vito acconci
portrait © designboom

vito acconci was born in the bronx / new york on 24.01.1940.
his father, an italian imigrant, introduced him to the arts (and the art of living) taking him
to museums and opera houses. he received a B.A. in literature from holy cross college
and an M.F.A. in literature and poetry from the university of iowa. until 1968 his work
was in a context of writing and poetry.

see full article here

acconci was interested in the space of the page, a structure within which the reader
and writer could move through. he made his first visual artworks by combining photographs
with texts to document task-oriented activities. these works announced the dialogue between
camera and body that would become an essential aspect of acconci's subsequent art work,
particularly the series of super-8 films and videos. between 1969 and 1974 he started to
perform himself what he would otherwise have written and developed over 200 conceptually
structured and radical body-related pieces that were extremely simple in formal terms,
but highly intricate psychologically. these performances and installations were extremely
controversial because they were a direct confrontation with the viewer. acconci's artworks
are now considered classical examples of what we now call conceptual art and have earned him
international recognition. his work has been widely shown internationally in museums
and art galleries. acconci's interest in the human body and its relationship to public space
became architecture, landscape architecture and furniture design. at the end of the 80's he started
'acconci studio', a group of architects who design projects for public spaces-streets
and plazas, gardens and parks, building lobbies and transportation centers.
the architectural practice is based in brooklyn, new york.

designboom met vito acconci at his office in new york on may 21st, 2006.


seoul performing arts center, 2005
winning project
courtesy acconci studio © vito acconci


seoul performing arts center, 2005
winning project
courtesy acconci studio © vito acconci