Curator/Art Director: Dorota Koziara
Organizers: The Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw The Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw
The official Doctor Honoris Causa bestowal ceremony 1 December 2014 at 11.00 Aula Leopoldina, University of Wrocław
The first days of December 2014 will be very special for Wrocław. The exhibition of Alessandro Mendini’s works in the Museum of Architecture and the Neon Gallery of the Centre of Applied Art – Innovation Center (the new building of the Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław) will be part of the visual arts programme of the European Capital of Culture 2016. The rich programme will be an opportunity to become familiar with the works of the world-famous architect, designer, design master, critic and chief editor of magazines devoted to architecture, design and art, long- -standing director of the world’s oldest design magazine, Domus.
The MENDINI exhibition will be the first one in Poland to be organized in cooperation with INTERNI, the Italian magazine of interiors and contemporary design, one of the oldest design magazines in the world celebrating this year its 60th anniversary. The multidimensional exhibition of Alessandro Mendini’s works will be the first such exhibition to be organized by a state art school. On 1 December 2014 inside the baroque interiors of Aula Leopoldina of the University of Wrocław, the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, whose Rector is Professor Piotr Kilan, shall grant Mr Allessandro Mendini the prestigious academic title of Doctor Honoris Causa. The promotor in the award proceedings is the Dean of the Faculty of Interior Architecture and Design, Urszula Smaza-Gralak, Ph.D. (Habil.).
The Wrocław exhibition will feature sculptures and installations, architectural and industrial projects as well as other unique works of the great architect, including a collection borrowed from Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporaine in Paris comprising such installations as Petite Cathedrale, Grande Poltrona di Proust, Cavaliere sculpture and other objects.
By courtesy of the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands, which is in possession of the largest collection of Alessandro Mendini’s works, in Wrocław we will be able to see: Tete Gčante and a collection of laminates which revolutionized the world of contemporary architecture, and were designed by Mendini for the Italian company Abet Laminati.
We will also see nine two-meter tall golden mosaic sculptures, Mobili per Uomo, from the collection of Fondazione Bisazza – a contemporary art foundation established by one of the largest manufacturers of glass mosaic in the world, Bisazza, for which Atelier Mendini has worked for many years developing the colour palette of mosaics and collections, and where Alessandro Mendini himself was Art Director. Mobile Venice, from the private collection of Cleto Munari, will come Wrocław.
The Museum of Architecture will also exhibit a number of miniatures, bronze objects from the Short Stores collection, and ceramic Colonne sculptures from the collection of Superego – two-meter tall, colourful objects, resembling anthropomorphic forms.
The Atelier Mendini Archive will provide a vast collection of unique objects: the famous Poltrona Proust armchair in its different variants, furniture from the Redesign series, which in the 80s revolutionized the world of design, a ceramics collection made in the traditional Korean Celadon technique, a series of papier-mache vases, a special social project realized in collaboration with prisoners from one of the largest prisons in Italy, Rebbibia, the Proust series of items and objects including the famous Ogetto Banale Proust, and many other works of the Master.
The Museum of Architecture will also present a series of models of architectural objects realized in different places in the whole world – including such projects as the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands, Torre dl Paradiso in Hiroshima, Japan, Alessi Factory in Italy and many others. Around 60 photographs of the completed architectural projects will also be presented.
From Triennale in Milan, the most important Italian institution in the field of design and architecture, Wrocław will receive original sketches related to many projects connected with architecture, design and art. Triennale has been in possession of all Mendini’s sketches for a few years now. The Wrocław exhibition will also see the typical of Mendini great combination of art and industry embodied by large scale objects – public space sculptures: lamps, vases and seats produced by Schoenhuber Franchi and Slide companies.
Four-meter tall Bomarzo sculptures produced by Schoenhuber Franchi will be featured in the Center of Applied Art – Innovation Center, a new building of the Academy of Art and Design, while objects Here, There, Glace, produced by Slide, will be shown in the interiors of the Museum of Architecture. Alessandro Mendini often works as art director for numerous brands. In Wrocław effects of such cooperation will be shown, i.e. projects made for companies for which collaboration with Alessandro Mendini meant reaching a leading role in the field of design and setting new directions in design. These include: Alessi, Bisazza, Swatch and those with whom Alessandro Mendini has worked as a designer for years: Venini, Abet Laminati, Magis, Olivari, Porro, Ramun, Swarovski, Zerodisegno, and many more.
The Wrocław exhibition will be a summary of life’s artistic work of the great promoter of the art of design and an intellectual of our times. It will present mostly novelties, projects completed over the last 10 years. The exhibition will also be a great opportunity to present to a wide, multinational audience the city of Wrocław – the European Capital of Culture 2016. It will also be a chance for the people of Wrocław to get to know the figures of Alessandro Mendini and Francesco Mendini who, many years ago, founded Atelier Mendini. The Wrocław exhibition will also be an opportunity for jubilee summaries for many institutions and companies of international renown with whom Mendini has worked for years. Among them, the Groninger Musem in the Netherlands celebrating this year its 20th anniversary (whose project was realised in Atelier Mendini) and Foundation Cartier pour l’art contemporaine celebrating its 30th anniversary.
The famous Anna G collection of Alessi, designed by Mendini, also celebrates its 20th anniversary. The collection has revolutionized the world of design introducing empathy to design. As Mendini himself put it: ‘we look at objects, and they look at us.’ This year is also the year of the 60th anniversary of the Interni Magazine, one of the world’s most important magazines in the field of design and its editor-in-chief, Gilda Bojardi, founder of FuoriSalone, the most important event in the area of design in the world, celebrates her 20 years of the magazine’s direction.
The organizers of the Mendini exhibition are the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design and the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław.