Topview

For Biennale Democrazia 2019, dedicated to “high-visibility” world, Urban Lab has decided to narrate a new and unexpected city.

In this world where everything is visible, how does the city look like? Social media and advertising campaigns are full of recurrent pictures of habitual places used as a mainstream representations of urban spaces. 

Maybe we should open our mind and look for different perspectives, observe from above to raise questions and show unprecedented views. Watching from different points of view can help us explore the connection and dynamics between the city centre and its outskirts, nature and built areas, high and low, infrastructures and land. Top view is an invitation to observe the urban landscape to imagine and experiment new narratives and design practices.

The exhibition fundamental experience is Torino seen from above, as portrayed by the photographer Michele D’Ottavio who, in 2018, made several flights over the city and its surroundings. Inside Urban Lab premises, 8 images are compared with Torino’s views taken during aerial surveys since 1936 up to now, to find individual and shared stories of urban development in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. 

Other 30 pictures by D’Ottavio are displayed under the square arcades inviting visitors to a short aerial journey over the city and its surroundings to re-discover the beauty of unexpected landscapes.