"Quale Gotico per Milano?" the book presentation at Swiss Institute Milan

The volume "Quale Gotico per Milano? I materiali della giuria per il concorso della facciata del Duomo (1886-1888)" by Mendrisio Academy Press, edited by Angela Windholz, Carla Mazzarelli, Mirko Moizi will be presented on Monday, 29 January 2024 at 6 pm at Istituto Svizzero in Milan. 

In 1886, the international competition to remake the façade of Milan Cathedral, one of the most important of that period, was announced. This book retraces its long and controversial history, but not only: photographs, engravings, reliefs and publications now preserved in the Library of the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio and formerly belonging to the Ticino architect Augusto Guidini, one of the members of the jury of the competition, take readers to the very table of the jurors, thus acquainting them with the practices of organising an international architectural competition in the late 19th century, but also with the tools used at the time to evaluate the projects submitted. In fact, the book brings together, for the first time, the rarest and most surprising ingredient of the innovative method developed by the jurors: a photographic archive of all the historical proposals for the façade of the Duomo up to the projects submitted to the competition. The result is a narration through images that testify to the reception of the Gothic style and the variations in taste throughout the ages. The history of the façade of the Duomo thus becomes a changing history where time, with its continuities and fractures, settles on the monument symbol of Milan.

The volume will be presented by Nicoletta Leonardi

Introduction:
Angela Windholz, Director of the Library of the Academy of Architecture - Università della Svizzera italiana

Institutional greetings:
Walter Angonese, Director of the Academy of Architecture Mendrisio - Università della Svizzera italiana 
Christoph Frank, Director of ISA - Institute for the History and Theory of Art and Architecture - Università della Svizzera italiana

The authors of the book Carla Mazzarelli, Daniela Mondini, Mirko Moizi and Angela Windholz will be also attend.

The event is organised by the Library of the Academy of Architecture Mendrisio in collaboration with ISA - Institute for the History and Theory of Art and Architecture, Academy of Architecture - Università della Svizzera italiana.

Nicoletta Leonardi is Professor of History of Contemporary Art and History of Photography at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, she is currently Wallace Fellow at "I Tatti" Harvard University Centre for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence.

Mirko Moizi is Professor at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio (USI), Institute for the History and Theory of Art and Architecture.

Carla Mazzarelli is professor at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, Institute for the History and Theory of Art and Architecture where she teaches Museology and History of Modern Art and Architecture.

Daniela Mondini is full professor and deputy director for Research at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, USI, Institute for the History and Theory of Art and Architecture where she directs the Master of History and Theory of Art and Architecture.

Angela Windholz, Art Historian, Director of the Library of the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, USI.