Sempering

The exhibit by Cino Zucchi and Luisa Collina at the MUDEC focuses on a number of approaches by contemporary design, organising them through 8 actions. #21triennale

As one of the events put on by the XXI Triennale di Milano International Exhibition in 2016, the “Sempering” exhibition, curated by Cino Zucchi and Luisa Collina in the spaces of MUDEC at Porta Genova, focuses on a number of approaches adopted by contemporary design, with no intention of mapping out their entire geography and without classifying them by types of discipline. The selections and its order are based on a simple concept, which is that of the need for a constant review of the relationship between means and ends, between ‘methods’ and ‘forms’.

“Sempering” adopts no ideal figure, no abstract model; for a moment it simply abandons the scientistic and universalist obsessions of modern design, focusing our attention back towards techniques and practices that are rooted in real history. At the same time, it examines a design culture that combines experimentation and research through a critical review of customs and formulas, and also of technical and formal “prejudices” that are inevitably found in any shared situation.

The research into new materials and technological innovation conducted by the Modern now appears to be intertwined with the “ways of doing” that have historically combined natural elements – such as stone, wood, clay, iron or cotton – with inherited methods for selecting and using them, creating combinations that do not exist in their original state. Crafts practices used aspects of artistic culture in the ancillary form of decoration; but negation of imitation leaves the Modern no alternative figural method other than that of interweaving, clearly showing the connections and interlinking between the constituent parts of the object.

“Sempering” brings about a brief reinterpretation of techniques developed in particular fields that are capable of generating patterns and shapes without simply offering the “past” in a new form. It observes them in their contemporary manifestation, where process and figure once again intertwine without drawing on pure formal motifs – which is typical of postmodern culture – from the history and the environments that gave rise to them.

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