una passione per jean prouvé dal mobile alla casa

Transcription

una passione per jean prouvé dal mobile alla casa
UNA PASSIONE
PER JEAN PROUVÉ
DAL MOBILE
ALLA
CASA
LA COLLEZIONE DI
LAURENCE E PATRICK SEGUIN
6 APRILE / 8 SETTEMBRE 2013
PRESS KIT
PINACOTECA AGNELLI
VIA NIZZA 230/103 – 10126 TORINO
www.pinacoteca-agnelli.it
A passion for
Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103 - 10126 Torino
6 april - 8 september 2013
press release
A passion for
Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103 - 10126 Torino
6 april - 8 september 2013
The Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli presents A Passion for Jean Prouvé, an exhibition devoted to the furniture
and architecture by the French designer Jean Prouvé from the collection owned by Laurence and Patrick Seguin.
Laurence and Patrick Seguin discovered the work of Jean Prouvé, in the late 1980s, through his furniture designs. They
were immediately struck by the unique aesthetic of these pieces, where the artistic skill lies wholly in imperceptible
technical mastery devoted to enhancing the strength of the materials. While at the time very few people had even heard
of Jean Prouvé, their enthusiasm for his captivating lines was immediate, a revelation that became a true passion.
The couple then began to take an interest in Jean Prouvé’s work as a whole, of which the furniture is only a part, going on
to discover his architectural designs. With the idea that “there is no difference between constructing a piece of furniture
and constructing a building”, he applied the same design approach to both fields, basing all of his work on it.
From the opening of their gallery in Paris in 1989, Laurence and Patrick Seguin began to work in earnest promoting the
creations of Jean Prouvé, with the result that the most important international collectors and the most prestigious
museums now have works by the French architect and designer in their collections. Indeed today he is held to be one of
the key exponents of twentieth century design.
Laurence and Patrick Seguin are now presenting a number of works from their private collection for the first time: around
40 pieces by Jean Prouvé, most of which are prototypes or extremely rare, from the armchair designed for the University
dormitory of Nancy in 1932 to the light armchair created for the University of Antony in 1954, to the furniture produced
for Africa.
The same principles of functionality and rational fabrication that the designer applied to furniture often destined for the
public sector, can also be found in Prouvé’s architectural designs: the same solid structures feature clever mechanisms for
assembly and organisation that enable both the furniture and the constructions to be easily moved, disassembled and
modified.
The Maison Metropole (8x12 meters) an aluminium construction won in 1949 a Ministry of Education competition for
“mass-producible rural school with classroom and teacher accommodation”: a masterpiece of nomadic housing, followed
the portico principle patented by Prouvé in 1939. The Ateliers Jean Prouvé built two of them, one in Bouqueval, near
Paris, and the other in Vantoux in Moselle. This one has been mounted for the first time on the Lingotto track in Turin.
Taking four people three consecutive days to assemble, a stop-motion film has been made of the construction process,
with video footage streamed on the Pinacoteca website.
The Laurence et Patrick Seguin collection includes contemporary art that coexist at their home with Jean Prouvé furniture.
Some have a liason with Jean Prouvé, as the mobile made by Alexander Calder for Prouvé; and the one by Richard Prince,
who has made especially for them an artwork out of a Jean Prouvé table.
They decide to show these works at the Pinacoteca Agnelli together with the ones by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Adam
Mcewen and Marc Grotjhan.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue in Italian and English published by the Pinacoteca Agnelli. n
A passion for
Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103 - 10126 Torino
6 april - 8 september 2013
IMAGES
Download high resolution images log in at press are at
http://pinacoteca-agnelli.it/visit/area-stampa/
PRESS OFFICE
Pinacoteca Agnelli
Silvia Macchetto
Tel +39 3406350241 [email protected]
Galerie Patrick Seguin
Eva Dalla Venezia
Tel +33 147003235 [email protected]
PINACOTECA GIOVANNI E MARELLA AGNELLI
via Nizza 230, 10126 TORINO
tel +39 011 0062713 – Fax +39 011 0062712
www.pinacoteca-agnelli.it
Tickets
10€ adults
8€ reduced groups, over 65, conventions
4€ schools and 6 to 16 years
free 0 to 6 years, disabled, Torino+Piemonte card
Ticket Office
Inside 8 Gallery from ABook Lingotto | on track top level - 4th floor / last entrance 6.15pm
Opening Hours
10am – 7pm / Closed on Monday
Guided tours on request in Italian , English, French and German
Tel. +39 011 0062713
Disabled people wheelchair Access to the Pinacoteca and to Maison Metropole
Bookshop ABookLingotto at groud floor
How to reach http://pinacoteca-agnelli.it/visit/info-2/
A passion for
Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103 - 10126 Torino
6 april - 8 september 2013
Jean Prouvé
Metropole aluminium house, 26.2 x 40 ft
ca. 1949, provenance: France
Jean Prouvé (1901-1984) was a twentieth-century pioneer in the innovative production of furniture and architecture.
Son of one of the founders of the Ecole de Nancy and godchild of Emile Gallé, he was imbued with the creative philosophy
of a group whose principal aim was an art/industry alliance offering access to all.
Determined to be a man of his time, Prouvé explored all the current technical resources in metalworking, soon
abandoning wrought iron for bent sheet steel: in the thirties he produced metal joinery, his early furniture, architectural
components and knockdown buildings, all in small series.
Of the opinion that “in their construction there is no difference between a piece of furniture and a house”, he developed a
“constructional philosophy” based on functionality and rational fabrication. Free of all artifice, the resultant aesthetic
chimed with the doctrine of the Union of Modern Artists, of which Prouvé – with Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and
Charlotte Perriand – was a founder member.
The same principles were applied to the making of furniture – often intended for the public sector – and to the
architecture of the postwar boom. Astute assembly systems for hardwearing structures meant that furniture and
buildings alike could be readily dismantled, moved about and modified.
The Prouvé blend of avant-garde spirit and humanist concerns has lost none of its relevance. The originality of his different
periods is repeatedly rediscovered, from the first items for the University dormitory in Nancy in 1932 through those for a
similar facility in Antony in 1954; the furniture for Africa; and the knockdown postwar schools and “little architecture
machines” of the sixties. Working with the best architects, Jean Prouvé left his stamp on many famous examples of
twentieth-century building, most of which are now classified historic monuments.
A passion for
Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103 - 10126 Torino
6 april - 8 september 2013
Jean Prouvé
Metropole aluminium house, 26.2 x 40 ft
ca. 1949, provenance: France
Winner of a 1949 Ministry of Education competition for a “mass-producible rural school with classroom and teacher
accommodation”, the Ateliers Jean Prouvé built two of them, one in Vantoux in Moselle and the other in Bouqueval, near
Paris. Like the school, the accommodation followed the portico principle patented by Prouvé in 1939 and used in a range
of postwar programs, notably in the housing field. The Métropole House had been finalized in 1948. Adaptable to any site,
it came in two sizes, 8x8 meters and 8x12 meters. The second of these, displayed at the Home Show in Paris in 1950,
was the teacher’s house. Its all-steel structure comprised two load-bearing portal frames, which defined the interior space
while leaving total freedom for the layout. The envelope used double-sided facade panels with integrated sash windows
and shutters retracting into ribbed aluminium housings. There was also a glassed-in winter garden and a roof
of juxtaposable aluminium roofing slabs. User comfort was given close consideration: the interior was easy on the eye,
notably thanks to the use of wood, and temperature control went well beyond the standard specifications
of the time. Despite Prouvé’s keenness to become involved in housing production on a mass scale in the early 1950s,
ultimately only fifteen examples of the Métropole House were built, mainly as part of the “Sans Souci” housing estate
at Meudon-la-Forêt. n
A passion for
Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103 - 10126 Torino
6 april - 8 september 2013
a passion for Jean Prouvé
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
A passion for
Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103 - 10126 Torino
6 april - 8 september 2013
CATALOG
A passion for
Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103 - 10126 Torino
6 april - 8 september 2013
Intro Ginevra Elkann
With this exhibition, the Pinacoteca Agnelli offers the public a collection of wholly unique French design and
architecture that has never gone on show before. During the course of their lives, Patrick and Laurence Seguin have
collected the chairs, lamps, furniture, documents and architecture created by an architectural innovator: Jean Prouvé.
Thanks to his nomadic homes, built using poor and easily found materials, such as aluminum, he was a pioneer and
brilliant inventor. For Prouvé, there was no difference between a piece of furniture and a house: both had to be functional
and made from hardwearing materials, and include ingenious mechanisms. Patrick and Laurence were very soon
fascinated by Prouvé and began collecting his works in the 1980s, when few people as yet appreciated his work.
Their light-filled, welcoming Paris home, reflects this passion for the designer who favored simple yet innovative and
modern lines; it is wholly furnished with chairs, lamps and other items by the French architect. Certain expedients,
such as replacing an original seat with a new one (while the original is kept in storage), make it possible to enjoy these
pieces on a daily basis, without affecting their perfect condition.
For the Seguins, the collecting passion was soon transformed into something more. The accumulation of chairs, doors,
architectural models and nomadic homes led Patrick and Laurence to transform their collection into a business, opening
a gallery specializing in 20th-century French design in 1989. The gallery very soon became a point of reference for
French design and has helped make the names of Prouvé, Perriand, Jeanneret and Royère known throughout the world.
Nowadays, their two sides, as collectors and as gallery owners, live peacefully side by side, each contributing to the other.
Their passion for these objects ensures that Patrick and Laurence attend to every aspect of their work with the greatest
care and professionalism, from publishing to graphic design and the layout of exhibitions. For this exhibition too, Patrick
and Laurence have worked with passion on a project that has been shared right from the start, and made possible by their
great generosity. I therefore wish to thank them warmly for their dedication and the care they have shown with regard to
every aspect of the exhibition.
Finally, I would like to stress the educational value of this project: it constitutes a unique opportunity for students
of architecture and anyone interested in this field to take a close-up view of how Jean Prouvé’s houses were constructed.
The Maison Métropole, an important example of the nomadic architecture, has been reconstructed on the roof of the
Lingotto by a team of four over a period of three days. Students and all those interested were able to watch the various
construction phases close-up thanks to the live streaming accessible via the Pinacoteca site.
I find it interesting that Jean Prouvé’s Maison Métropole should maintain a dialogue with the Lingotto for a few months,
not only with the original building of the 1920s, but also with the more recent transformation by Renzo Piano. And
I believe that one thing emerges clearly from this architectural comparison: the topicality and modernity of Prouvé. n
Ginevra Elkann
President
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
A passion for
Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103 - 10126 Torino
6 april - 8 september 2013
Intro Laurence and Patrick Seguin
Jean Prouvé has been a significant part of both our professional work and our personal collection for almost
twenty-five years now. The collection is made up of mid-20th century French furniture, demountable houses
by Jean Prouvé, and contemporary art, and over the years Prouvé has come to represent its core element: his brand of
modernity prefigures so many of today’s approaches—there is real dialogue between his furniture and contemporary
art—and we have the pleasure of living with his work on a daily basis.
A native of Nancy, in eastern France, Prouvé was equipped by his upbringing with a spirit of generous idealism and
a taste for hands-on experimentation. He was that rare bird, a designer proficient in every aspect of the creative process:
drawing, materials, tools.
What makes his work so distinctive is that every item corresponds to a specific functional need and was designed with
mass production in mind. His many chairs and armchairs, for example, are especially indicative of this modus operandi:
his “Standard” chair was the most prolific of them, even if many of its variants were only ever produced as prototypes or
small series.
Initially trained as a wrought-iron craftsman, Prouvé never lost the intimate—we might even say empathetic—knowledge
of metal that finds such sensual expression in his work. Work whose minimalist elegance reflects his indefatigable pursuit
of a quintessential union of form and efficiency.
It is never easy to convey exactly what gives a work unity, but in Prouvé’s case the key was mass production. More than
a quarter of a century separated those first chairs of 1929 from the last, in the 1950s, and throughout those years Prouvé
fought single-mindedly for his convictions: to the critics of his credo he riposted that mass-production was vital to human
progress. He saw himself as making a contribution to the public good: exemplary furniture for local public sector bodies,
government offices, and universities; and mass-produced, demountable buildings that would leave no lasting footprint.
This enduring quest made Prouvé a true twentieth-century visionary, a crusader for a new world where creative designers
would be sensitive to a radically changing social,
economic, and political context.
Aesthetic pleasure, then, is not all his work has to offer: just as affecting are the man and his ideals.
We would sincerely like to thank Ginevra Elkann for the confidence she has shown in us with her invitation to present
our collection in the distinguished setting of the Pinacoteca Agnelli. Ginevra is curating a series devoted to “personal
collections” and we are very honored to see our own included in a program that studies the essence of a collection and
how it manifests itself in the world.
Without seeking comparisons between two very distinct industrial adventures—Agnelli and Prouvé—we love the idea
of bringing them together here. Especially as Jean Prouvé’s ideal was that building should benefit from production
techniques previously restricted to the automobile and aviation industries. n
Laurence and Patrick Seguin
A passion for
Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103 - 10126 Torino
6 april - 8 september 2013
Jean Prouvé’s biography (1901-1984)
Jean Prouvé was a twentieth-century pioneer in the innovative production of furniture and architecture. Son of one
of the founders of the Ecole de Nancy and godchild of Emile Gallé, he was imbued with the creative philosophy of a group
whose principal aim was an art/industry alliance offering access to all.
Determined to be a man of his time, Prouvé explored all the current technical resources in metalworking, soon
abandoning wrought iron for bent sheet steel: in the thirties he produced metal joinery, his early furniture, architectural
components and knockdown buildings, all in small series.
Of the opinion that “in their construction there is no difference between a piece of furniture and a house”, he developed
a “constructional philosophy” based on functionality and rational fabrication. Free of all artifice, the resultant aesthetic
chimed with the doctrine of the Union of Modern Artists, of which Prouvé – with Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and
Charlotte Perriand – was a founder member.
The same principles were applied to the making of furniture – often intended for the public sector – and to the
architecture of the postwar boom. Astute assembly systems for hardwearing structures meant that furniture and
buildings alike could be readily dismantled, moved about and modified.
The Prouvé blend of avant-garde spirit and humanist concerns has lost none of its relevance. The originality of his different
periods is repeatedly rediscovered, from the first items for the University dormitory in Nancy in 1932 through those for
a similar facility in Antony in 1954; the furniture for Africa; and the knockdown postwar schools and “little architecture
machines” of the sixties. Working with the best architects, Jean Prouvé left his stamp on many famous examples of
twentieth-century building, most of which are now classified historic monuments. n
A passion for
Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103 - 10126 Torino
6 april - 8 september 2013
Furniture
Jean Prouvé stands out among his “designer” contemporaries by actually being a maker of things as well.
This “factory man”, as he called himself, insisted on this difference as underpinning the originality of his approach.
It was in this spirit that in the late 1920s he began producing his first architectural components, as well as furniture in
radical contrast with the emergent modernist trend. From there on in all his creations, from 1930 to 1955, adhered
rigorously to a set of principles rooted in his perfect mastery of his preferred material: “Sheet steel was my inspiration,”
he declared, and for him furniture had to fit its purpose, while obeying strict criteria of comfort and robustness.
Bent metal frames, whose strength was considerable, not to say excessive, were combined with visible adjustment
mechanisms and assembly systems. The quest for lightness meant resorting to casters, lightweight materials like
aluminum, and slimmed-down profiles, all with no loss of strength. The outcome—thoroughgoing “machines” for sitting,
working, sitting at table, and storage—offered a perfect marriage of form and function, while generating a distinctive
aesthetic pleasure with an elegance of line that fused solidity and airiness.
The mass-produced series urged by Prouvé were made on a medium scale, notably the “standard” chair that appeared in
different versions between 1934 and 1959. These illustrations of the Prouvé modus operandi reveal a host of variations,
each a response to specific circumstances and outlets in a range of materials, colors and manufacturing methods; as such,
they rounded off a succession of prototypes indicative of unremitting research.
This perspective on Prouvé’s furniture and an architectural oeuvre that amounted to much more than just construction
components demonstrates the comprehensiveness of his agenda at the same time as it foregrounds what he saw
as the fundamental interconnection between his different fields of creation. n
A passion for
Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103 - 10126 Torino
6 april - 8 september 2013
Architecture
After making knockdown houses for war victims in Lorraine at the end of the War, the Ateliers Prouvé committed
to the French government’s definitive reconstruction program, involving not only housing, but also infrastructures,
notably schools.
Equipped with all the technology needed for mass production of metal components, Jean Prouvé saw prefabrication
as the optimal technical and economic solution to the situation. So he honed a system he had patented in 1939
and improved during the war, a metal skeleton using axial portal frames, combined with various kinds of modular facade
panels.
This constructional principle was Prouvé’s response to the Ministry of Education’s 1949 competition for “a massproducible one-room rural school with teacher accommodation.” The specifications called for buildings that would lend
themselves to long-run production and quick and easy erection on any kind of site. The Ateliers Jean Prouvé were among
the winners and in May 1950 were given an order for two prototype units: one for the small municipality of Bouqueval,
near Paris, the other requested by parliamentarian Raymond Mondon for the village of Vantoux, near Metz.
The school
With its big glass doors, extensive roofed play area and covered access balcony that also served as a sunshade,
the 24 x 8 meter classroom building had the look of an open-air school. The rear facade, however, had a more overtly built
appearance: panels with portholes and aluminum-clad facade components with slide-away shutters and windows.
The grid created by the pressed steel portal frames provided free-flowing volumes and rational arrangement of the open
play area, classroom, workshop/dining room, toilet facilities and cloakroom. The aluminum panels were either single or
double faced, with extensive interior use of wood.
The teacher’s accommodation
The accommodation (12 x 8 meters) utilized the same construction technique and was part of the Métropole house series
Prouvé had proposed as a mass-producible individual housing model.
Its all-steel structure comprised 2 load-bearing portal frames, which structured the interior while leaving a free hand for
layout. The envelope was made up of mass-produced double-sided panels including sash windows and shutters that slid
away into the ribbed aluminum casing, a glazed winter garden, and a roof of juxtaposed aluminum slabs. User comfort
had been meticulously considered: in visual terms via the use of wood indoors, and with temperature control in advance
of the standards of the time.
The two units were delivered at the beginning of the 1950 school year, together with appropriate wood and painted sheet
steel furniture from the Ateliers Jean Prouvé. While the actual school buildings were identical, a few construction details—
notably the winter garden—made the residences different.
These two schools were to remain the sole examples of the sizable series Prouvé had hoped for. A little later he came up
with another building system for schools which was more widely used. Despite Prouvé’s keenness to find a niche
in the mass-produced housing program of the early 1950s, only a dozen examples of the Métropole house, displayed at
the Salon des Arts Ménagers in Paris in January 1950, were ever produced. Most of them were erected on the Sans Souci
housing estate in Meudon-la-Forêt, near Paris.
The Vantoux school and its furnishings have been a classified Historical Monument since 2001. n
A passion for
Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
Published by Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli & Galerie Patrick Seguin
Publication date : April 2013
Ginevra Elkann and the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli invited Patrick and Laurence
Seguin -Parisian art dealers specalised in French mid XXth century design- to exhibit for the
first time their own personal collection in the famous Lingotto space, Turino (Italy). This
fantastic architecture, which used to be Fiat’s manufacture and entirely renovated by Renzo
Piano, will serve as wonderful setting for the Seguins rare pieces of Jean Prouvé furniture,
architecture and chosen contemporary artworks. This exhibition -from Spring through Fall
2013- will be accompanied by a rich catalogue co-edited by Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella
Agnelli & Galerie Patrick Seguin.
When Laurence and Patrick Seguin discovered the work of Jean Prouvé in the late 1980s, they
were immediately struck by the unique aesthetic of these pieces. The couple quickly took an
interest in his work as a whole, of which the furniture is only a part, going on to discover his
architectural designs.
The lavishly illustrated exhibition catalogue presents a unique way to explore the wholly work of
Jean Prouvé; from design to architecture. Through a selection of Highlights one may also
appreciate Prouvé’s relevance to contemporary art.
This hard covered 280 pages exhibition catalogue present the Seguin unique collection:
The latter is first approached globally with a chapter devoted to their interior in their residence
in Paris. Prouvé’s work is then studied specifically with each model of design and architecture
elements accompanied with a full caption and several archive documents (drawing, archive
photographs, sketches…). A Chapter is then specifically devoted to Prouvé’s Aluminium
Métropole House, which will be presented on the Lingotto’s roof. One may truly apprehend the
creator’s avant-garde in the field of architecture with the account of this specific commission.
The narrative is richly illustrated with archive documents and sketches.
Lastly, this authoritative catalogue will focus on the exhibition itself through numerous images
of the show in the wonderful Lingotto space.
A passion for Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin
collection
Pinacoteca Agnelli
Galerie Patrick Seguin
ISBN: 978-88-905394-1-1
280 pages – IT / EN
$ 120 – 90 euros
A passion for
Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103 - 10126 Torino
6 april - 8 september 2013
Demountable wooden chair CB 22, 1947
Solid wood, moded plywood and aluminum
tube, 30.7 x 15.7 x 16.1 inches.
Sedia legno smontabile CB 22, 1947
Legno massiccio, compensato curvato
e tubolare alluminio, 78 x 40 x 41 cm.
Jean RoyèRe
Ours Polaire sofa, 1947
Divano Ours Polaire, 1947
Jean PRouvé
Guéridon Bas Africa, 1952
Centrale table, 1954
Swing-jib lamp Africa no. 602, 1952
Cité chair, 1932
Guéridon Bas Africa, 1952
Tavolo Centrale, 1954
Lampada da parete Africa n o 602, 1952
Sedia Cité, 1932
GeoRGes Jouve
Patte d’ours ceramic, ca. 1950
Ceramiche Patte d’ours, verso 1950
Hans-Peter Feldmann
One Dollar Bill with Red Nose, 2008
alexander Calder
Saché, 1974
Jean-miCHel Basquiat
Asbestos, 1981
Standing Man, 1981
Right Eye – Left Eye, 1981
serge mouille
Saturne lamp, 1953
Lampada Saturne, 1953
28
68
Bouqueval, France, 1949
Bouqueval, Francia, 1949
School, Bouqueval, France, 1949
(Henri Prouvé, architect)
View of the covered playground.
Scuola, Bouqueval, Francia, 1949
(Henri Prouvé arch.)
Veduta dal cortile.
180
Façade panel with porthole windows, 1949
Aluminum, wood and glass
116 x 35.8 x 2.8 inches
Provenance: School in Bouqueval, France.
Pannello di facciata a oblò, 1949
Alluminio, legno e vetro
295 x 91 x 7 cm
Provenienza: Scuola a Bouqueval, Francia.
A passion for
Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103 - 10126 Torino
6 april - 8 september 2013
QUOTES
A passion for
Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103 - 10126 Torino
6 april - 8 september 2013
“Jean Prouvé combines the soul of an engineer with that of an architect”. Le Corbusier
“It was sheet steel that inspired me – folded, pressed, ribbed, then welded”. Jean Prouvé
“The problems to be solved in the making of furniture are just as complex as those to be solved in large construction
projects”. Jean Prouvé
“There is no difference between the making of furniture and the building of a house: the materials, calculations,
and sketches are strictly similar”. Jean Prouvé
“What a spirit of invention and synthesis; what determination in the use of the most modest of systems and materials”.
Oscar Niemeyer on Jean Prouvé
“What I find unacceptable is decorative stuff: for me anything purely decorative is deplorable and deleterious.
I have always thought that a well designed, well built structure automatically provides an appropriate aesthetic,
whereas decoration provides only a makeshift one”. Jean Prouvé
“Design nothing that can’t be built”. Jean Prouvé
“The house of my dreams is made in a factory”. Jean Prouvé
“Leave the tree in the forest… so that your joinery can be in metal.” Jean Prouvé
“By its very composition, metal establishes its guiding aesthetic”. Jean Prouvé
“Made up of four specialists, each assembly team left the factory early in the morning on a truck loaded
with the components of a complete house. In the evening they returned, the work finished and the house occupied”.
Jean Prouvé
“Jean Prouvé represents the model builder: intelligent and socially committed”. Renzo Piano
“On Quai Alexandre III Jean Prouvé has built the handsomest house I know of: the most perfect object for living in,
the most dazzling thing ever constructed. It’s all the real, built outcome of a lifetime of research. And it was commissioned
by Abbé Pierre!” Le Corbusier
Fondazione Pinacoteca Del Lingotto
Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
Founders
Fondatori
Giovanni Agnelli
Marella Caracciolo Agnelli
Margaret Agnelli De Pahlen
John Elkann
Lapo Elkann
Ginevra Elkann
Paolo Fresco
Gianluigi Gabetti
Francesca Gentile Camerana
Franzo Grande Stevens
Alessandro Nasi
Board of Directors
Comitato Direttivo
Honorary President
Presidente Onorario
Marella Caracciolo Agnelli
President
Presidente
Ginevra Elkann
A passion for Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin Collection
Una passione per Jean Prouvé
Dal mobile alla casa
La collezione di Laurence e Patrick Seguin
6 April/8 September 2013
6 aprile/8 settembre 2013
From an idea by
Da un’idea di
Ginevra Elkann, Laurence & Patrick Seguin
Director of organization
Direzione organizzativa
Marcella Beraudo di Pralormo
Organisation
Organizzazione
Sabine Lavignotte, Hugo Laquerbe
Secretaries
Segreteria
Emma Roccato, Elena Olivero
Members
Membri
Gianluigi Gabetti
John Elkann
Lapo Elkann
Filippo Beraudo di Pralormo
Sergio Marchionne
Secretary
Segretario
Gianluca Ferrero
Exhibit Design
Progetto di allestimento
Hugo Laquerbe
Laurence & Patrick Seguin
Educational Project
Progetto educativo per la mostra
Alessandro Fabbris e Beatrice Zanelli
QR Codes and collaboration
for adults’ educational projects
QR Codes e collaborazione
ai progetti educativi per adulti
Marta Barcaro
Board of Syndics
Collegio Sindacale
President
Presidente
Mario Pia
Administration
Amministrazione
Mara Abbà
Luigi Demartini
Pietro Fornier
Director
Direttrice
Marcella Beraudo di Pralormo
Press office
Ufficio Stampa
Silvia Macchetto
Catalogue
Catalogo
Publisher
Editore
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
Galerie Patrick Seguin
Project director
Direttore del Progetto
Michael Roy
Graphic design
Grafica
Sophie Dupriez
Texts
Testi
Ginevra Elkann
Laurence & Patrick Seguin
Catherine Coley
Translations
Traduzioni
Lucien Comoy
Angela Maria Piga
John Tittensor
Print – Color separation
Stampa e fotolito
Litho Art New, Torino
All rights reserved. No part of this book may
be reproduced in any form, by print,
photocopy, microfilm or any other means,
without written permission from the publisher.
Tutti i diritti riservati. Nessuna parte di questo
libro può essere riprodotta in alcuna forma,
stampa, fotocopia, microfilm o qualsiasi altro
mezzo senza il consenso scritto dell’editore.
ISBN: 978-88-905394-1-1
EAN: 9788890539411
Copyright deposit: April 2013
Corporate Development Consultant
Paolo Landi
Insurance
Assicurazione
Reale Mutua Assicurazione
Transport
Trasporto
Gander & White
Wade Fine Art Logistic
Under the patronage of
Con il patrocinio di
Main Sponsor
Technical Sponsors
Sponsor tecnici
Media Partners
A passion for
Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The Laurence and Patrick Seguin collection
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103 - 10126 Torino
6 april - 8 september 2013
SPONSOR
The passion of Borbonese
Main sponsor of the exhibition
A passion for Jean Prouvé
From furniture to architecture
The collection of Laurence and Patrick Seguin
A deep interest in art and design lead to an encounter between two outstanding reality in the town of Turin: the
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli and Borbonese.
Borbonese, a brand linked to art as per tradition and passion, chooses to be main sponsor of the Pinacoteca
Giovanni e Marella Agnelli for the exhibition dedicated to Jean Prouvé, the French designer known for his
rationalism and modernism and acknowledged as one of the most influential role in the history of the XX
century design.
Jean Prouvé has developed a “constructive thinking” based on a logic of making and functionality that
generates an aesthetic deprived of any artify. He rejoins to the Union of the Modern Artists doctrine of which
he was a founder member with Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand.
The brand, native of Turin as the then owner Umberto Ginestrone who hanged out with the artistic
intelligentsia of his time, goes back to its origins and passion for art and design as a particularity of the maison.
As the Borbonese’s history tells, today recalls the sharper aspect of its personality: a strong care for such
variegated and free art that goes from futurism, as famous as the bag signed by Giacomo Balla that’s been
displayed in the exhibition “Futurismi Futuristi”, going forward with the sponsorship of the most important
Botero’s exhibition in Italy, to the celebration of the centenary of the maison in partnership with the Roy
Lichtenstein’s Foundation and its exhibition at the Triennale in Milano.
This event is the beginning of a relevant partnership toward a creative way to strengthen the synergyc
motivation that, necessarily, must exists between Made in Italy excellences.
In this brand, who passed through thousands of changing of a long lasting life, there is the revolutionary need
to upset the present to look forward to the future, dynamically.
Ufficio Stampa Borbonese
Paola Tecchiati
Tel. + 39 02 97379911
[email protected]
BORBONESE S.p.A. Società con unico socio
SEDE LEGALE: Via Nazionale, 99 40065 Pianoro Bologna Italia T +39 051770111 F +39 051775450
SHOW ROOM & PRESS OFFICE: Via Nino Bixio, 7 20129 Milano Italia T +39 0297379911 F +39 0297379801
Codice fiscale e numero di iscrizione presso il Registro delle Imprese di Bologna 80013140373 Partita Iva 01703261204 Capitale sociale Euro 12.500.000 i.v.
[email protected]
COMUNICATO STAMPA
REALE MUTUA SPONSOR DELLA MOSTRA DEDICATA
AL DESIGNER FRANCESE JEAN PROUVÉ
La Compagnia assicurativa subalpina sostiene
la Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli anche per questo prestigioso evento
Torino, 5 aprile 2013 – “Una passione per Jean Prouvé”, la mostra di mobili e architetture che
si terrà a Torino dal 6 aprile all’8 settembre 2013 alla Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli.
Si tratta di una ricca collezione, appartenente ai coniugi Patrick e Laurence Seguin, costituita
da oggetti, modelli, foto e disegni del grande architetto e designer francese, vissuto nel secolo
scorso; in particolare, sarà esposta la “Maison Metropole”, capolavoro in alluminio di
architettura nomade di 8 x 12 metri, che sarà montata per la prima volta sulla pista del
Lingotto.
Il sostegno di Reale Mutua a questa mostra, che racconta uno tra i tanti volti della modernità
attraverso le opere di uno dei massimi esponenti del design del XX secolo, testimonia la
volontà e l’impegno della Compagnia di Assicurazioni nella crescita e nella valorizzazione del
capoluogo piemontese, quale polo culturale di fama non solo nazionale, ma anche
internazionale.
«Questa sponsorizzazione fa parte di un più ampio progetto di sensibilità e attenzione che, da
sempre, Reale Mutua ha verso il proprio territorio di origine e nei confronti delle iniziative di
carattere culturale», dichiara Luigi Lana, Direttore Generale della Società Reale Mutua di
Assicurazioni. «Il nostro sostegno rafforza il legame con la Pinacoteca Agnelli, istituzione con
la quale collaboriamo ormai da tempo e che costiuisce una delle eccellenze culturali della
nostra città».
Fondata a Torino nel 1828, Reale Mutua è la più importante Compagnia di assicurazioni italiana in forma di mutua.
E' capofila di un Gruppo presente in Italia e in Spagna nel quale operano circa 3.000 dipendenti per tutelare più di 3
milioni e mezzo di Assicurati. La Società Reale Mutua di Assicurazioni offre una gamma molto ampia di prodotti, sia
nei rami danni sia nei rami vita. I suoi Soci/Assicurati sono oltre 1.400.000 fra privati e imprese, facenti capo a circa
350 agenzie, mentre l'intero Gruppo ne conta sul territorio nazionale quasi 800.
Per ulteriori informazioni e approfondimenti:
Ufficio Stampa – Società Reale Mutua di Assicurazioni
Elisabetta Ruà – 011 4312309 – [email protected]
Giulia Altea – 011 4315911 – [email protected]
[email protected]