In this artist’s book Viaggio sul Reno (Journey on the Rhine) 1974, Ugo La Pietra drew inspiration from his notes and photo shoots taken in 1974, by reshaping and reconsidering them in a contemporary perspective. This Rhine cruise, from Düsseldorf to Basel, was an artistic experience of Ugo La Pietra, conducted together with the Global Tools Communication Group, composed of Franco Vaccari, Gianni Pettena and Guido Arra. Global Tools (1973-75) included an experimental and multidisciplinary program of educational workshops with the aim of stimulating the free development of individual creativity.
With the trip / performance on the Rhine, the artists explored the theme of “communication” in a closed and segregated environment, such as that of a trip organised on a boat: from this limited context, marked by regular rhythms and by a reduction at the minimum terms of any influence from the outside world, the participants’ behaviour, their interactions, in short, the communication processes emerge.

«Those who uses their own experience, at the risk of losing their identity, emptying themselves little by little, are able to communicate.
Those who gather information and become caught up in notions, protecting and incrementing their self-image, are unable to communicate».