With essays by Peter Carl, Renzo Dubbini and others
2 softcover in slipcase
100 drawings by Daniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind’s Sonnets in Babylon is a visionary work. It depicts an imaginary Babylon in over 100 poetic drawings that have been, screen-printed on backlit glass panels and backlit. According to the principle of ut pictura poesis, drawing is the equivalent of poetic verse; it pushes the boundaries of the graphic so as to inspire, to tell a story, to convey the experience of images. Libeskind’s work for the Venice Pavilion is «a meditation on the origins and destiny of form in architecture». As Libeskind himself wrote: «Drawing is a magical world. The source of all building and its immortal shadow. A world of imagination and fantasy, without a predetermined direction or any obvious starting point. A world without words, ideologies, nationalities or borders; connecting us through forms to the Invisible. The Sonnets in Babylon, 101 of my hand drawings, stand together in this exhibition as one canvas, without apparent order or hierarchy. They establish the keystones of 101 scenarios pointing to an unexpected future of Architecture».
Daniel Libeskind nato a Lodz, in Polonia, nel 1946 da due sopravvissuti ai campi di concentramento nazisti, ha vissuto e si è formato in Israele, Stati Uniti, Inghilterra e Italia. Dopo aver studiato fra gli altri con John Hejduk e Peter Eisenman, si è imposto all’attenzione internazionale con la partecipazione alla mostra Deconstructivist Architecture del 1988 al MoMA di New York e la realizzazione del Museo ebraico di Berlino (1989-1999).
È l’architetto incaricato del master plan per la ricostruzione dell’area di Ground Zero a New York. Fra le sue numerose pubblicazioni ricordiamo l'autobiografia Breaking ground. Un’avventura tra architettura e vita, Sperling & Kupfer, Milano 2005.
