Torino 1890. La Prima Esposizione Italiana di Architettura

Abstract

In 1890, the First Italian Exhibition of Architecture was held in Turin. Before then, in XIX century displays in the context of great kermesses, architectural themes were interspersed with decorative and applied arts, painting and sculpture. In the Turin event, on the contrary, for the first time architecture was "staged" in all its social, artistic and technical aspects: the Turin event thus remained an extremely significant moment in Italian architectural culture at the end of the 19th century. The introduction of a monographic exhibition devoted to town planning contributes to marking the modernity of a choice that was relevant at least until the second decade of the 20th century. Fifty foreign cities, including London, Berlin, Vienna, Barcelona, Warsaw, Krakow and Prague, take part with views and panoramas, master plans, projects and models.

The book traces these events by analysing the wide participation of national and international exhibitors, retracing the chronicles of contemporary commentators, and exploring the debates developed in the conferences accompanying the exhibition. The first chapter of the book also introduces the cultural context in which the exhibition came into being, examining the key role played by certain figures such as Carlo Ceppi, Angelo Reycend and Ernesto di Sambuy; the exhibition owes its originality to the architectural debate that took place in Turin in the second half of the 19th century. A debate supported above all by subalpine associations, clubs and artistic and technical circles: as a matter of fact, it was one of these institutions, the Circolo degli Artisti, that organised the event.

The volume is illustrated by a selection of contemporary images, almost all previously unpublished, relating to the projects on display.