Cultural institutions Triennale Milano and Fondation Cartier are hosting a retrospective show of Italian designer Alessandro Mendini at this year’s Milan design week, showcased in this video produced by Dezeen for the brand.
The exhibition takes place at Trienalle Milano
Triennale Milano partnered with the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain to host the exhibition, which explores Mendini’s work across the fields of architecture, art, design and theory.
Titled Io Sono Un Drago (I am a dragon), the show brings together over 400 different works and intends to explore Mendini’s philosophical approach to the world around him.
Mendini was an Italian architect and designer known for his role as a key figure in the radical design and postmodernist movements of the 1960s and ’70s.
Through his 60-year career he created some of the most iconic design pieces of the 20th century, such as the Proust armchair, which combined baroque references with pointillist patterns. Mendini passed away at the age of 87 in February 2019.
Split into six thematic sections, the show looks back on Mendini’s life and work, with the first section, titled Identikit, showcasing a series of self-portraits Mendini created over the course of his life.
The following sections explore aspects of his work including his firm Atelier Mendini, which designed buildings such as the Groninger Museum and the Arts metro stations in Naples, as well as exploring his research in radical design theory.
The last section of the exhibition consists of three immersive installations that Mendini created towards the end of his life, which play with the concepts of dreams and nightmares.
As part of the wider exhibition, French designer Phillipe Starck will also debut an immersive installation created in homage to Mendini during the run of the design week.
Titled What? A homage to Alessandro Mendini, the installation aims to take visitors into a sensory journey through Mendini’s subconscious.
Speaking on the installation, Starck said: “before being a human, [Mendini] was an idea, a sensation, an osmotic vibration that I wanted to recapture through the installation, conceived as an immersive experience in Alessandro Mendini’s brain.”
Starck’s installation will be located in Triennale Milano’s Impluvium space.
Io Sono Un Drago is open to the public at the Trienalle Milano 13 April to 13 October. What? A homage to Alessandro Mendini runs from the 16 April- 13 October. See our Milan design week 2024 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.
Partnership content
This video was produced by Dezeen for Triennalle as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen’s partnership content here.
