ABSTRACT
The 1970s climate of destabilization pervasive in Italian institutions, government, and traditional cultural mechanisms, combined with issues of city expansion and commoditization of everyday life, provided the conditions for experimental artistic practices in the urban environment. This chapter deals with the legacy of Arte Ambientale after the 1970s. La Pietra, Nannucci, Somaini, Staccioli, Summa, and Vaccari all continued making work, but the new decade saw a political, social, and cultural sea change, which is reflected in both of these artists’ practice and in Arte Ambientale more broadly. The chapter presents an examination of key projects from these years highlights the particularities of their work during the 1970s and the uniqueness of their contribution to the aesthetic practices of Arte Ambientale during that decade. In the 1990s, artists created interventions, deploying strategies of participation directly in the city, that recalled those of Arte Ambientale in the 1970s.
