INA-Casa Via del Mare
Word Performance Between Gesture and Architecture
10.30.2025 – 11.23.2025
INA-Casa Via del Mare
Word Performance Between Gesture and Architecture
10.30.2025 – 11.23.2025
INA-Casa Via del Mare: Word Performance Between Gesture and Architecture
October 30 – November 23, 2025
The project offers a critical reflection on the legacy and enhancement of the building heritage tied to the INA-Casa plan (1949–1963), one of the most significant public residential housing initiatives of the postwar period. It focuses equally on its preservation and on the potential to integrate new design elements capable of fostering relational dynamics and community building.
“INA-Casa Via del Mare” takes shape as a multidisciplinary research device pursued by studioconcreto since its founding in 2018 in the INA-Casa neighborhood of Via del Mare in Lecce. It continues to interrogate the meaning of contemporary dwelling and urban transformation processes.
The exhibition itinerary presents texts, archival materials, and artists’ works to provide novel interpretive keys on the theme of housing and the role of collective spaces. On display is a focus on the project “performance di parola tra gesto e architettura,” which weaves together contributions from artists such as Gianfranco Baruchello, Chiara Camoni, Giuseppe De Mattia, and Claire Fontaine, alongside filmmaker Damiano Damiani, photographer Guido Guidi, and dancemaker Cristina Kristal Rizzo. This explores the historical, architectural, and social relevance of the national INA-Casa plan, as well as broader political transformations of the urban landscape and the role of collective spaces in shaping everyday experience.
Promoted by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security and strongly advocated by Amintore Fanfani, the INA-Casa plan was established by Law No. 43 of February 28, 1949, titled “Measures to Increase Workers’ Employment by Facilitating the Construction of Housing for Workers.” Its aim was to stimulate the labor market and support the country’s economic recovery through the construction of housing intended for workers.
A dedicated section of the exhibition at Spazio Murat examines the INA-Casa complex on Via del Mare in Lecce—the first housing lot approved by the city’s Building Commission. This stands as an emblematic case for understanding the interplay between the national plan’s directives and the specific urban and social context in which it was embedded, thereby offering a broader reflection on the ongoing transformation processes within this key patrimony of modern architecture.
The exhibition also features the renowned polychrome identifying plaques of the INA-Casa plan, crafted by artists such as Pietro De Laurentiis, Guerrino Tramonti, and Publio Morbiducci. These artifacts, emblematic of the plan’s visual identity, bear witness to the ambition of building not merely houses, but cohesive and participatory communities.