Marco Sammicheli

A meeting with the director of the Museo del Design Italiano (Italian Design Museum) at the Milan Triennale, where he also serves as curator of Design, Fashion and Crafts. A conversation on how to talk about design with the public at large

by Patrizia Piccinini

The Triennale turns a hundred this year. What is its legacy and what can we learn from it?

It’s a century old but has no signs of aging. Like a grande dame, it has spent its life addressing the present by overturning paradigms with an eye trained on the future. From design, to architecture, to fashion, to photography, the whole world has come through its great arches. The world it used to represent was made of narrow fields of interest like home, vehicle, or cruise-ship design. But now design is pervasive. And it teaches us about quality because there is a supply chain behind each product that we need to know about. Design is everywhere now. Even time has lost its meaning. We no longer have to wait all year to find out what’s going on at the Salone del Mobile. It’s been a century of radical experimentation (which is the subject of the book edited by Stefano Boeri and Mario Piazza coming out in May) including early experiments in home design like BBPR’s 1933 “Saturday House for the Newlyweds” and the 1968 protest inside the Palazzo dell’Arte that only briefly interrupted the show Il Grande Numero (“In Large Numbers”). And to think we’re now talking about Big Data when back then the likes of Umberto Eco, Vittorio Gregotti, Archigram, and Arata Isozaki had already such insight about everything about our future.

If design is everywhere, how are we presenting it differently? We need to musealize everything that the temples of design have neglected: doors, windows, bathrooms - everything classified as ugly ducklings, unequal to lamps, sofas, and other more noble furnishings. While artificial intelligence will favor more composite uses, material culture will become the new focus. Tangible pieces that convey ordinary facts will take center stage, rather than isolated or exceptional events. Cross-mingling is also becoming increasingly important, even for making elitist messages more accessible to the greater public. Design used to be told through the filter of art or individual genius – and here educational role returns, which will also be central within the Museo del Design Italiano in its new guise – but now we need to start considering something quieter, design that thrives on everyday use and the genius of its creator.

So, what should we expect for the reopening on April 15?

This was the underlying idea, and the way our institution has evolved required us to overturn paradigms once again with an eye to the future. Everything has changed inside the museum, starting with the layout. Young designer Paolo Giacomazzi helped us with this, creating an exhibition that will run for two years starting in April. There are no icons on pedestals winking at art. Glass display boxes showcase recreated interiors like Piero Bottoni’s Casa Minerbi in Ferrara or the Manusardi residence by Figini and Pollini in Milan and then Carlo Mollino’s Albonico apartment in Turin. In keeping with our starting concept, there will also be a garage with a Cinquecento, a Vespa, a Lambretta and a Guzzi Galletto scooter. And an original Pozzi Ginori bathroom by Antonia Campi. Another innovative work stands out along the corridor leading to the 1980s and 1990s: a ziggurat with several objects showing how Italian design in those years turns into a collection of constellations, also to be understood through a series of maps, made by graphic artists, historians and designers for magazines such as Casabella, Abitare, Interni and Domus. The exhibition concludes with the Design Platform, which will change every four months and will focus on the contemporary with solo and thematic shows. The first of these, Text, will highlight, through the works of works of industrial, fashion and graphic designers, how textile culture and the relationship between text, image and product have generated threads of research straddling art, craftsmanship and fashion. The second, from October to January, will be dedicated to Alberto Meda. Then there will be exhibitions curated by Nina Bassoli and then another curated by Damiano Gullì. A story that, after one hundred years, is still a vortex of continuous renewal.

1 The Museo del Design Italiano will feature also a garage with cars (such as this Fiat Cinquecento) and motorbikes.

2, 3 Historical posters of the Milan Triennale. The institution, founded in 1923, has had 23 editions to date and has, over time, become a landmark in the world of design with a continuous exhibition activity, not limited to triennial exhibitions.