Sant’Elia

An exhibition project spread across Milan e Como explore the visionary legacy of Antonio Sant'Elia, the Futurist architect who died at a very young age during the First World War. The initiative explores the extraordinary impact of his sketches and insights on the generation of creative artists of the 1930s, demonstrating how his drawings fuelled artistic debate long after his death.

At the Milan office of the CASVA, the exhibition offers a direct and unprecedented comparison through comparative triptychs that juxtapose the sketches of Sant’Elia the works of the architects of the Larian Rationalism - as Giuseppe Terragni, Cesare Cattaneo, Mario Cereghini, Pietro Lingeri e Ferdinando Cassi Ramelli — and the paintings by the masters of the’Abstract Art from Comoincluding Carla Badiali, Manlio Rho, Mario Radice e Carla Prina. The exhibition also highlights his contribution in the field of design, showcasing exquisite silver items crafted by the silversmith Arrigo Finzi.

At Como Civic Art Gallery, the focus is on the development of the theme of “Lighthouse tower”, highlighting the conceptual link that runs from the drawings of Sant’Elia until the completion of the War Memorial signed by Giuseppe Terragni. Through design drawings, sketches, 3D models and historical documents, the exhibition captures the intensity of a period in which architecture, art and the applied arts were united by a single, powerful drive towards the future.