Alessi Objects and Projects, Munich

Alessi: perhaps the most famous brand of Italian design, as well as one of the more accessible (you can own a little piece of modernity for 25 euros).

An exhibit at the International Design Museum in Munich, Alessi Objects and Projects, looks back over the recent decades of Alessi design: the final phase of the Italian Bel Design (the ’70s), the Postmodern period (the ’80s), the Ludic period (‘90s) and most recently what’s being called the Eclectic Moment (the ’00s).

The Alessi exhibition website is a creation of my colleagues at H-art and is a work of art in itself, not to mention that it contains a ton of useful information written by the important players in Alessi and design Alessandro Mendini, Alberto Alessi and Florian Hufnagl. Alberto Alessi joined the family business in 1970, and designer Mendini has collaborated with him since the late 1970s

A section devoted to “new topical issues” is particularly interesting as it shows objects in production related to themes like simplicity and “recent retro”. We see a nostalgia for handiwork and unexalted materials like wire applied in innovative and attractive ways.

from May 22 to September 9, 2010, Pinakothek der Moderne | Barer Straße 40 | D – 80333 Munich