Habitus per una guerriglia. Operaismo, movimenti studenteschi e Arte Povera
ISBN
9788835165682
Type
book section
Date Issued
2024
Author(s)
Abstract
The chapter reconstructs and analyzes the events of protest that occurred in Turin between 1967 and 1968, focusing on some episodes that brought together factory workers, university students, and finally, the artists, gallerists and critics tied to the then emerging Arte Povera movement. All three categories adopted an antagonistic stance towards the socio-political system of neocapitalism, developing rejection strategies (including strikes and occupations) that were framed as practices of a “guerrilla warfare” – an expression used not only by students and operaisti but also by art critic Germano Celant in the manifesto of Arte Povera. Firstly, the chapter provides a reconstruction of the origins of operaismo in the Turin of the early 1960s, showing how at the roots of this experience, which later took on a variety of forms, there was a strong distrust towards institutional organizations (from the party to the union). The following section highlights how some of the theoretical and practical claims of operaismo also intervened in the student protests and particularly in the occupation of Palazzo Campana, one of the premises of the University of Turin, during the months between 1967 and 1968. Not only students and workers participate in the occupation, but also some artists, such as Piero Gilardi and Gilberto Zorio, who in those same months were involved in the birth of Arte Povera – a movement that, as will be shown in the third section, took shape in dialogue and continuity with the political radicalism of the extrainstitutional left. Critically drawing on the concept of habitus elaborated by Pierre Bourdieu, the last section formulates an explanatory hypothesis for the peculiar alliance between factory workers, university students, and Arte Povera exponents.
Language
Italian
Keywords
Operaismo
Wildcat strike
University occupation
1960s
Arte Povera
Germano Celant
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Book title
AbiTO. Abitudini estetiche e arte pubblica. Il caso Torino
Publisher
FrancoAngeli
Publisher place
Milano
Subject(s)
Division(s)
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
open.access
Name
paper.pdf
Size
1.85 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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