In our technology-driven world we often hear debates about the beauty of an object made in accordance with traditional artisanal techniques and the possibilities offered by serialisation and innovative devices and techniques, such as 3D printing.
Yet it is undeniable that there is poetry in both these worlds - the artisanal and the industrial - especially when the two universes collaborate one with the other to produce unique design pieces.
An exhibition opening in a couple of weeks' time at Milan's La Triennale will explore the inspirations and techniques behind pieces that were the happy results of a meeting between these two worlds.
"Unique and Repeatable" (from 12th September, so in time for the Milanese runway shows) promises to be an exploration of the relationship between artworks and serial artefacts through 100 objects from the private collections of gallerist Massimo De Carlo.
De Carlo collected the pieces during his travels around the globe and the ones on display at La Triennale represent his personal passion and the history and culture of the 20th century.
The exhibition space is going to be divided in three parts: one dedicated to the Weimar Republic cercamics produced before the Second World War, another dedicated to Alighero Boetti's embroidered text works and a final one featuring the posters created between the 1960s and 1990s by Italian graphic designer AG Fronzoni (the latter will undoubtedly prove inspiring for modern graphic designers).
Each of the pieces on display allows visitors to admire and explore the connection between works of art and serial artefacts and consider how art and taste have embraced the industrial world.
The objects invite visitors to ponder on the meaning of the adjective "unique" and on what the notion and act of collecting actually implies.
De Carlo started for example collecting Weimar Republic ceramics 20 years ago, whilst strolling through a flea market in Berlin: what prompted him to investigate and collect throughout the years these objects was the fact that they represent a perfect example of arty serialisation. Each cercamic piece is indeed decorated using stencils and spray-painting, combining the Art Deco aesthetics and mechanical labour; they constitute the first historical example of a product decorated with geometrical abstractions conceived for mass distribution.
Alighiero Boetti’s iconic embroidery works are made following ancient artisanal sewing techniques, but they pose a very modern question about authorship (fashion designers studying copyright law please pay attention here).
Designed by the artist and subsequently handmade by Afghan artisans, the embroidered pieces are symbols of a collective of people at work, of Boetti's conceptualism and humanism and of his reflections on life and art.
Created to promote exhibitions, cultural events and political gatherings, the posters by Italian architect and designer Angiolo Giuseppe Fronzoni, better known simply as AG Fronzoni, are characterized by dynamic tensions created by the relationship between emptiness and wholeness and a unique use of typographic fonts and colours. Fronzoni rejected all things unnecessary, superfluous and excessive in favour of a rigid, moral and ethic sense of aesthetics, and distinct, minimalist and sharp graphics and will undoubtedly represent an inspiration for many young people who may not know him (but, if you ever think of ripping off AG Fronzoni, remember that Off White's Virgil Abloh was there first when he reused the style of the graphics for a Fronzoni poster for a 1966 Lucio Fontana exhibition for one of the brand's Autumn/Winter 2016 shirts - View this photo).
Though extremely different for mediums, materials and context, the objects on display in these three sections at La Triennale communicate with each other, highlighting the narrative and sentimental value of these objects on a personal level (De Carlo's), while presenting the artisanal and the industrial not as antithetical forces, but as two facets of the same coin, offering a wide range of solutions and approaches to creative minds.
"Unique and Repeatable - Art and the Industrial in the Collections of Massimo De Carlo", La Triennale, Milan, from 12th September to 7th October 2018.
Image credits for this post
Cake Plate, 36 ø x 3 cm, Steingutfabrik Grünstadt AG, circa 1930
Plate, 32,5 ø x 2 cm, Wächtersbacher Steingutfabrik, 1928/29 al 1935
Alighiero Boetti, Far quadrare tutto, 1979, Embroidery on fabric 24 × 23.5 cm, photograph by Alessandro Zambianchi, Courtesy Massimo De Carlo, Milan/London/Hong Kong
Alighiero Boetti, Attirare l'attenzione, 1989, Embroidery on fabric 22 × 22.5 cm, photograph by Alessandro Zambianchi, Courtesy Massimo De Carlo, Milan/London/Hong Kong
AG Fronzoni, Corsi di formazione per insegnanti, 1980, 100,3 x 68,8 cm
AG Fronzoni, Inascoltabili frammenti/sonori, 1981, 98,2 x 68,2 cm
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