The work of the Franco - Hungarian architect, Yona Friedman, will be at the centre of the initiatives of Mart, the Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, for the second edition of the “Giornata del Contemporaneo”, on 14th October 2006, promoted by AMACI ((Associazione dei Musei d’Arte Contemporanea Italiani - Association of Italian Contemporary Art Museums), and supported by the Ministry for Cultural Affairs and General Department for Contemporary Architecture and Art.

Mart will be open until 08:00, with free entry for the permanent collection and for the exhibitions of Douglas Gordon, Yona Friedman and for the sculpture by Eliseo Mattiacci.

Yona Friedman has produced a wide - ranging reflection on the use of architecture in contemporary society, linking it with various fields of knowledge, from sociology to the theory of communication, philosophy and art, and concerning which he coined the term ‘realisable utopias’.

The project, with Maurizio Bortolotti as curator, includes the installation in the foyer of Mart’s library until 26th November 2006 of Merzstrukturen and Nonument. The official presentation will take place at 14:30 in the presence of the artist, curator, museum directors and President of Domus Academy, Maria Grazia Mazzocchi.

This will be followed by a round table on Friedman’s work in which will participate the artist himself, the curator - Maurizio Bortolotti - , and Professor Federico Bucci, lecturer in history of contemporary architecture at the Politecnico di Milano.

Merzstrukturen, produced for the first time as part of the “Art Experience” programme at the Domus Academy in collaboration with Telecom Italia’s Progetto Italia, and exhibited at the Telecom Future Centre in Venice during the summer of 2005, will be donated by the artist to Mart’s permanent collection during the event.

This is the first time that a work by the famous architect enters the holdings of an Italian museum.

Merzstrukturen is made from everyday materials: cardboard, glue, adhesive tape. The installation is a simple shelter, developed on a principle of casualness using the elementary building principles found in the ‘bidonvilles’ of the Third World. Friedman has paid particular attention over the years to the forms of the homes to be found in such areas. While the structure certainly suggests a shelter, from other points of view it recalls Kurt Schwitters’ Merzbau, constructed via a casual layering of various materials.

Nonument is a large environmental installation planned and made for Mart. In this case too, Friedman has worked with simple construction techniques and everyday materials to produce an architecture for survival. Modular elements in cardboard are assembled in undulating forms one on top of the other to create a free structure shaped like a pyramid. The title, Nonument, alludes to the intention of effecting the opposite of the “monuments” produced nowadays by contemporary architecture. The simplicity of the construction reflects Friedman’s idea that architecture should be possible for everyone and that the architect should simply be a consultant available to the inhabitants of a city.

Friedman’s utopian vision, which includes some fundamental concepts such as those of “mobile architecture” and “spatial city”, has inspired many contemporary artists and architects, developing the idea that architecture and art can rediscover a position within contemporary society only by refocusing on some primary human requirements.

In this way, according to Friedman, architecture will succeed in rendering the demands for communication between individuals underlying modern society practicable and concrete. Friedman’s aim is to lead artistic production out of the specialised sector in which it finds itself and put it in contact with everyday life and the requirements of all.

The concept of the “shelter”, for example, brings to light one of man’s basic needs, but also the creativity that instinctively springs forth from it. Merzstrukturen thus offers a “broadened” idea of art and architecture, characterised by a strong relationship with man’s primary needs. At the same time, it recalls man’s capacity to activate forms of universal communication as a basis for social life within a community. Building means responding to elementary needs that also determine the organisation of everyday life of a society, and hence the needs for communication between the persons living in them, who have the liberty to take decisions. For this reason, one of the principles of Friedman’s architecture is that of “unpredictability” of its execution.