Alessandro Mendini
Related: Italian design - Radical design movement - architecture
Proust armchair chair (1978) - Alessandro Mendini
Image sourced here. [Mar 2006]
Biography
Alessandro Mendini (born 1931 in Milan) is an Italian designer and architect. He played an important part in the development of Italian design. He also worked, aside from his artistic career, for Casabella, Nodo und Domus magazines. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro Mendini [Mar 2006]
Profile
Architect, writer, and painter born in Milan in 1931, Mendini is a much discussed and followed leading character in his field. He confronts projects with an interest that ranges from radical Utopian to commonplace design. He won the Compasso d'Oro Award (Gold Compass) for design. A leading light of current postmodern and contemporary, his design is not aggressive, but of soft architectural shapes, almost feminine. He loves a project that favors emotion. "I am interested in the house as a kind place, where more emotion and introversion come out, with objects that stimulate slowness, ritual, and mythology. The world is violent, the house has to be protective". He uses provocative slogans such as: "sentimental robot", "hermaphrodite architecture", "universal cosmetology", "informed craftsmanship", "pictorial design". Under the conception of Mendini, furniture is architecture, each piece a unique object of art, a theoretical plan. He has rediscovered the expressive value of decoration and has made that the foundation for the development of his pictorial designs. Fabrics, tapestries, and rugs participate in his design. "Art or design is not the message, but the means by which to reawaken the conscience". This position is closer to art than to design. He has been editor of the magazines Casabella, Modo, and Domus, opening them to the artistic neo-avante garde. He has published books such as: Paesaggio Casalingo (Domestic Landscape), Addio Architettura (Farewell Architecture), and Progetto Infelice (Unsuccessful Plan). In 1979 he founded Studio Alchimia, a cultural movement which bursts with a reassuring standard of design. Of this movement, monographs in various languages exist. -- (source : design italia) via http://home.tiscali.be/d.side/pag43_074.htm [Jun 2005]
Alchima: Never-Ending Italian Style (1985) - Kazuto Sato
Alchima: Never-Ending Italian Style (1985) - Kazuto Sato [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Proust armchair chair (1978) - Alessandro Mendini
See also: Marcel Proust - 1978 - Italian design - radical design - modern design
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