Exhibition
Peter Wilson. Some Reasons for Travelling to Italy
16 Jan 2016 – 13 Feb 2016
Address
- 36 Bedford Square
- London
- WC1B 3ES
- United Kingdom
Some Reasons for Travelling to Italy refers not only to the pilgrimages of architects from Inigo Jones to Le Corbusier, but also those of the grand tourists of the 18th century, romantics of the 19th century and icons of the 20th century like Ezra Pound, Sigmund Freud or Brigitte Bardot.
About
This long tradition included Peter Wilson, whose travels to Italy to develop two architectural competition entries resulted in the new Monteluce Quartier in Perugia, which is currently nearing completion.
A few of these journeys were documented in AA Files #68, most are illustrated by drawings which include 'Counter-factual Histories' (Jorge Luis Borges) in the form of handcrafted miniatures. Such works may be anachronistic in the age of digital spectacle but they are also reminders of cultural continuity. Some of the reasons for travelling to Italy include: to live cheaply, to travel with a consumptive relative, to look up, to abandon a bikini, to disappear, to make the Pope smile, to invent neo-classicism, to research Tarantism, to discover a telefonino on Etna and in an English garden in Naples.
Peter Wilson is a partner of the German based BOLLES+WILSON and received the Gold Medal from the RAIA in his native Australia. Wilson first exhibited drawings in the Front Members’ Room thirty years ago whist a Unit Master at the AA.
