this book, some concerning the specific field of television communication and others focusing on art. Despite these different angles, what comes to the fore is the close relationship between the two most influential visual media of the late 20th century.