Contaminations between Architecture and Art: Oswald Mathias Ungers and Artistic Collaborations

Looking at Oswald Mathias Ungers’s work as a system between art and architecture is an opportunity for two different reasons. First of all, the affinity between art and architecture is an interesting point of view for contextualising Ungers's work in the cultural panorama of his time. His voluntary solitude is shattered in his relationship with art, through which he manages to establish fruitful links with the contemporary cultural debate that characterises the artistic environment. On the other hand, Ungers looks at the art world with curious eyes, interpreting it as a complementary element of his work in architecture. This paper seeks to identify one of the common ground between these two worlds, focusing specifically on design work in collaboration with artists. This point of tangency identifies an interstitial space that puts two distinct dimensions into dialogue according to spatial overlaps and visual connections in a stratified system of relationships.