Cesare Pietroiusti

Cesare Pietroiusti teaches at the Laboratorio delle Tecniche e delle Espressioni Artistiche, University of Venice (IUAV), and at The Art Institute of Boston. His art practice focuses on problematic and paradoxical situations that are hidden in common relationships or ordinary acts— thoughts that come to mind seemingly without a reason, small worries, quasi-obsessions—that are usually considered too insignificant to become a matter of discussion or of self-representation. Since 1977, he has exhibited in private and public spaces, in and out of the art world, in Italy and abroad. Currently, his work concentrates on the paradoxes that emerge from economic systems and social norms. For example, he has distributed almost 100,000 unique drawings for free, and also ingested banknotes at the end of an auction and then given them back to the successful bidder after their evacuation. He has also organized restaurants where the customers get paid for everything they consume, curated exhibitions where artworks are exchanged for the visitors’ ideas, and opened shops where the goods for sale are banknotes and the customer’s gaze is considered currency.