Catalogue > At random

Plastic, Marble and Helicopters (2020), is the culmination of a year-long investigation into Global Tools, a pioneering pedagogical project started in 1972 by various architecture studios of the “Italian Radical Design Movement”, led by Ettore Sottsass. With the support of the Italian high-end design furniture film Poltronova, Anna Moreno designed and produced a four-piece modular sofa, which was later used as a performance prop at the Space Electronic nightclub in Florence during the 50th anniversary event of its inauguration. The Florentine disco was the underground nucleus where Global Tools carried out several of its seminal experiments, invoking the body as the ultimate form of architecture, a place with hidden political and creative potential. The irony of the pro-Marxist group’s coziness with the luxury furniture market does not escape Moreno’s eye.

Anna Moreno is a visual artist and researcher from Barcelona (Spain), currently based in The Hague (The Netherlands). Her practice takes the shape of installations, films, performances, soundtracks, objects, and publications. She is interested in disentangling our imagination from the current presentism, making use of speculative fiction. By reproposing utopian architectures from the 70s, Moreno uses conceptual tools such as parallel histories, synchronicity, performative urbanity, architectural discourses, and social entanglements. She has exhibited internationally, conducting residencies like SASG in Seoul (KR), Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto (IT), or Jan Van Eyck Academie (NL). She has recently been awarded the Botín Visual Arts Grant (ES) and has been selected for the upcoming Yinchuan Biennale (CN). Teaching and lecturing have a bi-directional impact on Moreno’s artistic practice. She has taught Artistic Research at the Royal Academy of Art (The Hague) and developed programs for educational institutions in The Netherlands and abroad. In 2013, Moreno co-founded the artists’ initiative Helicopter (The Hague), an independent space for performance, sound and discussion in the periphery.