Per Oggi Basta!  UP239



In the context of his research on urban spaces, Ugo La Pietra developed a new critical system. Posted in different locations around the city, Il Commutatore is elementary in its composition: two wooden boards joined to form an adjustable angle. The user is invited to lean against one of these inclined panels and to observe the world “from another angle.” By freeing the body from the hold of the ground, and by shifting its center of gravity, it is thus positioned to experience new perceptions, which for La Pietra offer pathways of emancipation enabling inhabitants to symbolically reappropriate urban spaces. Thanks to Il Commutatore, La Pietra goes beyond the codified field of reality to make accessible a deeper reading of the territory. La Pietra defines this unusual object as a “model for understanding,” an “instrument for deciphering and proposing” that alone summarizes all his research on urban space. If the film Per Oggi basta! illustrates the artist’s experimentations in a poetic way, the aesthetic challenge of the project also depends on the use of photomontage. This is the method La Pietra uses to formalize his experiments with dynamic compositions associating sketches and photographs, and to develop the variations of Il Commutatore in his subtle game of mise-en-abyme of the gaze.