The second exhibition of the Vivi L'Archive exhibition project kicks off at the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, a series of in-depth studies aimed at enhancing the archival heritage of the Bagatti Valsecchi Foundation.

The exhibition, from 20 December 2023 to 25 February 2024, entitled “Pier Fausto Bagatti Valsecchi and landscape architecture”, is dedicated to the architect Pier Fausto Bagatti Valsecchi (1929-2023), who recently passed away, and his exceptional archive dedicated to the world of landscape architecture and gardens.

A figure inextricably linked to the birth of the Bagatti Valsecchi Foundation - established in 1975 from a profound desire shared with his father Pasino and his sisters Cristina, Anna Maria and Fausta - Pier Fausto is a protagonist of the cultural events of the post-war period in Milan. He participated with keen interest in the large-scale artistic initiatives promoted in the Milanese capital: he was, in fact, among the first members of the FAI council, as well as among the founders of Italia Nostra, an association created to protect the historical, artistic and natural heritage of the nation. It was within the ranks of Italia Nostra that Pier Fausto introduced the concept of the English National Trust, a charitable organization aimed at the custody and protection of historic places and natural beauty.

Natural and landscape assets are in fact the major professional interest of Pier Fausto who has dedicated his life to the study of gardens and historic homes, elements often mutually integrated into unitary artistic and monumental compendiums.

With this exhibition the Museum pays homage to one of its founders with the material that Pier Fausto collected and produced with passion during his long life to share a synthetic theoretical, planning and intellectual portrait. Pier Fausto Bagatti Valsecchi has in fact always supported the specificity of gardens as monuments characterized by the presence of living materials, advocating the need to conceive the garden both as a monument and as a document: elements that must be studied, compared and preserved.