Captcha Architecture: Vita Agra - lecture at Gallery VI PER

Gallery VI PER invites you to a lecture from the series In Focus: Milan.

The lecture will explore the dialectic between Milan and the Italian provinces, emphasizing the interweaving of cultural and architectural narratives. It draws on the work of Luciano Bianciardi, particularly from the Trilogy of Anger (1960s), and reflects on the cultural model of Milan and its roots in provincial reality. This dialectic between a large global city and suburban periphery, as specific as it is universal, will be examined during the lecture through a series of architectural projects from the studio between 2020 and 2024. The aim of this narrative constructed from a particular perspective on our everyday practices is to explore the broader phenomenology of resistance and to show how the architecture of suburban otherness – in the broadest sense of the term – can incorporate social, cultural, and spatial challenges by creating a viable alternative to the neoliberal model of the global city.

CAPTCHA Architecture, founded by Margherita Marri (PhD candidate at Politecnico di Milano) and Jacopo Rosa, is a research practice examining the relationship between architecture, politics, technology, and ecology. They are curators of events such as Machines of Loving Grace for Milano Arch Week 2019 (XXII Triennale Milano) and operate SUPERA TTICO, an independent space in Milan for contemporary architecture and design. CAPTCHA balances professional work with academic roles in institutions such as Politecnico di Milano, Domus Academy, TU Wien, NABA, and the Architectural Association in London, where they lead the visiting school The Possibility of an Island. Their research on techno-pastoral landscapes is reflected in their first realized project Anonima Agricola, nominated for the EUMiesAward 2023. CAPTCHA Architecture received special recognition at the Premio Architettura Italiana 2022, making it to the shortlist again in 2023, and have exhibited at the Venice Biennale, Milan Triennale, Tbilisi Architecture Biennial, and at the Centro per L'arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, among others.

Curator of the series: Miroslav Pazdera.

The project was created with financial support from the Capital City of Prague, the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, and the State Fund for Culture of the Czech Republic.