Marino Auriti

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Marino Auriti (born September 23, 1891 in Guardiagrele , Italy, † August 8, 1980 in Kennett Square , Chester County , Pennsylvania) was an Italian-American self-taught artist.

life and work

Born in a small town in Abruzzo , Auriti emigrated to the United States in the 1920s or 1930s and settled in Pennsylvania. His main job was as a coachbuilder, producing carriages and trucks.

Il Palazzo Enciclopedico del Mondo

Il Palazzo Enciclopedico del Mondo
(The Encyclopedic Palace of the World)
Marino Auriti , 1950s
American Folk Art Museum ; New York City

linked image
(please note copyrights )

However, his great enthusiasm was for architecture. Around the beginning of the 1950s he had the idea of ​​building a central, representative repository for the collected knowledge of mankind. He called it the “Palace for the Encyclopedia of the World” (Italian: “Il Palazzo Enciclopedico del Mondo”, English: “ The Encyclopedic Palace of the World "). It was a completely new museum concept with a comprehensive claim. Not just a selection or a sectoral excerpt, but really all human inventions ever made, “from the wheel to the satellite”, and also all future inventions from all subject areas should find a place in it.

The building to be erected in Washington, DC , on the axis of the National Mall , was to have 136 stories and so be around 700 meters (about 2,300 feet) high; it would have towered over the tallest building in the world at the time, the Empire State Building , by 34 storeys. Its footprint would have taken up 16 blocks.

To illustrate his design, Auriti built a model on a scale of 1: 200, about 5 meters (11 feet) high, in three years of work using a wide variety of materials such as wood, plastic parts (including hair combs), metal, glass, celluloid and model kits. The cone-shaped structure, tapering upwards in seven steps, should have inscriptions with ethical principles such as Forgive the First time or Do Not Abuse Generosity (do not abuse generosity). A television antenna was provided at the top. The external shape of the planned building is reminiscent of classic models such as Bruegel's depictions of the biblical Tower of Babel from the 16th century or the monument for the Third International by the Russian artist Tatlin from the 1910s (of which also around 5 meter high models exist).

Auriti was so convinced of the possible realization of his project that on November 16, 1955 he even registered the design of his tower with the US patent office . On November 27, 1956, he was granted protection under the number D179277. It was the very first work of art that was registered for a patent.

aftermath

Despite Auriti's best efforts, the bold idea of ​​the simple craftsman and layman in architecture remained utter utopia. During his lifetime he was only able to display the model, protected by a pyramid-shaped display cabinet designed by himself, in the shop window of a shop and in the lobby of a bank. There were also a few reports in the press. After his death, however, the tower model built by Auriti was stored in a warehouse for more than 20 years, and in 2002 his relatives gave it to the American Folk Art Museum in New York City, which had just opened . There it was shown several times in exhibitions. For the museum, the model is not a work of art, but a document of what an autodidactically trained creative spirit can achieve.

In 2013, the curator of the 55th Venice Art Biennale , the Italian Massimiliano Gioni , explicitly referred to Auriti's visionary project idea with his choice of the exhibition motto Il Palazzo Enciclopedico (The Encyclopedic Palace). He wants to point out the infinite diversity of artistic creation and the insoluble conflict with the demand on him as a curator to present this diversity in all its facets at the Biennale. He also wanted to address the old topic of the acceptance of autodidactic art by the professional art world. The original model of the tower can be seen at the Biennale as the central object of this year's themed exhibition in the Arsenale .

criticism

For Thomas Steinfeld , Auriti had in mind a universal form in which knowledge could be collated and systematized. Knowledge itself has no value at Auriti, but only serves to fill this absolutely posited form. The idea of ​​order goes beyond what has to be ordered.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marino Auriti , US Social Security Death Directory (SSDI), accessed October 18, 2018
  2. ↑ Patent registration
  3. ↑ Pages of the American Folk Art Museum on Auriti and the Palazzo Enciclopedico, with pictures
  4. ↑ a b Thomas Steinfeld: A world empire all to myself . FAZ , June 22, 2013, p. 13
  5. ↑ La Biennale di Venezia - 55th International Art Exhibition - The Encyclopedic Palace ( Memento of the original from June 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 13th March 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.labiennale.org
personal data
SURNAME Auriti, Marino
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian-American artist
DATE OF BIRTH September 23, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Guardiagrele , Italy
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1980
Place of death Kennett Square , Chester County , Pennsylvania, United States