Elettive affinità /Elective Affinities

Costantin Brâncuși’s assertion that «architecture is inhabited sculpture» not only accounts for the deep bond between architecture and art, but also opens up an infinite range of reflections which the variety of the works shown on these pages attempts to convey, rejecting any type of synthesis in order to instead encourage a sort of multiplication of viewpoints. This is not due to a purely classifying spirit, but to an intention to explore the countless possibilities that separate the rigor of Loos – according to whom «architecture is not an art, because anything that serves a purpose must be excluded from the realm of art» (Ornament and Crime, 1908) – from the ambition of Brâncuși to build one of his columns in Central Park in New York, containing apartments in which it would be possible to live.1 Aware that the issue is not to consider the so-called utility of art, nor to cast doubt on the implicit correspondence of architecture to its use, it is still impossible to overlook the ways in which the relationship between art and architecture takes on substance, and we can identify various occasions thanks to which this bond takes form.