Pino Poggi, born in 1939, uses an artistic term (Manifesto AU, 1965) that obliges him to interfere in public affairs. He makes “Arte Utile” – useful art in other words – whose usefulness is not visible in the orientation towards practice (in this sense design is a useful art), but in the pointing out of alternatives! Arte Utile, in short: AU, sees itself as a process that takes place between two communicating vessels, art and society – and the driving force, with which art wants to change society, or at least social consciousness, is the utopia.
You will ask yourself: Do we talk here of a missionary or an artist? Except for the unworthy split of terms: In the case of Pino Poggi, himself – the person – steps into the foreground and makes us forget all titles and labels. […] With him, art, education, actionism, protest, project planning and multimedia communication unite in a single intensively represented world praised with powerful optimism – in Pino Poggi’s Arte Utile.
Laszlo Glozer
Read
Letter to Pino Poggi
by Jost Herbig
Pino Poggis exemplarischer Weg
by Manfred Schneckenburger
On the Utility of Utopia
by Helmut Schneider
The Mover – an Outsider
by Laszlo Gloser