"People and the city" - Highlights from the UniCredit Art Collection
2.03.12 -29.04.12
Center of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu, Waly gen. Sikorskiego 13, Toru?, Poland
Curator: Dobrila Denegri, Walter Guadagnini
People and the City is an artistic journey through an unparalleled selection of 70 works from
the UniCredit Art Collection. The exhibition explores the symbiotic relationship between urban environments and inhabitants since the 20th century, and analyzes urban space as a reflection
of modern living. The journey begins from an aerial view of the city before arriving at street level, where buildings and multicultural individuals become the subjects of curiosity. The exhibition then increases its focus to explore the intimacy of individuals' domestic lives and to dream
of imaginary cities in which to live on a more human dimension.
The exhibition features paintings, photographs and installations that reflect the personal views
of urban environments by some of the most prominent artists of the 20th and 21st century, including Andreas Gursky, Wolfgang Tillmans, Eugène Atget, Barbara Klemm, Jordi Colomer and Peter Blake. Giorgio de Chirico's Piazza d'Italia (1970) provides a non-realist perspective of urban architecture, while Gabriele Basilico's Milano (1981) uses photography to capture the industrial archaeology of cities' outlying areas. The surreal architectural landscapes in Giorgio Morandi's Paesaggio (1925) lends an interesting contrast to Christo's land art, Lower Manhattan.