STOP DRAWING. Architecture without boundaries between drawing and action

At MAXXI in Rome an exhibition that investigates the transformation of the tools with which one thinks, communicates, and practices architecture, beyond the sign and towards new creative horizons.

Drawing as origin and resistance

In the beginning was the drawing, a foundational gesture capable of condensing the relationship between space, function, and structure into a single stroke. But today, in the era of digital culture and active participation, architecture expands beyond paper, exploring new languages and modes of representation. The exhibition STOP DRAWING. Architecture beyond drawing, conceived by Pippo Ciorra for the Department of Architecture and Contemporary Design directed by Lorenza Baroncelli, is a fascinating journey between the 20th and 21st centuries, to narrate how the project has transcended the boundaries of graphic representation, opening up to performances, collages, fabrics, videos, and algorithms.

Representing Space Today

The exhibition, curated by DEMOGO studio in gallery 3 of MAXXI, is divided into five sections that highlight different approaches to representation. From the art gallery featuring drawings by Carlo Scarpa, Aldo Rossi, and Giancarlo De Carlo – a testament to an Italian era dominated by drawing – it moves on to explore the digital dimension with visionary projects like the Generator Project by Cedric Price & John Frazer, the theories of Nicholas Negroponte, and research by authors such as Matias del Campo, Lucia Tahan, Sandra Manninger, key figures in algorithmic and parametric architecture.

Architecture as a Political Gesture

STOP DRAWING also narrates architecture as a civil and political act, capable of taking on the urgencies of the present: inclusion, post-humanism, decolonization. Examples of this are editorial projects like The Funambulist Magazine by Léopold Lambert, and collective experiences like the Floating University by Raumlabor or Sexy Assemblage by the group Orizzontale, which stage a hands-on participation, concrete and performative. In this scenario, drawing does not disappear: it transforms, hybridizes, or becomes a gesture of resistance.

The Resistance of Drawing

In a world dominated by the virtual, there are those who choose drawing as a political and poetic act. The authors featured in the last section of the exhibition - from Jorinde Voigt to Jo Noero, from Maria Giuseppina Grasso Cannizzo to Atelier Bow-Wow - reaffirm the expressive power of the hand, opposing the dissolution of the project into a nebulous indistinct aesthetic. STOP DRAWING does not conclude with a farewell to drawing, but with its reaffirmation as a space of freedom and disciplinary identity, in an architectural landscape in constant transformation.

Gallery

Cover image: November Wong Courtesy-the-artist

Text images: N.1 Vincenzo Labellarte Courtesy Fondazione MAXXI N.2 Vincenzo Labellarte Courtesy Fondazione MAXXI N.3 Courtesy Fondazione MAXXI N.4 Vincenzo Labellarte Courtesy Fondazione MAXXI

Gallery images: N.1 Vincenzo Labellarte Courtesy Fondazione MAXXI N.2 Courtesy Eredi Aldo Rossi N.3 Vincenzo Labellarte Courtesy Fondazione MAXXI N.4 MAXXI Collection N.5 Courtesy Private Archive Hollein from N.6 to N.8 Vincenzo Labellarte Courtesy Fondazione MAXXI