Campo Urbano 1969

Aesthetic interventions in the collective urban dimension

Abstract

The intent of this contribution is to analyze the case study of an ephemeral event held in the historic center of Como in 1969, which took place over the course of a day and was animated by a heterogeneous groups of artists, designers, architects, performers, who, despite the multiplicity of interpretations that the critics have operated later, maintains intact the potential of attention and research for the social towards a new way of understanding the relationships between artists, the inhabitants of a city and the city itself. The operators of the project at that time – even in the different articulations that this term has subsequently assumed in the various contexts in which developed and still manifests itself today (public art, social design, participatory architecture) – have led to urge in the social a direct participation in the construction and enjoyment of collective space. Therefore, we believe that this experience – beyond its historicization – can be part of that line of research and practices attributable to social design as “common good” and give a contribution – for the extraordinary topicality of the themes and experiences produced – to a redefinition of the concepts on which it is based.