Artists Refusing to Work: Aesthetics Practices in 1970s Italy

Abstract

This essay will explore how radical art practices intersected with political activist stances during the 1970s in art projects situated in the urban environment that actively engaged audience participation. Artists’ abandonment of institutional art spaces prompted them to expand their art practice into the city’s streets and piazzas. Three specific artists projects will be analyzed in relation to Autonomia’s alternative critical attitudes: Ugo La Pietra’s Conquista dello spazio (Conquest of Space) created in Milan in 1971, Franco Summa’s NO carried out in Pescara’s city center in 1974, and Maurizio Nannucci’s Parole/mots/word/wöter from 1976.