Palazzo Cisterna Torino 3 – 5 November 2017 Two themed exhibitions, curated by Elena Volpato, for the cultural program of FLAT Ettore Sottsass. Le pagine at Palazzo Birago di Borgaro Lettura per voci e silenzio at Palazzo Cisterna The first edition of FLAT fiera libro arte Torino, the new international event dedicated to contemporary art publishing — to be held at Palazzo Cisterna, Torino, from 3 to 5 November 2017 — features as part of its cultural program two exhibitions: the monographic show on Ettore Sottsass. Le pagine, and the group exhibit Lettura per voci e silenzio, both curated by Elena Volpato. The exhibition “Ettore Sottsass. Le pagine” is hosted in the rooms of Palazzo Birago. The Chamber of Commerce of Torino provided its institutional seat to celebrate the centennial of Sottsass’s birth and the unlimited creativity of an artist who, more than others, truly expressed himself through books and magazines, each time reinventing the shape, the meaning, and the function of the printed page. The display will offer visitors a chance to see the entire production of Sottsass’s books, periodicals and pamphlets: from the epic stenciled copies of Room East 128. Chronicle dated 1962, to the catalogs for the Memphis Group, from magazines, such as Pianeta Fresco, to visual essays, from the lithographic and photographic books, to the calligraphy practice of Kena Upaniᶊad. All his publications were interspersed in time with the series of new year cards and augural prints that Sottsass and his associates mailed every year, also on view. Sottsass always proved himself capable of creating some different form, be it the most basic slip of paper or the most complex editorial designs. He shaped the pages anew, based on his original thinking and on the meaning to be delivered, in order to find, and hand over to the reader, a true reciprocation between meaning and form, between expressing the lettering and the page layout and expressing himself, his own personality—which meant expressing what his mind created each time, through a constant life practice, looking and researching the world, ultimately conveying his indefatigable reading of the world. Books, magazines, and pamphlets are displayed one next to the other, following the natural flow of time and the unfolding of the author’s life thus revealing how, in this amazing heap of publications, in this inexhaustible imagination inspired by fascinations, chances, shapes and colors, the common trait, the true fil rouge, is Sottsass’s reverberating individuality, as he responded with a new music to life’s encounters. Encounters which he was constantly seeking, be it people, cultures, places, materials or artworks. The exhibit dedicated to Ettore Sottsass is complemented by the show Lettura per voci e silenzio, also curated by Elena Volpato and hosted at Palazzo Cisterna, venue of the Fair’s first edition. This exhibit is devoted to the liturgy of reading, intended both as an inner space and as a public space, an act of sharing. It evokes the dual birth—sound and visual—of a written page: in ancient times, reading was mostly intended as the social sharing of a text, it meant reading out loud in front of an audience, whereas later on, reading became what St. Augustine vividly described in his Confessions, in the passage where he marvels at seeing St Ambrose totally absorbed in his private inner space, silently studying with sealed lips: “his eyes scanned the page and his heart sought out the meaning”. Some works, disseminated among the publishers’ desks in the Fair, allow visitors to listen to the voices of artists and performers reading various texts in front of the camera. They are the videos by John Baldessari,