What’s new at the Triennale’s Italian design museum?

The new exhibition of the Museum of Italian Design, which occupies the premises of the Milan Triennale, has been inaugurated. “Forme Mobili" (Mobile Forms), as the exhibition is called, is the result of a research and acquisition process that began six years ago: “In this way we wanted to bring into dialogue the disciplines related to design, which today are more than ever interconnected in terms of content, messages, inspirational principles and production practices, creating forms of mutual influence”, said Marco Sammicheli, the museum’s director.

The exhibition has been redesigned around ten thematic areas that reflect the intertwining that design has developed over the decades with disciplines such as art, crafts, fashion, architecture and engineering, among others. This approach emphasises the ability of the products on display to exist in a contemporary context, not with a nostalgic look, but with a renewed one, since a museum “cannot be only memory and remembrance, but must evolve over time”, as Sammicheli was keen to remind us.

Each section of the exhibition is in dialogue with the world of fashion, through parallels that emerge in forms, materials, historical periods and design ideas. In addition to fashion, the Museum of Italian Design has introduced two new areas of research and dissemination: nautical design and illustration, which explores areas such as design for the press and graphic art.

Marco Sammicheli

Thus, in addition to icons such as Cini Boeri’s Boborelax and Mendini’s Proust armchair, as well as the other testimonies of greats such as Sottsass, Aulenti, Colombo and Ponti, the vast orchestra of works includes fashion garments signed by houses such as Dolce&Gabbana and Versace, drawings, including Carlo Scarpa’s autographs, prints, technical drawings, models, sculptures and some traces of editorial products.

In the building of the Triennale, which Stefano Boeri, the president of the institution, has defined as a “place of interference”, the stories and works of the most diverse Italian designers overlap - through a dense programme of exhibitions - creating “magical correspondences and coincidences that we cannot fail to grasp”.

The installation, designed by Luca Stoppini, is an extension of Cuore, the Triennale’s study centre and archive, which opened a few months ago. “My project aims to give the public the opportunity to cross the threshold of the archive,” explains Stoppini. The materials used are in the name of sustainability: innocent pipes, recycled materials and mirror laminates recovered from previous exhibitions. The mirror in particular plays a central role in the new project, accompanying the visitor and framing the objects and garments: “the mirror is the heart of every fashion designer’s studio, without it they could not work”.

More than two hundred objects from the Triennale’s collection are displayed in the Curva space, on shelves and mobile units that run the length of the museum. With the new layout, the Museum of Italian Design not only preserves the historical memory of the projects, but also bears witness to their echo in the present.

Opening image: Forme mobili. Photo DSL Studio © Triennale Milano