Casa Balla. From the House to the Universe and Back
edited by Domitilla Dardi, Bartolomeo Pietromarchi
texts Fabio Benzi, Domitilla Dardi, Eleonora Farina, Elena Gigli, Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, Emanuele Trevi
double edition italian and english
Marsilio publishers, 2021
224 pages
17×24 cm
€ 30
The book documents the setting up of the Futurist house and the exhibition at MAXXI with the creations of contemporary artists and designers in dialogue with the works of Giacomo Balla. The curators’ texts are combined with essays by critics and art historians who analyse the house, Balla’s Universe, and his daughters’ role concerning his vision of total art. At the same time, Emanuele Trevi’s contribution dwells on the genesis of the house and on the neighbourhood in which it is inscribed, giving life to an unpublished short story that admirably sketches Casa Balla as an “evident and three-dimensional image of the mind that inhabited it and at the same time imagined it”. The book’s iconographic apparatus is exciting: unpublished shots document the new layout of Casa Balla, while images from the past constitute a precious historical testimony. The book is accompanied by descriptions of the works of contemporary artists and the complete list of Giacomo Balla’s works on display, an essential tool for approaching the work of the Futurist artist.
