Lamberto Pignotti, the 100-year-old Florentine artist and poet and a leading figure in visual poetry, is celebrated with two concurrent exhibitions: "Pignotti 100. Pop-esie visive" at the Mart in Rovereto (in collaboration with the Collegio Cairoli of Pavia) and the dual solo show "Identikit di Pignotti e Hogre" curated by Marco Giovenale at Galleria Bianco Contemporaneo in Rome. The latter exhibition, born from a dialogue between Pignotti and the anonymous artist Hogre, centers on a collection of envelopes Pignotti has saved for over fifty years—each addressed to him with varying titles (architect, artist, poet, professor) or altered names (Alberto, Lorenzo, Mario, Giuseppe)—revealing his fragmented identity. Pignotti co-founded the Gruppo '70 in Florence in 1963 with Eugenio Miccini, a movement that brought together multidisciplinary artists including Lucia Marcucci, Ketty La Rocca, and musicians Giuseppe Chiari and Sylvano Bussotti.
This article matters because it highlights how a centenarian pioneer of visual poetry continues to challenge rigid artistic categories, using his own archive to question the very concept of identity—a theme that resonates with contemporary debates about the fluidity of artistic roles. Pignotti's playful accumulation of misaddressed envelopes and his refusal to be pinned down to a single profession (writer, painter, architect, professor) offer a living testament to the cross-disciplinary spirit that defined the Italian avant-garde. The exhibitions also underscore the enduring relevance of Gruppo '70's experimental legacy, linking past radicalism to current curatorial practices that embrace anonymity and multiplicity.