Marco Zanuso and Alessandro Mendini. Comparing two generations. Two prominent figures of Italian design. They have shaped an era. Points of benchmark all around the world. In creativity and project design, for over a century. And, by the way, still they are.
ADI Design Museum presents this exhibition. Curated by Pierluigi Nicolin, Gaia Piccarolo, Nina Bassoli and Maite García Sanchis. The exhibition compares these two great protagonists of design and architecture (Marco Zanuso and Alessandro Mendini) in a completely new way.
Marco Zanuso
Marco Zanuso (Milan, 1916-2001) was not only an Italian architect. He was designer, urban planner and academic. He is among the founders of Italian industrial design. Zanuso was one of the first to be interested in the debate on the Modern Movement. To solve the problems of industrialization of the product. By the application of new materials and technologies to everyday objects. His works are exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. And at the permanent design collection of the Triennale in Milan.
“To bring the construction production on a plane of efficiency and precision. For which all the constituent elements of the built are defined. Not only in themselves. Up to the construction. To achieve this, we must think of building design no longer as molded. Not as poured. Or also as conglomerated. But as assembled”
Marco Zanuso
Alessandro Mendini
Alessandro Mendini was born in Milan in 1931. He is a protagonist of the renewal of the Made in Italy design. Inventor of avant-garde experiences. For instance, the so-called Radical Design. Tireless animator of the theoretical debate around the design. Editor in chief for the most important Italians magazines. From Casabella, to Modo, to Domus. His striking ideas include: the “Redesign”. An approach to the creation of objects through recovered and reused materials. In new and unprecedented forms and functions. Overturning, in effect, the usual canons of the production-consumption cycle. Reinterpreting them in a sustainable way.
The “Banal house”: which recognizes the value of kitsch and pop in everyday life.
And, finally, the “Neo-modern design” (which aims to corrodes the rules of “classical” design).
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s not the project I’m interested in. I use design reality not consistently with its own end. But in order to carry out my natural life act. Which is to produce images”
Alessandro Mendini
An opportunity for interaction
“An exhibition that intends to lay the foundations for a reflection. Around design made in Italy and its values”. Says Luciano Galimberti (President of ADI Associazione per il Disegno Industriale). An opportunity to compare two figures. In some ways very distant. With several points of contact. The exhibition is able to let us appreciate all connections between these two protagonists. Clearly enhancing the relationship between design and architecture.
A reflection
The exhibition also presents another, much deeper reflection on Marco Zanuso and Alessandro Mendini. Beyond the comparison between Zanuso’s choice of design method, and Mendini’s postmodern procedure. This further reflection is the true face of a reworking of their original poetics. Featuring the development of the paths of both. Highlighting the completeness of the two approaches. And the distance/contiguity of their poetic choices.
References, contrasts, and influences
The evidence of this distance appears immediate. If we look at their respective formal and aesthetic outcomes. A path through their works suggests some reflections. Enhanced by the chance to admire them simultaneously; because they are placed in front of each other. Stimulating a game of references. Through contrasts and influences.
‘Strong’ and ‘Weak’ topics
“Going beyond the Italian context itself”; points out Pierluigi Nicolin, curator. “We can see how ‘strong’ modernist themes (à la Zanuso) and ‘weak’ postmodernist themes (à la Mendini) are based on the ability to invalidate the assumptions. fom which they start. In the particular sentimental journey, whitch they share. We can see how each one ends up denying, in his own way, the existence of an unbreakable boundary to his own experience”.
The exhibition
The exhibition, at the ADI Design Museum in Milan, consists into twelve chapters. Symmetrically split into six plus six. The chapters developing along the central space of the museum. They touch on:
- Comfort, New Aesthetics, Big Scale, Modular Construction, Innovation, Stone Walls. (Sections dedicated to Marco Zanuso).
- Alchemy, Global Toys, Decorations, Museums, Houses, Text and Image. (Dedicated to Alessandro Mendini).
At the end of the path a synthesis of the life and works of the two protagonists. At the end of the exposition there is a site and a special installation (in the spaces dedicated to the prizes of the Compasso d’Oro alla carriera). Where the iconic portraits of the protagonists face each other. Portraits by Roberto Sambonet.
A second stage
A second stage of the exhibition will be open from April 29th. At the Philosophy Library of the University of Milan.
link to: Exhibition
You may be interested in: Chi la fa l’aspetti
