Between 1972 and 2013, over forty years, the architect, urban planner and photographer Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta traveled to several countries in Europe, Americas, Africa and Asia, elaborating a dense and sometimes surprising photographic essay on the changes produced by cities on the surface of planet Earth. URBIS - The Skin of the Planet covers more than one hundred and fifty cities in twenty-three countries - Switzerland, Portugal, Italy, France, Spain, Brazil, Germany, Slovenia, Hungary, Bangladesh, Morocco, Israel, Austria, the United States, Liechtenstein, England, Seychelles, Monaco, Canada, San Marino, Bosnia, Japan and Argentina - and is published in three volumes. It also includes several engravings and maps from the 15th to the 19th centuries representing urban life and iconography. In this first volume there are the cities of Aigle, Airolo, Albufeira, Almada, Amalfi, Angra do Heroísmo, Anthy, Antibes, Ari, Ascona, Aubepierre, Azenhas do Mar, Barcelona, Barreira do Campo, Bellagio, Berlin, Bled, Bolognano, Brasília, Brienz, Brissago, Buchanino, Budapest, Burglen, Cadaqués, Câmara de Lobos, Cameri, Campo Nomade Primaverile, Cannobio, Caramanico, Carrara, Cascais, Castelo de Vide, Castelo Rodrigo, Cavaglio Spoccia, Chamonix, Charneca da Caparica, Como, Costa da Caparica, Courtomer, Crans-Montana, Cuzzago, Dhaka, Domodossola, Elvas, Espinho, Évora and Ferrete.
Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta has been considered an important musician, architect, writer, photographer and intermedia artist in the beginning of the third millennium - according to statements written by personalities like John Cage, Ornette Coleman, Merce Cunningham, René Berger, Daniel Charles, Dove Bradshaw, Phill Niblock or William Anastasi among others. With several international prizes, more than fifty published books, many electronic books and thirty audio compact discs, his works are included in some of the most important art collections and world-wide recognized institutions like the Whitney Museum of New York, the ARS AEVI Contemporary Art Museum, the Biennale of Venice, the Computer Art Museum of Seattle, the Kunsthaus of Zurich, the Durini Contemporary Art Collection, the Bibliotèque Nationale of Paris and the MART - Modern Art Museum of Rovereto and Trento among others. His works are also included in the Universalis Encyclopedia (Britannica) since 1991, in the Sloninsky Baker's Music Dictionary (Berkeley), the Charles Hall's Chronology of the Western Classical Music, as well as in the All Music Guide - The Expert's Guide to the Best Cds. Legendary musicians like John Cage, David Tudor, Takehisa Kosugi, John Tilbury, Christian Wolff, Maurizio Barbetti, Audrey Riley and the Manhattan Quartet among others have performed his compositions. He collaborated with John Cage, as commissioned composer for Merce Cunningham, from 1985 until his disappearance in 1992. He remained composer for Merce Cunningham along more than twenty years, until Merce Cunningham's death in 2009. In the beginning of the 1980s, Emanuel Pimenta coined the concept of virtual architecture and designed the first virtual planet in history. He is also founder and director of the Arts, Sciences and Technology Foundation - Observatory, in Trancoso, Portugal (www.asa-art.com/facto.html). He is co-founder and director of the HOLOTOPIA Academy, in the Amalfi Coast, Italy (www.asa-art.com/holotopiaacademy.html). Emanuel Pimenta lives in Locarno, Switzerland - but he is also based in New York and Lisbon. His website is www.emanuelpimenta.net
