Gianni Pettena, THE CURIOUS MR. PETTENA. RAMBLING AROUND THE USA 1971-1973, 2017

The Curious Mr. Pettena tells the journey in several stages, through cities and wide natural spaces, of an architect Gianni Pettena in the early seventies in the United States. The tour begins with the university experience in Minneapolis, to turn out to be an educational and experiential journey to discover the American landscape, seen above all from the car window. In the years of Land Art and the American architectural avant-gardes (with whom he had numerous direct contacts) Pettena looks above all at the nomadism of American life and society: from the hippie villages of Sausalito to the homes of the Native Americans Acoma and Navajos in New Mexico; from the glittering signs of Las Vegas to the shacks of the nameless suburbs. From these photographs on the road, through Interstate 66, the imagination of Pettena emerges: the love for large natural spaces, the freedom of travel, the shapes of an irregular and anonymous architecture. But above all, as for many young people of those years, the desire and the possibility of a different life can be glimpsed. The publication includes an interview by Luca Cerizza with Gianni Pettena and texts by James Wines and Elisabetta Trincherini.