This post is somehow not a project, but a homage, somehow.
In 2019, Pino Poggi rounds up to 80 years of age.
The circumstance, that raum AU, in its fundaments inspired by Arte Utile and the connections we all, within raum AU have to Pino Poggi pushed us to think about what a man like him might be happy about?!
As we can also count on the fact, that raum AU will probably very soon take over the responsibility for the AU estate, we thought about a logical thing to do. To bring the Arte Utile work of Pino Poggi into a structure, to make him available for students and other interested people, as he is the pioneer of Social Aesthetic and as he is out of a time, where things were not safeguarded digitally, nor offered in that way.
The decision fell quite early in 2018 and after writing to friends and colleagues of Pino to involve them, at least regarding the cost covering; we soon got the first funds. We went on buying equipment that put us in the condition to digitalize as much as possible, without the need of external support.
The team, composed by Gerald Baumgartner, expert in visual communications, creator of many visual concepts and longtime artist himself, born in Linz (A), living in Vienna (A) and Rado Carlo Poggi, son of Pino Poggi, heir to the AU estate, founder and chair of raum AU, economist and political analyst started planning in February.
Thanks to some friends of Pino and some little funds we were granted by our city administration, we were soon able to cover the scanner, hard-disks as well as the journey throughout Italy to the Contrada Priore, an AU artwork itself, but also the comprehensive deposit of all what is left from over 65 years of artistic life.
We started on May 18, we returned on June 18. In this time, we digitalized 10.057 documents, which amounts on an average of 330 documents/day.
By no means we are talking about a comprehensive digitalization though, but about enough material to make the applicability and the overall concept of Arte Utile evident and to make the consequent path of Pino Poggi clear, that could make sure to have a unique heritage.
An important and complex phase, the structuring of the digital material into a clearly readable online document, was expecting us back at home. The Open Atelier – Arte Utile documentation arte-utile.net was intended to find the right way to structure this complex opus.
The aim being to be able, in December 2019, during an monographic exhibition Pino Poggi – Arte Utile at the Museum of Social Aesthetic within the Koroška Galerija Likovnih Umetnosti, to present arte-utile.net.
Here however thanks to all who have supported us in their way and many, many thanks to Rosi and Pino!! … Who supported us, not only with their formidable cooking, but also mainly with the inspiring and constructive discourses over the 4 weeks of intense work in this special place of AU.
