press release - Erastudio Apartment

...SILENZIO.
ETTORE SOTTSASS JR , ARCHIZOOM AND THE FURNISHING BY MARIO CEROLI For POLTRONOVA
Milan, Erastudio Apartment – Gallery
29th September - 17th December 2011
“I wish objects were not only silent as such, instead, they
should oblige whoever uses and looks at them to fall silent.”
Ettore Sottsass Jr, 1996
John Berger describes us as storytellers who go about, under the
sky at night, drawing figures by joining stars together just as if
they were tiny dots: the constellation that is generated becomes
a reservoir of shining fragments which can be interwoven to
set up a story - ready to be told. With this exhibition Erastudio
Apartment-Gallery wants to give an account of its life history – to
tell you all about how it started a story of relationships between
space, objects and people, together with the works of great
artists from the history of Art, who have approached design as
an occasion of thought, through things and not only.
The works on show in the gallery rooms, from the imposing
Minareto n.2/20 by Sottsass to the prototype of the Mies chaise
longue by Archizoom, to the furnishings of the Mobili nella valle
range, give evidence of a creative sphere of activity that dates from
1965 to 1995 - permanent signs of heterogenous experiences
which are compared to the production of big companies such as
Poltronova and Bitossi.
The renowned experimental work by Ettore Sottsass Jr, the
almost “terroristic” and ironical peculiarity of the Archizoom
Associates, a more metaphysical interpretation of space, the
objects by Mario Ceroli, outline, as far as the history of design
is concerned, a research survey which is an inter-weaving of
projecting lines which are divided in a “rhizomatic” manner with
relationships that have no beginning and no ending – in perpetual
movement within an entity.
This will finds its expression through the accomplished works,
such as chairs, armchairs, vases, lamps and through the
awareness of the people that use and touch these objects, just
Ettore Sottsass Jr, Minareto,
numbered 2/20, Italy 1995,
photography by Jeremias
Morandell
Archizoom, wooden armchair
prototype Mies, 1975
courtesy Poltronova Italy
Mario Ceroli, Mobili nella valle,
fotography 1968
as Sottsass mentions.
The exhibition is full of original period objects such as the Suvretta
bookcase (Memphis Production 1981) by Ettore Sottsass Jr, or
the Sanremo Lamp (Poltonova Production 1968) belonging to
the Archizoom Associates Group, to pieces out of production,
prototypes and limited editions, such as the Minareto n. 2/20
totem (Bitossi discountinued line 1995), the Yantra Ceramics
(Poltronova discountinued line 1969), the Loto Rosso table
(Poltronova discountinued line 1965) by Ettore Sottsass Jr, the
Mies armchair prototype (Poltonova Production 1969 by the
Archizoom and the furnishings out of production of the Mobili
nella valle range (Poltronova Production 1966) by Mario Ceroli.
The Minareto totem is the symbol of the exhibition, n. 2 of a
limited edition of 20 pieces, it is a work of art which does not
directly touch the ground, as it is standing on a base, motionless,
arousing the attention of whoever is looking at it – a sort of subtle
shocking element created partly by the fragility and delicacy of the
superimposition of the ceramic coloured components which are
related to the static dimension of the object as a whole, and on the
other hand showing how the clear-sighted superimposition has
been dealt with, in contrast to the imposingness of the object.
The works by Sottsass, signed for Poltronova, such as the Loto
Rosso table and the Yantra Ceramics are examples of the artist’s
will together with Sergio Camilli’s Company’s intentions and
so .”..interior design is not a catalogue of small objects placed
here and there in someone’s home, but an outline of a place,
should we say an existential state (Ettore Sottsass, 2001). The
Ceramics are vases in which flowers can be arranged according
to an almost architectural plan - like a ritual. The same Archizoom
Associates or radical architects, stimulated by the Pop Art culture,
give an outline of the Italian Intellectual liveliness of the second
half of the 1960’s by presenting the Mies chaise longue. The
chaise longue is dedicated to Mies van der Rohe, whose motto
was: “less is more”, the object conveys an ironical message to
exemplify which part of Italian design was trying to escape from
the exasperation of rationalistic modernism. Their objects, such
as the Sanremo lamp, allusion to the kitsch symbolism of a palm
tree, assert how the interior design object is totally independent
from the architecture that lies within the object itself and from
its traditional shape.
Lastly, the set of furnishings by Mario Ceroli, Mobili nella valle,
involved in the issue about “Arte Povera” in the second half of
the 1960’s. These are in natural coarse wood which is the main
material, the objects, imagined as if they were on a platform,
Mario Ceroli, Mobili nella valle,
fotography 1968
Ettore Sottsass, table Loto,
1963, photography by
A. Fioravanti and E. Sottsass
courtesy Poltronova Italy
Mario Ceroli, Mobili nella valle,
fotography 1968
almost as to outline a defined closed space. A reflection of the homonymous work by Giorgio De
Chirico (1927), the seats, the armchairs, the sofas are projected and become deformed in a true
space “…the chairs, all alike -absolutely unreal with their very high back rest, adopt an almost
[…..] different kind of wearing, an intensity and a narrative ability, which increases along with the
game related to space and perspective, of these characters” (Arturo Quintavalle, 1969). The
relationship with his sculptures lead to an “architectural” course of action which “naturally, wants
to involve the world and its objects” (Arturo Quintavalle, 1969)
ETTORE SOTTSASS JR
(Innsbruck, 1917 – Milan, 2007)
Graduated at the Politecnic in Turin in 1939, he starts his activity in Milan, where in 1947 he opens
his own design studio. In the 70’s he starts his collaboration with Olivetti, creating a range of
office furniture and equipment for them. A very versatile artist with many interests – he is involved
in the various fields of expression. Anticipating the years of social unrest, he saw design as an
instrument related to social criticism giving way to radical design (1966-72) and the need of a new
aesthetical outlook: more ethically, socially and politically inclined.
Having moved away from the voracity of what industry had to offer, he gets closer to the avantguarde, to Pop Art, to plain and down-to-earth conceptual influences, proposing an alternative
design to that imposed by the advertising media at the time”.
After the experimental works for Poltronova as their artistic director, Sottsass’s utopism has it’s
climax in Italy with the new domestic landscape at the MoMA in New York 1972. After that he is
involved with the experience with the Alchimia group marking his own ideology and that of“ radical
design” planning, in an alchemy of shapes, colours, materials which overturn the aesthetical
standards and the way design is conceived compared to decoration. In 1981 he sets up the
Memphis group, and through planning, it analyses what the value of industrial design is about. In
1982 he opens the “Sottsass Associates.
The interest shown on Ceramics and design goes along with his projectual research. Sottsass
meets Bitossi Ceramics in 1958, and this is when he starts to create ceramics under the supervision
of Aldo Londi. The relationship will last for almost 50 yrs. The ceramic totems, can be recalled
dating from 1962-1967 and the ceramics for Memphis, from the 80’s.
ARCHIZOOM
Radical architects from Tuscany graduated from the Faculty of Architecture – University of
Florence. Moved to Milan, they started out at the end of 1966 at the “Jolly 2” Art Gallery in Pistoia
- the crux of all the Pop Art avant-guarde movement from Pistoia.
Subsequently, they set up the “Archizoom Associati” Group (1966 -1974) around the figures of
Andrea Branzi, Gilberto Corretti, Paolo Deganello, Massimo Morozzi, to which Lucia and Dario
Bartolini will take part later on.
These architects/designers, being influenced by the Pop Art Culture and ironically having
contrasting ideas as to what “ well thought design” is intended to be, totally refuse traditional and
classic design, in order to propose new standards and ways of living.
MARIO CEROLI
(Castelfrentano, Chieti, 1938)
Having graduated from the “Accademia delle Belle Arti” (Art Academy) in Rome, where he studied
with Leoncillo, Fazzini and Colla, he is first involved in ceramics and subsequently in the 70’s
through the works of Louise Nevelson and Joe Tilson, he gets to the materials and shapes that
will mark his creative works, such as for example Russian pine wood, in its natural coarse form
- which takes us back to nature, glass and the shapes containing powder colours. Between 19671968, he takes part in exhibitions related to the “Arte Povera” group. He has also impressively
been involved as screenplay director collaborating with “Il Teatro Stabile” in Turin and with “La
Scala” in Milan. His sculptures remind us of famous works from the past, such as Leonardo or
“ I Bronzi di Riace” (the tall brass sculptures from Calabria). Ceroli relates back to the traditional
medieval craftsmen, focusing on an overall and overwhelming attraction which holds a dialogue
with the spectator or beneficiary. Paraphrasing the homonymous painting by Giorgio De Chirico
(1927) he starts his collaboration with Poltronova with the set of furnishings: Mobili nella valle.
Said production by Ceroli for Poltronova aroused great interest at the Eurodomus exhibition in
Turin in 1972.
POLTRONOVA
An unusual case respect to the world of design of the 60’s, an organisation which still gravitates
mainly around Milan and its outskirts, this is Poltronova, a company founded in Agliana, in the
province of Pistoia by Sergio Camilli in 1956.
Poltronova enhances its craftsmanship experience developed in the early days and works in
collaboration with its designers - at times only producing prototypes, and puts its products into
catalogues which show a marked difference to how they were first planned or designed.
Some other models are added to these new, limited series which next to the products already in
the catalogue - of a more rational shape, will be regarded as fundamental in the 1960’s design
panorama. This is the case of the Asteroide lamp by Sottsass, (1968), of the Safari sofa by
Archizoom (1968), of the Sgarsul by Gae Aulenti (1962) and of the armchair designed by De Pas,
D’Urbino and Lomazzi. The 1960’s furniture by Ceroli is significant just as La Cova by Ruffi and
the various models designed in the same years by Ettore Sottsass.
Giuliana Gramigna, Le Fabbriche del Design,. I produttori dell’arredamento domestico in Italia,
Allemandi & C., Turin, 2007, p. 196.
Contact:
Valentina Lucio
[email protected]
Erastudio Apartment-Gallery
Via Palermo 5, Milano
3rd floor
[email protected]
Tel +39 02 39198515
Fax +39 02 89950815
www.erastudio.it