Exhibition
Aldo Rossi. Design 1960–1997 in Milan
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Until 2 October 2022, the Museo del Novecento, located at Piazza Duomo 350, will be showing objects by Milanese architect Aldo Rossi (1931–1997). Never before has Rossi’s oeuvre of furniture, industrial design, drawings, paintings and architectural models been presented so comprehensively. The most famous design icons of this pioneer of the postmodern are the espresso makers La Conica (1982) and La Cupola (1988), which were designed for Alessi and whose archetypal shapes are reminiscent of church towers. However, the creation of Rossi’s most significant architectural work was thwarted by politics: on the banks of the Spree in Berlin, where Rossi had planned to erect the German Historical Museum in 1987, there now stands the Federal Chancellery.
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Rossi’s international career began with his book L’Architettura della Cittá, which was published in 1966. At architecture schools throughout Europe and the USA, it became a standard work in an architectural stream that aimed to counteract functionalism and is known by the umbrella term postmodernism.
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With his 200-m-long, stereotypical residential block in Milan’s model district of Gallaratese, Rossi refers to both pintura metafisica and the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico. Rossi saw the city as a work of art created by society from archetypal monuments. He was later inspired by the buildings of antiquity with their clear volumes: cubes, cylinders, pyramids and domes.
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The reduction of the architectural form to an abstract type (Italian: tipo) determines not only his architectural work, but also his creations as designer and graphic artist. Rossi interpreted these archetypes in his article about the visionary Roma Interrotta project (1978) as a collage-like urban utopia of ancient Rome. He realized this collage of clear typologies as concrete architecture in the San Cataldo cemetery in Modena (1978).
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The current exhibition is devoted not only to Rossi’s architecture, but also to his work as a designer. The direct juxtaposition of armchairs, espresso makers, secretaries, glass cabinets featuring modular gridwork, drawings and architectural models brings Rossi’s universal design principle to life: a world of abstract typological bodies where scale and function play no role and time appears to stand still.
Exhibition venue: Museo del Novecento, Piazza del Duomo 8, 20123 Milano (IT)
Exhibition dates: 29 April until 2 October 2022
Opening hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday 10 am–7pm; Thursday 10 am–10 pm; closed Mondays
More Information is available at museodelnovecento.org
Gallery
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