ABSTRACT
Gaetano Pesce’s work is the only one that comes close to this type of artwork in architecture. Pesce’s Le comparse del tempo (Omaggio a Mies van der Rohe) of 1975, as well as the model for the Pahlavi Library in Teheran in 1977/78, are very singular and daring propositions in the architectural world. In these cases there is no destruction or embellishment of skin; just the exposure of animal entrails randomly clustered and juxtaposed to form an unprecedented architectural composition. It is a condition that elicits
disgust as the organs are left bare without protection. This is the result of Pesce’s unprejudiced taste towards ‘beauty’ that he believes is imperfect, but it is also due to his belief that a new sense of materiality is required to challenge preconceived aesthetics.59 By infatuating the viscera and by keeping them without skin he turns the building fabric inside out – rather than a body without organs, he deals with organs without a body, or better, flesh without skin.60
