Pasolini and the shape of the City: A powerful and current critique of architecture

Abstract

This article seeks, first, to analyze the short film by Pier Paolo Pasolini and Paolo Brunatto, Pasolini e... la forma della città (1974), discussing the fundamental elements of Pasolini’s critique of architecture: in his speech in the documentary his argument about the stylistic perfection of the ancient Italian city of Orte stands out, and how the “shape of the city” is debased by real estate speculation that constructs buildings of another aesthetic order in its surroundings; the relationship between architecture, nature and light; the importance of defending the works of anonymous builders from the past and the historic centers of ancient cities; the criticism of consumer society and its power to destroy works of the past. In the second moment, we approximate the reflections of Pasolini with the ideas of the Italian philosopher and architect Roberto Perigalli elaborated in his book I luoghi e la polvere (2010), in which we verify many ideological and aesthetic affinities with the filmmaker’s thinking. In particular, there is a convergence, discussed here, in the valorization that the authors make of the architectural past, whose revolutionary strength can serve for a critique of the present scenario, the apprehension of an imperfect and fragile beauty that is nourished by the effects of aging caused by the passage of the time and the appreciation for the ruins as a possibility of experiencing a different temporality, an experience of commotion before the transience of things.