Defying gravity

Renzo Piano

With Lele we were friends for a long time, we have shared many things. I'm not an art critic. My words are a personal recollection, my memories are linked to feelings of affection. With Lele we‘ve always been - how should I put it – in sync: I have always admired his innocence. Lele had a kind of childlike innocence. It may sound trite to say, but he seemed almost surprised by what he was able to do, just like children struggling with their first drawing or first written sentence. So, when he would look at one of his works, a drawing, a model, he was the first one to be surprised. In my own way, even now, when I see something that I succeed doing, I still look at it and say: “Ooh”! And Lele was like this all the time. As if it was always the first time for him.I have always noticed this, even over the years. For example, when he talked about Genoa and then started to draw it with a brushstroke, it came out well and he was amazed.

Luzzati crossed many borders, and touched upon everything: theatre, music, painting. Basically, he had no borders. In doing so, he put his nose into everything. In these border-crossing gestures - everyone would recognize it - Lele did things ‘universally’. Luzzati was not only Genoa and the Teatro della Tosse, he was The Theatre in the World.

I clearly remember an episode about Lele: in 1993, a great exhibition of his works was held in Paris at the Centre Pompidou. One day he came to lunch at my house and asked my wife Milly to give him a metre and a Tuscan cigar to paint my portrait. He drew the head, and with the pieces of the tape measure he fashioned the body. There was a lot of irony and humour in him, which make the works of Lele Luzzati immediately recognizable.

You both had a special relationship with the city of Genoa
Genoa is a city that leaves traces in you. These superimpositions, signs, and walls that Lele has always drawn... Genoa is a casbah, a noble, and extraordinary casbah. In Lele's drawings, the city, even if only imaginary, is still Genoa. Or it could be.Now, I don't want to fall into the trap of misplaced romanticism, but even in my imagination, although I live elsewhere, there is always Genoa, the intensity of the city, the sea, the light. It's part of our imaginary luggage. Someone who was born here, who grew up by the sea, in this extraordinary city that is Genoa, always takes the city with him, there's nothing to do about it. Then, maybe, he goes around the world designing vessels, like I do.
I design vessels that are heavy to fly, while Lele made them light. For him too, ships not only sail in the water but also in the air, they fly as well as people. His unique feature was to make things weightless, to take the force of gravity out of them. That's it: defying gravity. For me, it's much more difficult, but I don't want to make comparisons. Actually, he could have been a great poet, while I'm a builder...

Is there something that unites you? Some spirit which, despite your different professions, makes you talk to each other? What are the meeting points between your arts?
There is no art if there is no underlying story, if there is no solid ground to build on. Whether you are an architect, an artist like Lele, a musician, or a singer, if there is no underlying story, no substance, no passion, whatever you do lacks concreteness and truth.
This is something Lele had inside. The difference between academia and art is that academia creates forms and there is nothing underneath them, whereas art always has something underneath. And there is always something - history, tragedy, and hopes - in Luzzati. Just like theatre. If theatre does not have something deep underneath that touches the human soul, and engages people's imagination, what is it then? A purely academic, formal exercise. You can do whatever you want, but if you lack this, you are nothing. As a matter of fact, Lele is very far from academia, he is quite the opposite. He is a person who starts from the reality of things.This is something I never talked about with Lele, of course! With Lele you talked about colours, materials, supports... Actually, you didn't talk at all with him! There wasn't much to say with words.
We were together, we would breathe the same air. It's a bit difficult to explain. I felt this with him and with other friends who are no longer with us: for example, Italo Calvino, who lived here in Paris and used to come to the Beaubourg building site. Italo Calvino was in some ways a kind of Lele Luzzati for writing. His invisible cities are something similar. He would favour imagination over academia. Those too are imaginary cities, but they contain Genoa. Similarly, there were the trees of the Ligurian Riviera in the Baron in the trees.
I'm also thinking of Fabrizio de André, with whom we were very good friends, who eventually went to live in Milan. Genoa, Liguria, the sea: in Fabrizio's music - Crêuza de mä comes to mind - there were the scents, voices, smells and lights of the sea. In a way, this land has always spurred imagination.
Eugenio Montale used to say: there is no land like Liguria that leaves deep traces under your skin.
Luciano Berio too lived elsewhere. He also was from Liguria, more exactly from Oneglia - he did not want people to say that he was from Imperia, but from Oneglia. Even here, in Paris, where we later became friends, he had the same form of slightly childlike innocence. But I do not like to use this word, which seems too romantic. In short, rejecting academia means returning to one's homeland.
So whether you are a filmmaker, architect - poor you! - artist or musician, this is where you nourish yourself: in the light, sounds of your land, in coming back to it. Just like Lele did, who refused academia without even knowing what it was.

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