Alessandro
Mendini
(1931)
architect - designer
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. 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 Alchymia,
a cultural movement which bursts with a reassuring
standard of design. Of this movement, monographs
in various languages exist.
The fruits of his truly "volcanic activity",
are shown in
various museums and international collections.
There are
works by him in the permanent collections
of the Museum of
Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum in
New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and
other museums.
Among his architectural projects
are: the Teatro di Arezzo (1989),
the civic tower at Gibellina in Sicily, a
tower in Hiroshima Tower, and the Groningen
Museum in Holland.
related
subjects:
links:
www.ateliermendini.it
