“I like irony, I like to play a game, I like to stay far away from rhetoric: that’s the reason why I let the objects I design express all these ideas, turning them into a sort of toys you can use even though you’ve grown up.” Alessandro Mendini, Italian designer and architect
image source: https://chambernyc.com/artist/alessandro-mendini/
About his life
Alessandro Mendini was born in Milan in 1931. Through his work as an architect, designer, journalist, and publisher, Mendini has helped establish the Italian design sensibility on a global scale—with a particular focus on neo-modern, avant-garde design, as well as the cross-over between art, design and architecture.
image source: https://www.designboom.com/interviews/designboom-interview-alessandro-mendini/
Mendini’s work spans the arenas of graphics, furniture, interiors, architecture, stage design, writing, and painting. He was the publisher of the popular magazines Casabella (1970-76), Modo and Domus (each 1979-85). In 1979, he joined Ettore Sottsass and Michele De Lucchi as a partner at Studio Alchimia before he cofounded Domus Academy in 1982.
info source: https://www.pamono.com/designers/alessandro-mendini
image source: https://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/02/24/alessandro-mendini-supreme/
What are the main features of Mendini’s style?
Alessandro Mendini’s work is categorically contemporary, characterized by bright colors and non-traditional shapes as an exploration of how one discipline can be affected by another.
image source: https://www.pamono.com/designers/alessandro-mendini
Much of Mendini’s artistic approach attempts to inject new meaning or new perspective into everyday objects such as furniture or homewares, a method that the Italian artist refers to as “re-design”, which was a notable departure from classic Italian styles at the time. Mendini is often attributed with helping reform the Italian art, design and architecture movements in the 1980s.
info source: https://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/02/24/alessandro-mendini-supreme/
images source: https://www.dezeen.com/2015/06/26/alessandro-mendini-interview-no-more-ideology-design-magazines-kartell-claudio-luti-proust-chair/
Selected works and projects
- Triennale di Milano – Branch in Incheon (Korea), 2009
- Byblos Art Hotel-Villa Amistà, Verona (Italy), 2005
- Swimming and sports centre, Trieste (Italy), 2004
- Galleria Mendini, Lörrach (Germany), 2004
- Dinosaur – Dinosaur Museum, Katsuyama (Japan), 2000
- Naples metro system – Santa Rosa/Materdei/Università stations, Naples (Italy), 2000-2009
- Town Hall – redevelopment of the grounds, Naples (Italy), 1999
- Luxo – Stardust, 1998
- Fondazione Maghetti – redevelopment of a district in Lugano (Switzerland), 1998
- Complex in Via della Bicchieraia, Arezzo (Italy), 1997
- Alessi – Anna G collection, 1994-2004
- Alessi offices, Omegna (Italy), 1993
- Busstop Hannover – Steintor stop, Hannover (Germany), 1992
- Swatch (Spiritello, Cosmesis, Metroscape, Lots of Dots, Olimpico), 1990-1994
- Paradise Tower, Hiroshima (Japan), 1988
- Groninger Museum, Groninger (The Netherlands), 1988-1994
- Clock Tower, Gibellina (Italy), 1987
- Banal Object, Biennale di Venezia, 1980
- Proust armchair, 1978
- Kandissi sofa, 1978
info source: http://www.floornature.com/alessandro-mendini-112/
image source: https://www.finedininglovers.com/blog/curious-bites/alessandro-mendini-anna-g-my-corkscrew-doll-dancing-on-a-bottle/
image source: http://www.italianways.com/gibellina/
