PROVVISORIO Exhibition, Grottaglie — Homewares for Unfinished Constructions.

A solo exhibition in Grottaglie, Exhibition Award within the XXIX Premio Grottaglie (Italy)

PROVVISORIO is a solo exhibition developed around the theme of impermanence and the condition of the unfinished. The project reflects on the widespread phenomenon of unfinished architecture — abandoned buildings, incomplete houses, and suspended constructions that populate the landscapes of Southern Italy, the Mediterranean basin, and many other parts of the world.

Rather than considering the unfinished merely as a failure or a symbol of decay, the exhibition explores it as a state of suspension: a space between what has been planned and what has never been completed, between aspiration and abandonment. It becomes a condition that reveals social, economic, and political dynamics, but also a possible field for imagination and transformation.

For PROVVISORIO, ORTOGONALE developed a fictional collection of interior design objects conceived for unfinished houses: a series of thirteen ceramic vases, each dedicated to a different aspect of the unfinished condition. Inspired in part by the visual language and conceptual approach of Ettore Sottsass, these objects reinterpret the vase — the archetypal symbol of ornament and domestic beauty — as a device to question the relationship between aesthetics, precariousness, and dignity.

The vase traditionally exists to embellish interiors, to introduce beauty into everyday spaces. Here, it becomes an attempt to give value and meaning to places that are often the embodiment of uncertainty and fragility. The project explores the possibility of beauty emerging from a damaged landscape: a beauty that is not a concealment of decay, but an emancipation from it.

Each vase addresses a specific theme connected to the culture of the unfinished: one vase has no bottom and is dedicated to the disappearance of public money; another reflects on building amnesties; another represents oblivion and abandonment. Other works investigate issues such as clientelism, familismo amorale (the prioritization of family interests over collective responsibility), and the social mechanisms that contribute to the persistence of unfinished spaces.

Through ceramics — a material deeply rooted in the Mediterranean cultural landscape — PROVVISORIO transforms fragments of a problematic reality into objects of contemplation. The exhibition proposes a different way of looking at the unfinished: not only as a wound in the territory, but as a place where memory, criticism, and imagination can coexist.

The exhibition took place from 29 July to 3 September 2023 at Palazzo La Sorte, in the historic former stables of the palace, in Grottaglie (TA), Italy.

The exhibition was organised by the Municipality of Grottaglie together with the Ceramics Museum of Grottaglie, as part of the Exhibition Award within the XXIX Premio Grottaglie — Contest of Contemporary Mediterranean Ceramics, awarded to ORTOGONALE in 2022.

Opening: 29 July 2023, 7 pm