The Olivetti shop in Venice's Piazza San Marco 101 will get an "old" new look soon. Commissioned in 1957 by Adriano Olivetti and designed by Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa (well known for his Brion Cemetery in San Vito d'Altivole), the shop - opened in 1958 as a showroom for Olivetti typewriters - will host from next week an exhibition entitled "Programmare l’arte. Olivetti e le Neoavanguardie cinetiche" (Programming Art. Olivetti and the Cinetic Neo-vanguards; from 30th August to 14th October 2012).
The event - part of the Collateral Venice Architecture Biennale programme - is aimed at rediscovering the materials presented during an exhibition held in 1962 at the Milan and the Venice-based Olivetti shops that was curated by Bruno Munari, with texts by Umberto Eco and featuring the experimental artists of Gruppo T (Giovanni Anceschi, Davide Boriani, Gianni Colombo, Gabriele De Vecchi, Grazia Varisco) and Gruppo N (Alberto Biasi, Ennio Chiggio, Toni Costa, Edoardo Landi, Manfredo Massironi), alongside Munari, Enzo Mari, Paul Bury and Getulio Alviani.
All the artists presented at the time new works of art characterised by kinetic, electromagnetic and mechanical qualities, creating innovative mobile and variable structures.
The new event at the Olivetti shop will include 13 works of art, original publicity material by Enzo Mari produced by Olivetti for the 1962 exhibition, alongside an original film shot at the same time with esclusive interviews with the artists and intelllectuals involved, plus original photographs taken by Mario Dondero in 1962, and a documentary about the first mainframe computer produced by Olivetti, the Elea 9000, directed by Nelo Risi. "Programming Art" is highly recommended to all the Munari fans on the lookout for some interesting inspirations and to the admirers of Carlo Scarpa who would like to re-explore the shop.
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