Construction of the Universe — Artists’ Magazines and Publications After Marcel Duchamp

COSTRUZIONE DELL’UNIVERSO: Artists’ Magazines and Publications after Marcel Duchamp is a research project that collects artists’ magazines and publications from the 1950s to the present, beginning with the work of Marcel Duchamp. This often overlooked sector of artistic production explores newspapers and magazines as artistic mediums. The selection includes rare and extraordinary items where artists design covers, inner pages, and image sequences, making each publication a unique, yet replicable work. These publications often become open and collective containers, engaging multiple artists within the same layout or across different issues. The title “Construction of the Universe” highlights the pioneering role of the early 20th-century avant-garde movement, referencing the 1915 Manifesto “Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe,” which resembled a newspaper layout. Starting in the 1950s, a utopian vision emerged among artists, freed from the existential weight of world conflicts. They envisioned creating a new society, characterized by traveling architectures, open spaces, new languages, and a longing for the future and the cosmos.