The Sphere and the Labyrinth

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This significant work by Manfredo Tafuri, a leading theoretical historian and critic of architecture and urbanism, critiques traditional historical investigation and criticism through a detailed analysis of avant-gardes and architectural discourses. Tafuri explores the distinctions between reality and ideology, the compromises made by avant-garde movements, and the conditions enabling their existence. He constructs a complex web of references and comparisons, interpreting history as an archaeology of fragments rather than a linear narrative. In his methodological introduction, he argues that historiography must challenge both its subjects and the historical project itself, including the critical languages it employs. The text traces a journey from Piranesi to postmodernism, highlighting how Piranesi, "the Wicked Architect," used architectural language to disrupt traditional boundaries. Tafuri identifies two major themes from Piranesi in the twentieth-century avant-gardes: the limits of forms and the violence inflicted upon them. He critiques the notion that aesthetic techniques could genuinely alter social and physical orders, revealing them as self-referential. Tafuri dissects the avant-garde's relationship with major world systems, including the USSR, the United States, and Weimar Germany, noting the disillusionment of the avant-garde in the 1970s as it engaged in a private dialogue with forms. Tafuri serves as Chairman of t