After sixty-eight years of silence since the first publication of the “Pergola-Village, vined Orani” project in the American magazine Interiors, the return of Costantino Nivola’s intervention to Orani is now finally possible.
The artist
Costantino Nivola (Orani 1911 – Long Island 1988) was one of the most interesting Italian artists of the twentieth century. Emigrated to the United States together with his wife Ruth Guggenheim in 1939, he was able to invent, experiment and combine art with architecture.
The transversality that characterizes his artistic investigation affects both Italy and America and constitutes one of the most stimulating aspects of his activity.
In Italy, Nivola trained at ISIA in Monza and then at Olivetti in Milan as a graphic designer, while in America, thanks to the fervent climate of New York, he met architects of the caliber of Stein, Rudofsky, Steinberg, Breuer, but one, in particular, is the epiphany encounter: the one with his friend the architect Le Corbusier. The constant dialogue with the major voices of architecture allows the artist a continuous experimentation and offers him the possibility of a career dedicated to the synthesis of the arts, the dialogue between art and architecture.
The synthesis of the arts
If the union between art and architecture is realized in the invention of a new and highly personal technique, sandcasting (Nivola was one of the few artists of the twentieth century to create his own sculptural technique ), which took place in a completely spontaneous way while he was spending a day with his children on the beach of East Hampton (NY), a constant and ever deeper reflection on the synthesis of the arts leads the artist to the exploit of the Olivetti Showroom in 1954, a spectacular combination of his artistic idea and the architectural design curated by the studio Milanese BBPR, not coincidentally called the most beautiful store on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.
Another evolution within Nivola’s career comes in the mid-fifties, thanks to the use of graffiti on free walls, first experimented in his home-garden in Springs. The combination of these two techniques in various public commissions not only earned Nivola the respect and admiration of architects, but also allowed him to obtain international assignments.
The idea of the art of living with the Springs (NY) garden house
In the 1950s, the creation of the garden house in Springs, near Long Island, together with Bernard Rudofsky, marked another milestone in his artistic poetics: the elaboration of the idea of the art of living.
The house, embellished with murals by Le Corbusier, is also the artist’s first workshop, as a place for creating sandcast sculptures. The garden, conceived with the Austrian architect, is designed to favor and guarantee both the sociality between people – often artists of the caliber of Pollock and De Kooning, as well as the sharing between art-man-nature, in a mixture of trees, plants, sun, water and works of art.
“The Pergola-Village, vined Orani”, a project ahead of its time
From this idea of the art of living, therefore, from the direct contact between man and nature, the project “Pergola-Village, vined Orani” was born. Conceived for the first time and published in 1953 in the magazine Interiors, it is a perfect example of that idea of the synthesis of the arts, so dear to Nivola.
The project was born as a work of environmental art intended to strengthen the sense of community of citizens. To strengthen the sense of collectivity, Nivola designs a pergola for each roof in the town of Orani. The artist imagines, in this way, to be able to constitute a single huge network of connection between all the houses in the town. The Pergola-Village is in progress compared to the contemporary interpretations of the synthesis of the arts of the 1950s – such as the theory of Piero Dorazio, published in Visual Arts in December 1952 -, centered exclusively on the encounter between painting, sculpture and architecture. In Nivola’s project, on the other hand, the sculpture fits into the pre-existing architectural context, which is remodeled by means of light pergolas, plant elements, white-plastered facades and connected by a blue plinth. Pergola-Village Orani presents itself to the artist as a green, physical and relational plot, which winds through the streets of the historic center and leads to the square, the heart of civic life. In fact, the center of the main square was the only one that had to remain uncovered – emphasizing the typical Mediterranean use of a large enclosed room in the city -, Nivola designs a large sculpture-architecture in the shape of a tower, a sort of anthropomorphic nuraghe that kept in womb four archetypal characters of Nivola.
The protagonist: the sense of community
The protagonist in the Pergola-Village is neither sculpture nor architecture or urban greenery, but something immaterial and yet very important in Nivola’s eyes: the sense of community. The urban space, according to the artist’s projects, thus had to acquire the characteristics of intimacy of the domestic environment, creating a propitious backdrop for collective life.
Beyond any disciplinary boundary between techniques, for Nivola, the perspective of an art aimed at making visible, and thus strengthening, the social bond between individuals appears. Entirely similar to the subsequent examples of relational art and participation, especially as regards the desire to create an environment conducive to sociality with design tools and urban planning, the 1953 Pergola-Village, vined Orani project established itself so early that it was not even considered.
The project will live again in Orani
Sixty-eight years later, however, the project sees its rebirth, thanks to the intervention included in the larger project called “Geoartnet” funded by the Sardinia Region with 2.5 million euros. The assignment was entrusted to the temporary grouping made up of Stefano Boeri Architetti and Eng. Alessio Bellu, from the QArchitettura studio, and also provides for the artistic supervision of the Nivola Museum Foundation and the involvement of citizens of Orani.
In fact, private individuals, as owners of the houses, will be called into question in the intervention: non-repayable grants will be granted, in which the facades of the buildings can be plastered in white and the lower part of the plinth will instead be painted blue. Nivola’s idea of transforming the streets into intimate spaces, liveable collectively, in 2021, arises not only as a social link between individuals, strengthening their sense of community, but is also a rethinking and improving the historic center of Orani.
The Pergola-Village, although conceived in the 1950s, can become today a wonderful example of urban redevelopment, but not only: it can be a reason for the regeneration of small Italian realities, capable of understanding the needs of citizens to experience open collective spaces. This project tells us about memories, stories and cultures, which today we risk losing.
Bibliographical references:
Books:
C. NIVOLA, Memorie di Orani, Ilisso, Nuoro 1996.
C. NIVOLA, Ho bussato alle porte di questa città meravigliosa, Arte Duchamp, Cagliari 1963.
C. NIVOLA, “Con Le Corbusier a New York a New York”, in La grotta della vipera, (a cura di) A. G. Satta, Cagliari, estate 1977.
G. ALTEA, Costantino Nivola, Ilisso, Bolzano 2005.
G. ALTEA, A. CAMARDA, Nivola la sintesi delle arti, Ilisso Edizioni, Nuoro 20015.
Magazine:
B. Rudofsky, “Giardino, stanza all’aperto (A proposito della “casa giardino a Long Island” New York)”, in Domus, no. 272, Luglio-Agosto 1952, pp. 1-5, 70.
O. Guelf, “The Pergola-Village, vined Orani”, in Interiors, vol. 112 n. 6, January 1953, pp. 84-85.
P. Dorazio, “Verso una sintesi delle arti plastiche”, in Arti Visive, Dicembre 1952.
http://www.capti.it/index.php?ParamCatID=10&IDFascicolo=93&artgal=33&lang=IT&key=898.
“Olivetti New York” in Interiors, Novembre 1954, pp. 124-131.
https://www.stefanoboeriarchitetti.net/homepage/orani-pergola-village-il-comune-di-orani/