From the exhibition emerge a complete portrait of the architect and an overview of the culture of the second ‘900
An intellectual portrait, "a bit cubist," says Giovanni Agosti – curator of the event dedicated to Gae Aulenti (1927-2012) at the Milan Triennale – more than a real retrospective focused exclusively on architecture.
The exhibition gives the visitor an overview of Gae Aulenti. It is, at the same time, a photograph of the Italian and international culture of the second '900, made through the dense network of relationships the architect had.
Lovers of architecture, design, and art have no way of getting bored, thanks also to the exhibition curated by Gae’s niece, Nina Artioli, which stages environments in 1:1 scale, with majestic and meticulous reconstructions, like that of the Olivetti store in Buenos Aires, in Calle Suipacha, partially but faithfully reproduced. The portion presented to the user is enough to reveal objects, colors, materials, and the order that presided over the realization.
ORIGINAL ALSO THE DECK OF CARDS WITH THE CHARACTERS THAT MADE UP HER WORLD
For example, the Olivetti store at 91 rue Faubourg St. Honoré in Paris in 1966 (the Pipistrello lamp, conceived in a site-specific way for the two shops of the Ivrea company, is also on view), the Fiat dealer in Zurich in 1973, and the one in Prato. The Bacchae of Euripides belong to the Tuscan town, flanked by the scenes of Strauss’s Elektra at La Scala in Milan and those of Rossini’s Viaggio a Reims in Pesaro in 1982.
Among the passions were the installations for exhibitions, also documented in the compendious catalogue, which led her to collect works by the artists with whom she worked and shared relationships, from Boetti to Warhol, from Christo to Lichtenstein, to name a few.
ON VIEW ALSO THE PIPISTRELLO LAMP DESIGNED FOR OLIVETTI STORES
Throughout the exhibition, we find iconic projects, from Casa Brion to San Michele di Pagana, to the Venetian Palazzo Grassi, the Orsay Museum in Paris, the airport of Perugia, and the project for the Naples metro.
Also original is the deck of cards with the characters that made up the cultural and relational universe of Gae Aulenti, one of the tools that, together with the guide, helps the visitor navigate the exhibition.
In the deck, we find colleagues like Zanuso and Sottsass, Gianni and Marella Agnelli, the neighbor Luca Ronconi, and the protagonists of the classical music world – another love – Claudio Abbado and Maurizio Pollini.
