The Museo del Novecento in Milan is paying homage to Aldo Rossi, one of the leading architects of the 20th century, with the retrospective Aldo Rossi. Design 1960-1987.
Curated by Chiara Spangaro in collaboration with the Fondazione Aldo Rossi and Silvana Editoriale, the exhibition will be inaugurated on April 29, 2022 and cover this architect, designer, theorist, and critic in a spectacular itinerary which includes over 350 pieces of furniture and everyday objects, prototypes, paintings, drawing and projects made between 1960 and 1987.
The layout of the exhibition was designed by Morris Adjmi – MA Architects and divides Aldo Rossi’s world into nine rooms where graphical works and artisanal and industrial products get combined with the architect’s private space. It goes from the relationship between the painted image and the reality of the object to prototypes of an imaginary domestic landscape, poetic spaces with the Paris series (UniFor, 1994), the Tea&Coffee Piazza service (Alessi, 1983), original drawings of the interiors of Rossi’s home in Via Rugabella, and interpretations of the cube in all its forms—like the geometries used by Rossi in both architecture and design. Moving on to the sixth room, there is an exposition of furniture design by Rossi which includes design icons like the Papyro design for Molteni&C or the Tabularium table for Up&Up. Meanwhile, the following room is decorated with furniture and objects which were collected by the architect and present in his home—from the American coffee maker to the 19th century credenza which inspired his design.
The relationship between architecture and design, urban and monumental spaces and everyday objects is evident throughout the entire exhibition. In fact, the exhibition ends with some symbolic pieces like the Museo chair which was made for the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht, the chair for the Carlo Felice theater in Genoa—both created with Molteni&C and Unifor—and, finally, the temporary wooden construction of Teatro del Mondo, in which the floating theatre, the lighthouse and cabin bring us back to the initial works in order to close out this imaginative tale.
Form, colors, classicism and metaphysics got combined in Aldo Rossi’s professional career. We can this in La conica and La cupola (the coffeemakers designed for Alessi in 1984 and 1988), the lighthouse made into a teapot for Rosenthal in 1994, the Piroscafo-bookcase made with Luca Meda per Molteni&C and many other projects on display.
Where: Museo del Novecento, Piazza del Duomo 8, Milan, Italy
When: April 29- October 2, 2022
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