The Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci in Prato, the Tuscan city often considered the ugly stepsister of neighbouring Florence, is one of Italy’s very few public spaces devoted to contemporary art. After a recent restructuring due to problems with funding and staff, the new directors Italo Moscato and Bruna Corà, president and artistic director, respectively, have announced an ambitious programme for the coming year.
The architect and designer Ettore Sottsass launches the programme this month, with an exhibition devoted to the past two decades of his work (20 March to 30 May). Sottsass has become something of an artworld darling recently: the Centre Pompidou in Paris staged a retrospective of his work a few years ago and the Glasgow School of Art has invited him to make an installation in their famous library designed by Charles Rennie MacIntosh in June. The current exhibition, which will travel to Japan, shows every facet of the designer’s voluminous practice: interior and urban design; modular furniture systems; architecture and graphics. The theoretical ideas of Sottsass, published in periodicals such as Domus and Casabella, will be exhibited in multimedia format (catalogue published by Rizzoli International).
From June throughout the summer, to celebrate the fifth centenary of Leonardo’s “Last Supper”, contemporary artists will pay homage to the Renaissance genius: there will be work by Robert Filliou, Nam June Paik, Allan Kaprow, Yoko Ono, artists of the Fluxus group, Pop and conceptual artists. In the autumn, the Centre will present shows of Jasper Johns and Yves Klein.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Designs of the times'