Exhibition Details

Even the most common daily objects can turn into art pieces if they are made with style, aesthetics and functionality. For the first Bologna Design Week edition, Galleria d'Arte Maggiore g.a.m. - Maggiore Design dedicates its rooms to artist's sculptures, objects and furniture. Simonetta Vespa and Roberta Calarota present in Via d'Azeglio 15 a selection of limited edition design works, born by Cleto Munari's flair and technical know-how on projects made by international artists, such as Alessandro Mendini, Mario Botta, Ettore Sottsass, Carlo Scarpa, some leading figures of the Transavanguardia movement like Mimmo Paladino and Sandro Chia, through Arman's Nouveau Realisme but also Bertozzi & Casoni, Louis Cane and Giosetta Fioroni.
Design is the undisputed protagonist of a week full of important cultural events in Bologna from 30th September through 3rd October. Galleria d'Arte Maggiore - Maggiore Design participates with a careful selection of high-quality tables, furniture and pieces of art. Among the tables, some intriguing proposals are displayed, such as Sandro Chia's desk which reminds a metaphor of his palette, enriched by an opera put on the reading edge. Cleto Munari chooses an empty crystal and limited the colors on the table's legs, in tribute to Venice, the city of light reflections. “Golden Gate” from Alessandro Mendini couldn't be missing, with its explosion of graffiti and free words. Among the furniture, special features are the Transavanguardia masters, with the “fantasmini” (ghosts) from Sandro Chia and Mimmo Paladino who creates an opera made of visual twists contrasts of black and white, different layers of colors or black and golden decorations inspired by the art of Paolo Uccello. An impressive piece is the one realized by Mimmo Paladino and Alessandro Mendini, the Credenza “Silenziosa” (Silent Pantry), enriched by a bronze sculpture. Another important section of the show is represented by the fine silvers and the vases from the “Micromacro” collection, created by Alessandro Mendini and Cleto Munari. Also, Mimmo Paladino presents his ceramics series dedicated to Iliad and Odyssey myths where every character has marked features and sharp styling elements.
Sandro Chia experiments with the making of objects too and he carves them with faces, typical elements of his production. On show, also Cleto Munari's precious Murrine, dedicated to the four seasons, and fine pieces of art and design by Ettore Sottsass, who is famous for preferring aesthetic to functionality and for giving his operas a “symbolic, emotive and ritual component”. Arman proposes his limited edition ceramics, dedicated to the accumulations of Ferrari F40, referred to the big monument the artist made at the racetrack in Imola. Some unique pieces by Bertozzi & Casoni propose new meanings and use for ceramics, going beyond a poor decorative concept to realize works that, using irony and hyper-realism, get in touch with abstraction and conceptualism. Once again Sandro Chia is the protagonist of the exhibition with the pieces he made for his solo show at the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza. The artist tested new languages of the matter: ceramics gets in touch with bronze (Mappamondi), and with paper (Cornici) or shows its purity in pieces like Libri and Babbi addolorati. Jessica Carrol joins this overview with her ceramics showing a mysterious and fantasy interpretation of nature and Louis Cane brings us back to the great history of art, by proposing his version of Velàsques' Las Meninas, transformed in bright chromatic sculptures. Giosetta Fioroni, with her Teatrini (Small theatres) and Vestitini (Dresses), takes us to her meta-real, delicate and feminine universe. The strength of the project proposed by Maggiore Design is creating a dialogue between personalities coming from different and international cultures, letting them express freely and transforming the sharp world of design into a world of uncountable creative possibilities.