Alberto Garutti

born 1948 in Galbiate, Italy / lives and works in Milan

Alberto Garutti defines his activity as public art, a term used to denote artists that are inclined to deal with real social problems in the real social dimension. However, his work is free from the aloof functionality characteristic of this type of art in the Anglo-Saxon countries. Alberto Garutti's public art has a human face. ‘My goal is to leave the rhetorical pedestal that the system of art creates for an artist,’ declares Garutti. He sets up the majority of his works in an urban space and seeks that townspeople understand them, no matter if they realize that these works are works of art.

To Those Born Today

1998/2011

Mixed technique

Alberto Garutti defines his activity as public art, a term used to denote artists that are inclined to deal with real social problems in the real social dimension. However, his work is free from the aloof functionality characteristic of this type of art in the Anglo-Saxon countries. Alberto Garutti's public art has a human face. ‘My goal is to leave the rhetorical pedestal that the system of art creates for an artist,’ declares Garutti. He sets up the majority of his works in an urban space and seeks that townspeople understand them, no matter if they realize that these works are works of art.

For the Impossible Community Garutti set up a project To Those Born Today, already demonstrated in altered versions in Bergamo, Istanbul, Gent, Gallipoli. The site – the Patriarshiy bridge that connects the Temple of Christ the Saviour with the Moscow river spit – was chosen by the artist himself. The popularity of this place was the main reason for the choice. Muscovites love to walk, meet and even make a pilgrimage there. As the artist explains, the principal protagonist of the work is the light of lanterns on the bridge. Things are arranged thus: every time a child is born in a maternity clinic in Moscow, the lights turn on in the daytime and grow brighter in the evening. Near the bridge a stone slab is put with a carved text explaining to passers-by how the project works. So, even when the lights are off festive expectations still hang in the air. The inscriptions reads: ‘The bridge is connected to the birth module of the Centre for Family Planning and Reproduction. When the lanterns gradually turn on this means that a new baby is born. To her and to all who are born in Moscow today is this work dedicated.’ ‘The work, Alberto Garutti insists, speaks of and to the people, by involving the city and all its inhabitants in a dialogue. Emergence of new life is a motif that unites different nations, cultures, and languages. The citizens hear the universal message the moment they learn of a birth of a child by the kindling light.”

To Those Born Today, 2011, Moscow, Patriarshy Bridge To Those Born Today, 2011, Moscow, Patriarshy Bridge To Those Born Today, 2011, Moscow, Patriarshy Bridge