Leggi questo post in Italiano
Achille Castiglioni this year would have turned 100 years old. Many events and tributes have celebrated this important birthday, now the Milan Triennale celebrates with a great solo show: A Castiglioni, a tribute to one of the greatest Italian designers, a true Milanese “monument”.
The Triennale di Milano celebrates the 100th anniversary of Achille Castiglioni with a large monographic exhibition dedicated to the Milanese designer.
The exhibition, open until 20 January 2019, is curated and designed by Patricia Urquiola that studied with Castiglioni, she graduated with him in 1989 at the Politecnico of Milan. It would be wonderful have had Achille Castiglioni as a professor!
Castiglioni was a design genius, during the post-war and the economic boom he was able to invent and create useful objects, incredible in their simplicity! A curious, cheerful man, everyone loves Castiglioni.
He was sympathetic to everyone, in the etymological meaning of the term: συμπάθεια (sympatheia), συν + πάσχω “to suffer together”, “to feel emotions with”, sympathy as the ability to feel a situation in the same way to other people. This is the main requirement for good design: understanding needs and request and being able to transform them into an object. I think that Achille Castiglioni was the best ever at this.
“Mutual sympathy between those who design and those who work is very important and I believe it is one of the guides of my way of working in design and architecture.” Achille Castiglioni
The smile that distinguished him can be found in every project he designed. You can feel how much he enjoyed drawing it, the excitement, the attention in the observation of life, the brilliant idea. They look like simple ideas but the genius is right here, making it seem simple while we could not do it even in an entire life!
Achille had fun with his objects, he always said that they had to keep company, I’m happy to have Lampadina, a small table lamp, one of his most famous “ready made” born from the encounter of anonymous objects, which keep me company. I imagine that one day Achille introduced a light bulb to a film reel and making a new object, ironic, functional, perfect!
“I collect objects, a bit of everything, anonymous objects. I collect every object that has a brilliant design component.” Achille Castiglioni
Visit the exhibition, you will discover interesting things like the history of the spoons designed for Kraft mayonnaise. Kraft company wanted to design a little free gift for their clients, they called Achille Castiglioni and he thought about a spoon that can collect and spread mayonnaise at the same time!
Take your time to watch Castiglioni videos and then with the same ticket enter into his world visiting the Castiglioni Foundation, a wonderful apartment in Piazza Castello that it was his studio (with an incredible view of Castello Sforzesco!). Showing the admission ticket you will receive a discount.
A Castiglioni
La Triennale di Milano
Until 20 January 2019
Ticket 10€/8,50€/cumulative ticket 13€