Spotlight: A Look at Giorgio Palù’s EARTHSIDE
The renown Italian architect will be changing Stockholm’s musical landscape as well as giving us a glimpse into more of his creations.
All photos courtesy of Giorgio Palù
Iconic institution Lilla Akademien is currently undergoing a long-term renovation which includes the creation of a world-class concert hall. The design team of Giorgio Palù, architect, and Yasuhisa Toyota, one of the world’s foremost acoustic engineers, were awarded this project. The duo was responsible for the newly opened award-winning auditorium at the Museo del Violino in Cremona, Italy.
Born in 1964, Palù’s architectural designs have spanned several industries across both the public and private sectors, with two notable buildings being the design hotel DelleArti in Cremona and Villa Machiavelli in Florence, Italy.
In 2010, Palù, who was already designing the interior décor and furnishings of his building projects, began to further explore his own artistic expression through sculptures. This inspired his first solo exhibition in 2016. Beyond bringing his creative eye to Lilla Akademien’s concert hall project, Palù will also be bringing his exhibition, EARTHSIDE: Journey to the Centre of the Earth, to an international audience for the very first time – starting in Stockholm, Sweden.
“The EARTHSIDE project stems from my desire to show how matter – and, consequently, Nature – inherently contains the creative and destructive power that we call evolution,” shares Palù. “My work begins from this perspective and develops its possibilities along a complex path of implementation which balances aesthetic research and linear production. These become the rules I follow whenever I dedicate myself to architecture and design.”
Excerpt from the exhibition: The subtitle Journey to the Centre of the Earth, taken from Jules Verne’s famous novel, combines the latent sense of expectation and anticipation with magnificent impotence.
This great spectacle of Nature with its fleeting moment magnified in the split second, or pathway which forever changes its course or direction, this is what the artist, perceiving balance and passion above the overwhelming contingent impulse of the moment, calls “Idea”.
The materials Palù works with on this installation are the same he often uses in his role of architect – iron, bronze, concrete, limestone and glass – but with EARTHSIDE, each material is given the spotlight with a focus on their individual characteristics.
For those of you who will be visiting EARTHSIDE, Palù wants you to leave with an understanding of his inner analysis of the natural process that leads to the creation of his work. “The project aims to encourage reflection on the concept of “art” as the unity of multidisciplinary intentions, encompassing the harmonies of natural forms and primordial elements, the intellect and human sensation, the rigour of design, purity and the essentiality of lines,” adds Palù.
“All these aspects represent the soul of my work as an artist, designer and architect.”
More Information
Giorgio Palù will be presenting his sculptural works in a large exhibition at the Italian Cultural Institute in Stockholm which will be his first such exhibition outside of Italy. All artworks are for sale through Galleri Duerr.
The vernissage will be held on January 17 and the exhibition continues on through March 14, 2018.
