Some of the most significant works of the Italian group Superstudio are presented at the French contemporary art museum Frac Centre-Val de Loire from April 3, 2019 to August 11 of the same year, in the exhibition "Life after architecture."

The exhibition tries to discover the repeated attempts to influence the architect profession and the building typologies directly, through the presentation of the catalogs of villas and the production of new models in collaboration with the members of the group
"Life after architecture" is an exhibition of Superstudio that consists of several chapters that are approached chronologically, dedicating a full floor of the Frac Centre-Val de Loire to update the conceptual importance of Superstudio.

The chapters present the fictitious forms of architecture writing in a comprehensive manner through echos, through which the members of the study presented the architecture as a story, a fiction, sometimes a ritual, but rarely a building or construction.

"Architecture never touches the great themes, the fundamental themes of our lives. Architecture remains at the edge of our life, and intervenes only at a certain point in the process, usually when behavior has already been codified, furnishing answers to rigidly stated problems. (...) It then becomes an act of coherence, or a last try at salvation, to concentrate on the re-definition of the primary acts, and to examine, in the first instance, the relationships between architecture and these acts."
Superstudio, 1972

Life after Architecture is the first major exhibition in France dedicated to the work of this Italian group. The exhibition will present the most significant artworks over the entire floor area of the Frac Centre-Val de Loire. 

The chapters of the exhibition follow the group's conceptual pathways to present both the chronology of the work and an intellectual multidisciplinarity, in order to understand the impact of these ideas on the fundaments of architecture. The exhibition presents the fictional forms of writing of the architecture in an exhaustive manner: sometimes by convoking founding myths (the fundamental acts: Death, Love, Ceremony, Education, and Life) while at other times proclaiming the death of architecture (the Istogrammi or the Monumento Continuo). Through these acts, the members of Superstudio presented architecture as a story, a fiction, sometimes a ritual, but rarely a building or construction. The discipline is about writing: that of "Our lives [which] will be our only architecture." From room to room, the work of Superstudio will invite us to experience a poetics of wandering that we are delighted to embrace at the Frac Centre-Val de Loire.

But it will also be a question of discovering the repeated attempts to influence the profession of architect and the typologies of construction directly, through the presentation – for the first time – of catalogues of villas and the production of new models in collaboration with the group's members.

In order to deepen the philosophical and historical dimension of the work and narrativise the exhibition’s message, each chapter is broached in a simultaneously chronological and multidisciplinary manner. In order to bring the conceptual importance of Superstudio up to date, an entire floor has been dedicated to the radical European architectural landscape, based on the Frac Centre-Val de Loire Collection. This dialogue will be historically contextualised on the one hand, while also posing self-reflexive questions that will reveal the importance of Superstudio on the contemporary architectural scene. 
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Superstudio
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Frac Centre-Val de Loire, 88 rue du Colombier (entrance on boulevard Rocheplatte). 45000 Orléans, France
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From January 19 to April 14, 2019. Hours.- Tuesday to Sunday 10am - 6pm. Wednesday 10am - 8pm.
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Superstudio was founded in Florence in 1966-67, the group was made up of the architects, Adolfo Natalini (1941), Cristiano Toraldo di Francia (1941), Roberto Magris (1935-2003), Piero Frassinelli (1939), Alessandro Magris (1941-2010) and Alessandro Poli (1941). The group participates in numerous exhibitions, including the 15th and 16th Milan Triennale. In 1973, he was one of the founders of Global Tools, a system of workshops for the development of collective creativity. Until its dissolution in 1982, Superstudio devoted itself to theoretical research, working in the fields of architecture (scenography, construction) and design (objects, furniture).
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Adolfo Natalini was born in Pistoia in 1941. After a pictorial experience, which will be reflected in his constant use of drawing, he graduated in architecture in Florence in 1966 and founded Superstudio (with Cristiano Toraldo di Francia, Gian Piero Frassinelli, Roberto and Alessandro Magris, with Alessandro Poli between 1970 and 1972) initiator of the so-called "radical architecture", one of the most significant avant-gardes of the 60s and 70s.

Superstudio's projects (1966-86) have appeared in publications and exhibitions around the world and his works are now part of the collections of museums such as the Museum of Modern Art New York, Israel Museum Jerusalem, Deutsches Architekturtmuseum Frankfurt am Main, Center Pompidou Paris. Among the publications: "Superstudio 1966-82 - Stories Figure Architecture", (Electa Firenze 1982), "Superstudio & Radicals", (Japan Interior Inc. Tokyo 1982), "Superstudio Life without objects" (Skira Milano 2003).

Since 1979 Adolfo Natalini started his own business and focused on the project for historic centers in Italy and Europe, researching the traces that time leaves on objects and places and proposing a reconciliation between collective memory and private memory.

Three of his works: the plans for the Römerberg in Frankfurt and for the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the bank of Alzate Brianza, the Electrocontabile Center of Zola Predosa, the house in Saalgasse in Frankfurt, the Teatro della Compagnia in Florence.

Among the publications: "Stone figures" (Electa 1984), "Adolfo Natalini - Architectures told" (Electa 1989), "The Company Theater" (Anfione Zeto 1989).

Full professor at the Faculty of Architecture of Florence, honorary member of the BDA (Bund Deutscher Architekten) and FAIA (Honorary Fellow American Institute of Architects), academician of the Academy of Arts of Design in Florence, of the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara and the Accademia di San Luca.

In 1991 he began the activity of the Natalini Architetti (architecture firm at Salviatino, Florence) with Fabrizio Natalini (namesake but not related).

Among their works: the reconstruction of the Waagstraat in Groningen, the Museum of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence, the Dorotheenhof on the Manetstrasse in Leipzig, the Muzenplein in the Hague, the shopping center of Campi Bisenzio, the University Center in Novoli, Florence, Boscotondo in Helmond, the University Center in Porta Tufi in Siena, Het Eiland in Zwolle, Haverlej in Den Bosch, the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo and the project for the New Uffizi in Florence.

Among the publications: "Construction notes - the Gorle gym" (Il Ferrone 1992), "The Opificio Museum in Florence" (Sillabe 1995), V. Savi "Natalini Architetti - New narrated architectures" (Electa 1996), " De Waagstraat "(Groningen 1996)," Temporary Occupation "(Alinea 2000)," A Sienese building "(Gli Ori 2002), Adolfo" Natalini Architettore "(Fondazione Ragghianti Lucca 2002)," Adolfo Natalini Disegni 1976-2001 "(Federico Motta Editore 2002), "Adolfo Natalini Dutch Album" (AION 2003 editions) "Natalini Architetti" (Brick Building, 97,2004), "Adolfo Natalini Dutch Notebooks" (Aion Edizioni, 2005).
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Published on: March 31, 2019
Cite: "Architecture as story, fiction, and ritual. "Life after architecture" exhibition on Superstudio" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/architecture-story-fiction-and-ritual-life-after-architecture-exhibition-superstudio> ISSN 1139-6415
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