On Friday, October 30, 2026, at 6:00 p.m., the PAV Parco Arte Vivente in Turin will open the exhibition *Piero Gilardi. “From Art to Life,” an exhibition curated by Marco Scotini, is dedicated to a crucial period in the career of Turin-based artist Piero Gilardi (Turin, 1942–2023), characterized by his departure from the traditional artistic sphere and a gradual shift toward social engagement. The exhibition, open from October 31, 2026, to March 14, 2027, constitutes the second installment in the series of monographic exhibitions that the PAV is dedicating to its founding artist, a series that began in 2023 with*Car Crash. Piero Gilardi and Arte Povera*.
While the first exhibition focused on Gilardi’s early career and his initial relationship with theArte Povera movement in the 1960s, *From Art to Life* examines the trajectory he developed from the 1970s and 1980s through to his works of the 2000s. The exhibition documents the shift from the creation of works and objects intended for the art world toward forms of social engagement, collective curation, and political emancipation.
At the heart of the exhibition, therefore, is Gilardi’s definitive departure from the idea of the artwork as a consumer good. Beginning in the 1970s, the artist devoted himself to artistic engagement within grassroots movements, total institutions, and public spaces, developing a practice grounded in participation. It is in this context that his insight—that “art enters life”—takes shape, through the creation of mechanisms capable of challenging social and institutional barriers.
The visual and performative language is thus used as a tool for dialogue and for activating collective processes. Gilardi gradually shifted from the role of inventor of forms to that of creative facilitator, working with people and communities and identifying public spaces and the streets as prime venues for artistic action. This research anticipates some of the characteristics of the participatory and socially engaged practices that later developed in contemporary art.
The exhibition brings together the historical core of this research and its most recent developments. One section is dedicated to the pioneering initiatives launched by Gilardi in 1974 at centers and counseling clinics in Turin, where drawing and sculpture were employed as tools for dialogue and therapeutic integration. Another section focuses on the founding of the “atelier d’incontro” in Turin’s Aurora neighborhood and the neighborhood carnival, conceived as an aesthetic and social ritual. The project reached its climax in 1980 with a grand parade-spectacle designed to foster a shared reappropriation of public space.
The exhibition also traces the graphic and sculptural work developed by Gilardi within the La Comune Collective and the creation of the artifacts, sculptures, and agit-prop costumes intended for Turin’s historic May Day demonstrations. These include works created for the Fiat and Teksid workers’ marches, right up to the parades of the 2000s. The presence of these works allows us to trace the continuity of the method the artist developed over the decades: masks and satire, in fact, become recurring linguistic tools, capable of being reactivated in response to the various civic and social issues of their time.
Through these episodes, *From Art to Life* traces Gilardi’s political and aesthetic maturation and addresses some of the fundamental issues underlying his practice. It is precisely from this research that the path originated which led, in 2008, to the founding of the PAV Parco Arte Vivente, an experimental center dedicated to the relationship between art, nature, and society. The PAV was, in fact, established as a permanent space for experimentation and collective participation, building upon that conception of art as a tool for social connection and transformation that had characterized Gilardi’s work.
On the occasion of the exhibition’s opening, the PAV park will also host *Louise*, an installation by French artist Marie Denis created in collaboration with the Alberta Pane Gallery. The work integrates into the center’s outdoor exhibition space through its use of plant material and its relationship with the landscape. The installation thus establishes a connection with the themes explored by the PAV, linking artistic expression, the ecosystem, and public engagement. The exhibition *Piero Gilardi: From Art to Life* is organized in collaboration with the Fondazione Centro Studi Piero Gilardi and with the support of the Compagnia di San Paolo, the Fondazione CRT, and the Piedmont Region.
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| Piero Gilardi, from Art to Social Activism: An Exhibition on His Political Work at the PAV in Turin |
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