Pietro Consagra in Gibellina.

a hypothesis of a frontal city

Abstract

The Italian sculptor Pietro Consagra, with the text La città frontale(The frontal city), written in 1968 after a long trip to the United States, put himself in polemic against functionalist architecture, advancing the hypothesis of an active participation of artists in the development of the urban and architectural structure of cities. Gibellina, a small Sicilian town rebuilt with the help of many artists after the earthquake that completely destroyed it in 1968, was the field of experimentation of the theories advanced by Consagra. Here the artist has implemented part of his utopia of frontal city, creating large sculptures and architecture all linked to the principle of frontality. Frontality is the expedient that the artist has used since the fifties to create an equal relationship between the work of art and the user. Frontal sculptures as well as architectures do not try to impose themselves and dominate the surrounding area from an ideal center, but instead they let themselves be crossed, they invite to a face-to-face conversation, creating an intimate relationship of complicity with what surrounds them. This utopia was born also thanks to the will of Ludovico Corrao, enlightened mayor of Gibellina for more than twenty years, and thanks above all to the population that, after the catastrophe and the tabula rasa brought by the earthquake, accepted and participated with enthusiasm to the artists' proposals. Through a comparative analysis of the works realized in Gibellina by Consagra, we will highlight the debate born between artists and architects in that period about the possibilities of shared development of future cities.