Memphis Milano, the design and architecture group founded by Ettore Sottsas in 1981, influenced the culture greatly by creating designs that went beyond marketing, they were part of a new language. Their projects underlined the emotional and psychological sides to objects, and now you will able to experience two-hundred pieces of furniture designed from 1981 and 1986 through Memphis Again, an exhibition directed and curated by the Swiss-born designer Christoph Radl, founder of the creative agency based in Milan called Radl. Get to see them first-hand at Curva Gallery in Milan during Triennale Milano until June 12.
In fact, the exhibition Memphis Again follows a chronological order and it is displayed over a more than 100 metre long catwalk. As a visitor, you’ll be one moving along, experiencing kind of a night club experience, to the rhythm of Seth Troxler compositions. They present objects such as bookshelves, chairs, coffee tables, couches, chandeliers, rugs and many more. Meanwhile, you’ll be able to read quotes from critics, architects and designers that will be projected onto the walls.
This is not a homage or a historicisation but a closer look into Memphis’ original desire to propose alternatives to designs that are especially focused on solving industrial functional problems. Just like the design critic Barbara Radice stated in 1981: “Memphis does not deny functional utopia, but it looks at functionality with a wider vision, more as an anthropologist than as a marketing specialist.” It does so also by displaying photographs and other graphic materials that focus on Memphis Design or The Memphis Group, however you want to call it, and the cultural movement they created in Italy and spread around the world.
This is not a homage or a historicisation but a closer look into Memphis’ original desire to propose alternatives to designs that are especially focused on solving industrial functional problems. Just like the design critic Barbara Radice stated in 1981: “Memphis does not deny functional utopia, but it looks at functionality with a wider vision, more as an anthropologist than as a marketing specialist.” It does so also by displaying photographs and other graphic materials that focus on Memphis Design or The Memphis Group, however you want to call it, and the cultural movement they created in Italy and spread around the world.
Memphis Again is now on view at Curva Gallery in Milan during the Triennale Milano until June 12.