Exhibition

Looking at Le Corbusier presents the research that photographer and architecture critic Emanuele Piccardo carried out from 2007 to 2018 on Le Corbusier’s most significant works in France. From the Notre-Dame du Haut chapel in Ronchamp to the Unités d’habitation system in Marseille, Rezé and Firminy, via the Villa Savoye, the Maisons Jaoul, Le Corbusier’s Paris apartment, the Couvent de la Tourette, and ending this journey in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, a place of inspiration for the Swiss architect. The journey into Le Corbusier’s world is based on the relationship between architecture, its representation and photographic interpretation, a theme that Piccardo has been reflecting on for a decade, ever since founding the webzine archphoto.it, which explores the links between architecture and the visual arts. The relationship between architecture and photography goes back a long way. The first images of this nascent visual art, in the second half of the 19th century, depict the city and its architecture. Le Corbusier was one of the first architects to experiment with photography, during his Voyage en Orient in 1910, but he was also the one who understood the potential of photography to disseminate his work. Indeed, photography quickly became the iconic representation of architecture, as shown by the works of architectural historians such as Henry Russell Hitchcock and Bruno Zevi.

In the introduction to the book accompanying the Looking at Le Corbusier exhibition, architectural historian Tim Benton points out: “Like Lucien Hervé, Piccardo plays with the geometry of the square, aligning diagonals and modifying perspective by flattening the image. Many of his images are frontal, but he likes to use a slightly tilted perspective to suggest depth and contrast it with the formal interplay of lines and planes… in this way, he presents a ‘fresher’ image of Le Corbusier, avoiding the dramatism of some Le Corbusier photographers.”

Looking at Le Corbusier explores Le Corbusier’s work through a sequential vision that defines the whole. As in a film sequence, Piccardo constructs a narrative, a personal story of his connection with Corbu. He examines the elements of his architecture: the pilotis, the raw concrete surfaces, the complexity of the spaces, the light, defining a new visual iconography of Le Corbusier’s architecture.

Emanuele Piccardo, born in Genoa in 1972, is an architect, critic, architectural historian and photographer.

In 2002, he founded the digital scientific journal archphoto.it. In 2003, he founded the cultural association plug_in. He has been invited to lecture at the Pratt Institute in New York, Princeton University School of Architecture, Sci-Arc in Los Angeles, La Sapienza University in Rome, Polytechnic University of Turin, Polytechnic University of Milan andIUAV in Venice.

From 2005 to 2015, his research focused on Italian radical architecture (Superstudio, Archizoom, UFO, Gianni Pettena, Ugo La Pietra) through exhibitions, conferences and publications.

Since 2006, he has focused on the work of architects Paolo Soleri, Vittorio Giorgini, Mario Galvagni, Leonardo Ricci and Giancarlo De Carlo. In 2011, he launched archphoto2.0, the print version ofarchphoto.it.

Since 2014, his research has focused on experiments between land art and architecture in the North American desert, as well as on mid-twentieth-century Californian architecture.

In 2013, he won the Graham Foundation Grant for the Beyond Environment project on artist-architect Gianni Pettena.

In 2015, he was awarded the Autry Scholar Fellowship for the Living the Frontier project ; the same year he organized the international colloquium “Le Corbusier et la photographie” at Venice’s IUAV, with Tim Benton, Italo Zannier and Giuliano Gresleri.

From 2009 to 2017, Piccardo made films about architecture.

Since 2016, his research has focused on the urban and social regeneration of rural areas in Italy.

In 2021, together with GRRIZ architects, he founded the Petites Folies School in Garessio (Cuneo) with the aim of designing public spaces through self-construction workshops.

In 2023, he became the scientific curator of the Abitare la Vacanza architecture festival, winner of the IInd edition of the Architecture Festival promoted by the Ministry of Culture’s General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity. In the same year, his research on radical architecture became part of the collection of the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal, and he was awarded the Bruno Zevi International Prize for the Dissemination of Architectural Culture / Inarch Liguria. His photographic works are held at the MAXXI in Rome, the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, theArchivio Progetti-IUAV, the CSAC in Parma and the Fondation Le Corbusier in Paris.