Profile

Cesare Pietroiusti (Rome, 1955) started his career in Psychiatry in 1979. He focused his early work as an artist on social psychology in relation to art. His work progressed into social projects that examined problematic and paradoxical situations that are hidden in common relationships and in ordinary acts – thoughts that come to mind without a reason, small worries, quasi-obsessions that are usually considered too insignificant to become a matter of discussion, or of self-representation. He taught at the Laboratorio di Arti Visive, IUAV University, Venice from 2004-2015, and in the LUCAD program at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, from 2009-2016.

Pietroiusti was the co-founder and editor of the Artist-run space “Jartrakor” in Rome (1977-1985) and of the magazine “Rivista di Psicologia dell’Arte” (1979-1984), and co-founder of “Nomads & Residents”, New York (2000). He was also one of the coordinators of the “Oreste” projects (1997-2001), the conference “How do I explain to my mother that what I do is useful?” (Link, Bologna, 1997) and  “Oreste at the Venice Biennale” (Biennale di Venezia, 1999). Pietroiusti served as curator for the CSAV, the Advanced  Visual Art Course at the Fondazione Ratti, Como from 2006-2011.

Currently, Pietroiusti is a member of the colletivo Lu Cafausu, where he is one of the initiators of the “Festa dei Vivi che riflettono sulla morte – The Celebration of the Living who reflect upon death” (2010 – ongoing). In 2015 he founded the Fondazione Lac o Le Mon, a center for artistic research and experimental pedagogy, San Cesario di Lecce. Since 1977 he has exhibited, in solo and collective projects, in public or private spaces, inside or outside the art system, in Italy and abroad.

Publications

Non Functional Thoughts, Studio Morra, Napoli, 1997

A Certain Number of Things, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, New York, Fondazione Olivetti, Roma, 2001

Tenkalaut (with Giancarlo Norese), Roma 2007

 

Exhibitions

“Paradoxycal Economy Four Performances” (Ikon Gallery and other locations, Birmingham, 2007);

“Regali e regole. Prendere, dare, sbirciare nel museo” (with Stefano Arienti, MAMbo, Bologna, 2008);

“Artworks that Ideas can Buy” (Project Space, Wilkinson Gallery, London, 2009);
“L’Argent” (Le Plateau, Paris, 2009);

“Museum in the City” (Moderna Galerija and various locations, Ljubljana, 2009);

“Heaven” (2.nd Biennial, Athens, 2009)

“28th Biennial of Graphic Arts” (Galerija Alkatraz, Ljubljana, 2009)

“Spazio” (MAXXI, Roma, 2010)

“Trasparenze” (MACRO Testaccio, Roma; MADRE, Napoli, 2010)

“Declining Democracy” (CCCS La Strozzina, Pal. Strozzi, Firenze, 2011)

“Wide Open Space” (Hayward Gallery, London, 2012)