Piero Gilardi was born in Turin in 1942.
In 1963 he held his first one-man show, entitled Machines for the future. In 1965 he created his first pieces in polyurethane foam and exhibited them in Paris, Brussels, Cologne, Hamburg, Amsterdam and New York. As from 1968 he stopped producing regular art works to engage in the new artistic trends of the late ’60s. Arte Povera, Land Art and Antiform Art. He took part in setting up the first two international exhibitions of the new trends at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and at the Bern Kunsthalle.
In 1969 he started a long trans-cultural experience to conceptually analyse and practise the “Art/Life” combination. As political activist and animator of youth culture, he organised several experiences of collective creativity on urban and “world” fringes, such as Nicaragua, Indian Reserves in the USA and Africa.
In 1981 he resumed his activity in the art world an exhibited installations, accompanied by creative public workshops.
In 1985 he started and artistic research project with new technologies with the elaboration of the IXIANA project (which was presented at the Parc de la Villette in Paris). This work consisted of a technological park in which the public could artistically experiment with digital technologies.
During the ’90s he developed a series of multimedia interactive installations with an intense international activity. Along with Claude Faure and Piotr Kowalski, he formed the International Association Ars Technica. He presides over the international association “Ars Technica” which has promoted two Arslab exhibitions of neo-technological art in Turin (Arslab. Metodi ed Emozioni in 1992, Arslab, I Sensi del Virtuale in 1995, Arslab. I labirinti del corpo in gioco in 1999). He has published two books of theoretical reflection about his varied forms of research: Dall’arte alla vita, dalla vita all’arte (From art to life, from life to art), La Salamandra, Milano 1981 and Not for Sale, Mazzotta, Milano 2000 and Les Presses du reel, Dijon 2003. He writes articles for a number of different art magazines such as Juliet and Flash Art.
He had promoted the project of PAV – Parco Arte Vivente (Living Art Park opened in the 2008 in Turin) which will contain a compendium of all his experiences concerning the relationship between Nature/Culture.
Piero Gilardi died in Turin on 5 March 2023.