Portfolio

Il recupero del Teatro Continuo di Alberto Burri

In 1973, on the occasion of the XV Milan Triennale, Alberto Burri designed and built the Teatro Continuo in Parco Sempione.

The artwork appeared as a very basic stage structure including a raised base and six revolving side wings, painted white on one side and black on the other.

Positioned on the ideal route linking the centre of Milan with Corso Sempione, the Teatro Continuo worked as a perspective telescope framing and highlighting the Sforza Castle’s Torre del Filarete, on one side, and the Arco della Pace, on the other.

Becoming an integral part of Parco Sempione, it offered itself as stage machinery always ready for use, a free site in the hearth of Milan available for artistic activity and performances as well as for personal use by everybody.

Through his work, Burri strived to express his strong interest in theatre. In extending the notion of “set” to urban context, he reflected the cultural milieu of the time, marked by a strong demand for sociality and sharing as well as by a tendency to remove artworks from their usual contexts to be exhibited in public spaces.

Teatro Continuo remained in situ until 1989, as part of a wider ensemble of notable artistic and town-planning value, including Giorgio De Chirico’s Bagni Misteriosi and Arman’s Accumulazione Musicale e Seduta, both created for the XV Triennale and still located in Parco Sempione.

In 1984 Milan housed an extensive retrospective dedicated to Alberto Burri at Palazzo Citterio, which later become the exhibition site of the Grande Brera project.

In 1989 the work, in need of maintenance, was demolished. This abruptly put an end to the relationship between Burri and the city.

Twenty-five years later, in 2008, the Milan Triennale dedicated a huge anthology exhibition to Burri, which among other things documented  the case  of the Teatro Continuo.

In 2012 the Teatro Continuo, still alive in the memory of the citizens, started being reconstructed, thanks to the existence of the artist’s original sketches and drawings  made available by the Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini Collezione Burri. The proposal was made by the Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini Collezione Burri and Nctm Studio Legale, already committed to supporting contemporary art by its nctm e l’arte project.

The City of Milan and Fondazione La Triennale accepted the proposal, authorised by the Superintendence for Architectural and Landscape Heritage of the Province of Milan.

The revived Teatro Continuo will be donated to the City of Milan and to the Milan Triennale, which will take on the responsibility for its management and maintenance.

The project is under the curatorship of Gabi Scardi.

Leggeri s.r.l., a company specialising in the development of artistic works, will be entrusted with the construction, site arrangement and installation of the Teatro Continuo.

The Teatro will be given back to citizens and then ready to be used again, as early as at the time of the EXPO 2015, as a platform for sharing cultural activities.

For Nctm Studio Legale this is an opportunity to express the importance attributed to art, especially when its action takes place in a public and shared environment, and the importance given to the territorial dimension.

Further information
Date
  • 28 November 2019
Project URL