Italian Journal 4: Design Save Italy

Strapline 1

Italian Journal volume 20. number iV. 2011

Design Save Italy

Giacamo Puccini. Courtesy Puccini Foundation.

2 Strapline

Faust Harrison Pianos Sound with More Soul Faust Harrison Pianos is Americaʼs largest independent retailer of fully rebuilt “vintage era” Steinway and Mason & Hamlin pianos, and a leading dealer in new Yamaha, Mason & Hamlin and Bechstein pianos.

We offer over 200 of the worldʼs finest instruments.

We buy and restore vintage era pianos and ship worldwide. To make an appointment to see and play any of our new and rebuilt artist quality pianos, call us at 212.489.3600 or send us an email at info@faustharrisonpianos.com Restoration and sales of vintage Steinway, Mason & Hamlin pianos and sales of new Yamaha, Mason & Hamlin and Bechstein Pianos.

Faust Harrison Pianos 207 West 58th Street New York, NY 10019 www.FaustHarrisonPianos.com 212-489-3600

4

Italian Journal

IN THIS ISSUE On the cover: CAMPARI AD c. 1960. page 23

Claudia Palmira Acunto Editor Laura Giacalone Contributing Editor michael Bottari Editorial Assistant Genny di Bert Columnist Mauro benedetti Vito Catalone Photography Printed in the United States.

Stefano ACUNTO Chairman The Italian Academy Foundation, Inc. (IAF), established in 1947, is a non-for profit 501Š(3), tax-exempt corporation that pursues a unique form of cultural diplomacy, presenting Italian realities to U.S. audiences. The Italian Academy Foundation, Inc. produces concerts, symposia and special events year-round in the United States and Italy.

Hudson Cliff House 131 Alta Avenue Yonkers, NY 10705 914 966 3180 ext.110 Via Marcantonio Colonna 60 Rome 00193 +39 06 325 05 490 www.italianjournal.it

Editor’s journal contributors NOTABLE Italian Ap Is back the euro and italy DEsigner hotels

5 6 11 16 17 18

Design Save Italy

20 22 23 24 26 28

what is italian design? italian lifestyle in ten classics design v. styling il design the courage and risk of a vision it is in the use of an object that its destiny is written 30 what does italian design mean to you? 32 Interview with gaetano pesce 35 interview with gabriele pezzini 36 four in fashion 38 Literature: the superficial truth 54 Photography: Hidden gem of venice 55 Social journal 57 Face file: frida giannini 62

page 10

page 25

page 18

page 39 page 47

5

EDITOR’S journal

VIva THE CULTURE OF DESIGN T

he title of our current edition immediately captured the imagination of the designers, curators and economists who wrote and were interviewed for this issue. Though Italy may not need saving, the idea that one concept, one export, might bolster its success, is an attractive one.

Italian design is an intangible and diffuse export. As Ettore Sottsass said, “design is a way to understand life” [designer Gabriele Pezzini quotes him in our interview on page 36.] It comprises furniture, cars, shoes, clothing and appliances. Its protagonists were educated in craft, often in a family tradition. Many were modernists before modernism, embracing innovation without sacrificing “form”. Taken as a philosophy representing a culture, design can be understood as a kind of cultural ambassador.

Characterized by an indelible combination of aesthetics, wit, function and color, the products that are truly “Italian” never exaggerate any of these aspects, but exhibit them in an elegant balance. Ultimately, Italian design is friendly, humanistic in its functionality even while unpredictable in its form.

Can this cultural flair sustain the country’s well-being through economic stress? New Italian designers, as new artists, musicians and writers, have a substantial history in which to partake – perhaps overwhelmingly so. It is up to them to answer the question, with their creativity, in collaboration with manufacturers and producers who recognize their relevance.

The articles, interviews, photos and quotes in this edition provide a basis for illuminating your own answer to the question.

Claudia Palmira Rome, Italy

Ettore Sottsass. Carlton cabinet for Memphis, 1981.

6 Contributors

contributors Silvia ANNICCHIARICO

Silvia Annicchiarico, architect, is the director of the Triennale Design Museum of the Milan Triennale since 2007. Prior to that, she was the curator of the Permanent Italian Design Collection of the Milan Triennale. She is a member of the Scientific Committee in the area of design and was a professor of industrial design at Milan Politechnic. From 1998-2001, she was the vice president of the monthly publication “Modo,” collaborating with various print and radio journalists. She is a curator of exhibitions and books in Italy and abroad. In 2004, she became a mother to Caterina.

Giampiero BOSONI

Architect Giampero Bosoni has collaborated with Figini and Pollini, Vittori Gregotti and Enzo Mari, with whom he has developed interest for theory and history for architectural and industrial design projects. He is Professor of interior architecture and the history of design at Milan Politechnic, where he is a faculty member. His writings about design and living have been published in Abitare, Casabella, Domus, Interni, Ottagono, Print, Rassegna and others. He has written and edited various books as well.

In 1997, he curated the exhibit “Museum of Design” for the Milan Triennale, which formed the first nucleus of the historical collection of Italian design of the Triennale.

In 2006-2007, he organized the international show “Italian Design and Avant-garde in the 20th Century” (Montréal, Toronto, Rovereto). For the Museum of Modern Art, New York, he authored a book about Italian design history. Most recently he curated the show “Made in Cassina” and the accompanying catalog (Triennale di Milano 2008, Tokyo 2009). He has held numerous conferences on the subject at academic and cultural institutions in Italy and worldwide. His studio Bosono+Ranza concentrates on architectural projects, exhibits and interior design.

Domitilla DARDI

Born in Rome in 1970. After graduation in History of Art at La Sapienza, Università degli Studi di Roma, she attained a Ph.D in History of Architecture at Università Federico II di Napoli, with Prof. Renato De Fusco relator. From 2003 to 2007 she taught History of Design and History of Contemporary Art in Facoltà di Architettura of Ascoli Piceno. In 2007 and 2008 she was the curator of the exhibition cicle “Design A_Z” at MAXXI Museum of Rome. In the last few years she’s been working like company consultant, copywriter and museum curator at MAXXI, always in design and architecture section. Now she’s teaching History of Design, History of Interior Design at IED, Roma, in the Interior Design Master and in the Interior Yacht Design Master. She edited the catalogue of the exhibiton Spazio for the Architecture Section of the MAXXI Museum. She’s author of several pubblications: Achille Castiglioni (Testo e Immagine, Torino, 2001), Il Design di Alberto Meda. Una concreta leggerezza (Electa, Milano, 2005), Il Campus Vitra, una collezione di Architetture (with F. Argentero, Meltemi, 2007), Lampade and Negozi 2 (Federico Motta, 2007), The Design in 100 objects (Federico Motta, 2009), Interior Yacht Design (Electa, 2009).

contributors

Contributors Laura GIACALONE

Laura Giacalone is Project Editor for the Italian quarterly publication Filmaker’s magazine, and works as a Contributing Editor and Editorial Consultant for various art magazines and publishing houses. In London she has worked as a writer and Editorial Assistant for Phaidon Press, contributing to the three-volume book Phaidon Design Classics. She has translated into Italian the novel Paper Fish, by Tina De Rosa, and a variety of academic papers, film subtitles, screenplays and feature articles. Her world is made of words, and she loves it.

Stefano GIOVANNONI

Stefano Giovannoni wasborn in La Spezia, graduated in Architecture in Florence, lives and works in Milan. He is collaborating as interior, industrial designer and architect with companies like Alessi, Amore Pacific, Bisazza, Cedderoth, Deborah, Edra, Fiat, Flos, Hannstar, Hansemm, Helit, Henkel, Honeywell, KDDI , Kokuyo, Inda, Laufen, Lavazza, LG Hausys, Magis, Mikakuto, Ntt Docomo, Oras, Oregon Scientific, Puig, Pulsar, Samsung, Seiko, Siemens, Slide, 3M, Telecom, Toto, Veneta Cucine, etc. He designed very successful commercial products such as, for Alessi, the “Girotondo” and “Mami” series, the Alessi plastic products, “Il BagnoAlessi” and the “Bombo” series for Magis.

Tonino PARIS

For the Rome University La Sapienza, Tonino Paris serves as professor of design, scientific coordinator of design, director of “Product Design”, technical manager of the Design Factory Workshop, a structure that provides research, experimentation and projects in design. He is also the director of the magazine DIID (disegno industrial / industrua design), which he founded in 2002. He is the director of the ““Callimaco” and “Research and Study” for the publisher Gangemi, the technical coordinator for the Italian Consul of Design for the Minister of Cultural Activities. As editorial director for Rdesignpress, he is also the technical manager and art director of Week Roma Design Più, which he created and edited. Amongst his many books and publications, the following are the most noted: Were Design Grows Up (Rdesignpress, Roma , 2010); Designer after school_work in progress (Rdesignpress, Roma, 2008); 09young design (Rdesignpress, Roma, 2009); Designer’s_exibit, product, graphic, fashion and food (Rdesignpress, Roma, 2009); Disegno industriale in the Enciclopedia della scienza e della tecnica (Istituto Italiano Treccani, 2008).

7

8 Advertisement

John Cabot University the first

U.S. regionally accredited university in Italy undergraduate degrees study abroad program

For more information or to apply, email admissions@johncabot.edu

Strapline 9

Become a Member of

With your tax-deductible membership contribution, receive tickets to all events at no charge, a one year subscription to Italian Journal magazine and private event invitations.

Do it –– GREAT IDEA.

Join online

www.italianacademyfoundation.org or call

914 966 3180 ext. 126 or email rsvp@italianacademyfoundation.org

10 notable

Notable Photos courtesy of ameriqua.com

Ameriqua, Romance set in Bologna

Pizza a Taglia, Brooklyn R

Actors Eva Amurri (daughter of Susan sarandon) and bobby Kennedy III on the set of Ameriqua.

left: Eva Amurri. right: Alessandra Mastronardi and Bobby Kennedy III

W

ritten by and starring Bobby Kennedy III, Ameriqua is a take on the classic American college film. Recent graduate Charlie’s (Bobby Kennedy) story begins as he is cut off from his family’s trust fund with one last check and the hope that he would find a sense of responsibility. In an act of revolt against his parent’s wishes he flies to the Italian university town of Bologna where he meets a fellow American and a variety of Italian misfits. The American, Jessica, is played by Eva Amurri, the daughter of actress Susan Sarandon and Italian director Franco Amurri. In Bologna, Charlie enjoys a life filled with parties and Italian romance until things begin to get complicated when he crosses paths with the mafia. Ameriqua also features Alec Baldwin and Glenn Close who play the roles of Charlie’s wealthy parents.

Campo de’ Fiori 187 5th Avenue Brooklyn (347) 763-0933

ectangular Roman pizza comes to Brooklyn—quite literally. The restaurant owner’s Italian partner, who is a member of the Italian National Culinary Olympic Team, refined the dough recipe over fifteen years. The dough is made in Italy then frozen and sent to the Brooklyn location, a new restaurant called Campo de’ Fiori after Rome’s famous piazza.

Owner and head chef Andrea Dal Monte, former manager of New York’s Del Posto and owner of the stylish restaurant Acqualina in Rome, opened the Roman outpost in an area where Neapolitan pizza is king. The difference between Neapolitan and Roman pizzas is mostly a matter of the crust—Roman crust tends to be thin, crunchy and sturdy while Neapolitan crust is soft, thick and fluffy. The toppings for the pizzas at Campo de’ Fiori are imported from small Italian businesses which specialize in their respective local ingredients.

There are many more Roman specialties other than the pizza on the menu.

An “antipasto Romano,” with egg tripe, prosciutto, pecorino cheese, roasted peppers, olives, tomatoes and mint leaves.

Next is a plate of a variety of cured meats and cheeses. There are a number of vegetable-centered dishes, but a surprisingly small choice of pastas, notably gnocchi with an oxtail ragù. Last are the desserts such as pineapple ravioli, pistachio cake and tiramisu.

notable

11

Notable Milanese Archeologist Restoring NY Mosaics M

ilan-native and expert archeologist Gionata Rizzi is looking to conserve a small part of New York City’s young history.

“The tent of Tomorrow” may not be the oldest site that Rizzi has worked with, but that does not diminish its place in history or its need for restoration as its condition is rapidly deteriorating.

Funded by the State of New York for the 1964 World’s Fair, “The tent of Tomorrow” was a futuristic-oriented project by one of the most prominent modernist architects of the 20th Century, Phillip Johnson. Johnson also designed the influential masterpiece “Glass House” in New Canaan, Conn. which he used as a personal residence.

“The tent of Tomorrow” can be found,

along with other remains from the 1964 New York World’s Fair, in Flushing Meadows in Queens. At the end of the Fair in 1965, the roof of the tent was removed and the floor of 567 4-by-4 foot panels that comprised a highway map of New York State were left to the merciless elements of nature and vandals.

Rizzi’s approach to this project is similar to his restoration of a colorful and artfilled roof on the Fourth Century Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina, Sicily. His interest in the project stems from three issues which he believes “The tent of Tomorrow” addresses: how to conserve the mosaics without disturbing Johnson’s creation and his hopes for the project, to revive what was viewed as futuristic in 1964 and to find if an aesthetic

exists for modern ruins.

Working with Rizzi, two other individuals made this restoration project a possibility. Professor Frank Matero, the son of Italian immigrants and head of the historic preservation program at the University of Pennsylvania, saw the exhibit in his youth at the 1964 Fair and is now calling on the help of his graduate students to assist in the restoration. Lisa Ackerman, vice director of the World Monuments Fund, named “The tent of Tomorrow” as one of the hundred monuments most at risk in the world. This brought the site to the attention of the New York State which then began to take measures for its conservation and also brought this slice of history back into the minds of New Yorkers.

Photo Courtesy of 1.bp.blogspot.com

above: The remains of the “Tent of Tomorrow” still standing in Flushing Meadows, New York. The roof tiles were taken off which lead to the rapid deterioration of the floor.

Right: What the “Tent of Tomorrow” would have looked like during the 1964 World’s Fair.

Photo Courtesy of Phillip Johnson: Architecture 1949-65

12 notable

Notable Balletic Tribute to Made in Italy T

Photo by Iwan Baan

he fruit of a collaboration between the Teatro alla Scala theatre in Milan and the leather goods brand Tod’s portrays the heritage and tradition of the “made in Italy” craftsmanship through dance.

Choreographed by Gianluca Schiavoni and put on by the theatre known as “the spiritual home of opera and ballet in Italy,” the thirteen dancers of the performance interpret the many meticulous phases of the handmade crafting of a Tod’s shoe. Entitled “An Italian Dream”, the ballet comes from the desire of Tod’s to support and preserve the image of the “made it Italy” label and contribute to the arts.

The show travelled from Milan to Tokyo and Beijing to spread the legacy and preserve the idea of “made in Italy” around the world. Instead of showcasing

interior view of Zaha Hadid’s award-winning museum MAxxi.

T

he MAXXI, National Museum of the 21st Century Arts in Rome, designed by Zaha Hadid with her architecture firm, Zaha Hadid Architects, won the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize 2010 for their design of the museum.

Zaha Hadid, of Anglo-Iraqi descent, is well known for pushing the bounds of contemporary architecture. She has designed a number of buildings around the globe, such as: The Vitra Fire Station, Germany; The Bridge Pavilion, Spain; The Nordpark Cable Railway, Austria; and the Contemporary Arts Center in Ohio.

Photo by Iwan Baan

Rome’s MAXXI Museum Design Team Awarded

A scene from “An Italian Dream”

Tod’s footwear and using this ballet as a marketing tool for the brand, the focus of the collaboration was a move to support the Italian arts and Italian craftsmanship.

As the last European country greatly involved in manufacturing, Italy has much in common with China—which has risen to produce the majority of the Western world’s clothing. Tod’s Group President, Diego Della Valle, stated that through this type of collaboration he hoped that Italy could reach out to students and workers in China to share ideas on moral and ethical values.

Anna Magnani on the Roman Map H

onoring the late Italian actress Anna Magnani, the City of Rome dedicated a square in her name during this year’s International Rome Film Festival. The square, in Villa Borghese, was named in recognition of her outstanding contribution to Italian and international cinema. Largo Anna Magnani is near another square dedicated to the great Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni.

Magnani, born in Rome in 1908, played her first role in cinema in 1934 with the film La Cieca di Sorrento (The Blind Woman of Sorrento) and later achieved international fame from her role in Rome, Open City in 1945 by Roberto Rossellini which is considered one of the founding films in the Italian neorealism movement.

Also starring in The Miracle (1948), Bellissima (1951), The Rose Tattoo (1955),

The Fugitive Kind (1960) and Mamma Roma (1962), Magnani became renowned for her artful portrayals of lowerclass women. Her role as a Sicilian widow in The Rose Tattoo garnered an Oscar for Best Leading Actress as well as four other international awards including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama.

Magnani died in Rome in 1973.

notable

13

Notable University Has a Sweet – and Creamy – Mission

E

ataly on Fifth Avenue is beginning to look like something much bigger than its founders had expected. Besides being a massive 50,000 square-foot market and eatery where everything related to Italian cuisine is available, it may also be destined to become the epicenter of Italian culture in New York.

Eataly is a place to explore the rows of fresh products and enticing shops that display food like artwork, but it is also a place to learn about Italian culinary traditions and how food envelops Italian culture. The educational side of Eataly features cooking classes by Michelin-starred Italian chefs and informative displays within the store about the history and origin of various products.

In addition, three LCD displays in Eataly communicate Italian events happening around New York provided by a public information service called “Italy in New York.”

Founder Oscar Farinetti and partners Lidia Bastianich, Joe Bastianich and Mario Batali are excited about the potential of this mega-store and its impact on the lives of New Yorkers. Lidia, a famed instructional chef and star of the PBS cooking series “Lidia’s Italy”, said that she hopes Eataly will serve as an educational forum on the Italian traditions of food and that shoppers will become more conscious about what they buy. Lidia will teach classes focusing on Italian recipes and preparation but the classes will also invite owners of shops in Italy to speak to the class about how they run their business and the difficulties they face. Other lectures to be held under the Eataly roof will focus on the historical, sociological, nutritional, and anthropological aspects of Italian cuisine.

Joe Bastianich, Lidia’s son, is the CEO of Eataly and will run the business while Mario Batali, Food Network personality, will oversee the quality of the restaurants, chefs, menus and food.

Eataly is becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Farinetti has previously opened similar Eataly mega-stores in Italian cities including Milan, Turin and Bologna and also multiple locations in Japan. All of these are now complemented by the New York store and if it is met with success then Eataly may expand to other locations within the US. Eataly 200 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10010 (212) 229-2560 www.newyork.eataly.it

Informative Graphics above a Food display at Eataly

www.gelatouniversity.com

G

elato, the sweeter, fresher, lessfatty cousin of ice cream from Italy is enjoyed by nearly everyone who has had the chance to taste it. Now, gelato has a new following—those who want to learn why it is so delicious and how to make it, perhaps intending to spread its sweetness to each corner of the globe.

Entrepreneurs and sweet-lovers alike are flocking to Carpigiani Gelato University in Bologna, Italy, from around the world to discover the secrets of the delicate craft of gelato making. Each year, more than 6,000 students enroll in courses at Gelato University’s campuses, including locations in the US, Great Britain, Japan, Australia and China.

In times of economic troubles elsewhere, the worldwide gelato business is growing and the Gelato University’s business is booming—leaving foreign businessmen, investors and those with ample taste buds sensing opportunity.

The median age of the student at Gelato University is 40 years, suggesting that those who have run into trouble in other businesses are turning to this sweet dessert with hopes of a new life— and many are succeeding. The university boasts the accomplishments of a number of students who have opened gelaterie around the globe, in locations such as Vancouver and London, some of whom have additional plans to open second and third shops.

Gelato University’s mission is “to lay the basis for a world-wide gelato culture.” The skills needed to make true Italian gelato must be taken around the world, since gelato cannot survive being frozen and shipped. It is best to eat gelato fresh, in the Italian tradition, where it has been made with ingredients from the local land…and just the right amount of sugar.

Photos courtesy gelatouniversty.com

Eataly, the Hearth of Italian New York

14 notable

Notable Caravaggio’s Shadow in Bill Viola’s Heart E

Photo courtesy english.mart.trento.it

Photo courtesy Robedachiodi.associazionetestori.it

nchanted by the deep shadows and brilliant light of Caravaggio’s timeless work, Bill Viola seeks to retain a similar aura in his own art.

Recently, Viola was asked to travel to Italy to put on an exhibit at the National Museum of Capodimonte in Naples, as part of a tribute to Caravaggio. There he presents six videos, five of which have never been released in Italy, which highlight the underlying and recurring themes of Viola’s work and reflect Caravaggio’s profound influence on Viola’s life and work. This exhibition is part of a larger project put on by the Museum of Capodimonte entitled Meetings with Caravaggio, which highlights Caravaggio’s influence on modern art and discuss modern interpretations of Caravaggio’s mythical status in the art world.

Viola, a major contemporary video artist, uses new technology to create mesmerizing films. Using ultra-slow motion video, he invites the viewer to forget time and become absorbed into his work in order to see life with a different perspective.

With past exhibitions at the National Gallery in London, the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Viola is well-known throughout the contemporary art community. His work has received mixed reviews. Some critics have interpreted his work as transparent and overreaching, while others were impressed by his expressions of grand themes of human life—birth, death and consciousness—and his attempt to uncover meaning within them.

Viola confesses the influence that Classical artists Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Pontormo and Andrea di Bartolo have had on his work. He also emphasizes how they diverge in technology and mediums—both betraying the simplicity of the classical art and respecting it at the same time. Like Caravaggio, Viola is looking to preserve the realism in the representation of human life while marking the work with his distinctive, contemporary nuances.

A Designer-Label Boat for High Seas G

ucci partnered with renowned Italian boat maker, Riva, to produce a made to order yacht, the “Aquariva by Gucci.”

The yacht is based on the original Riva design but was revamped by Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini introducing a more contemporary and hi-tech styling.

Riva’s custom-order Gucci-designed boat, exterior and interior

notable

15

Notable Foto di Sebastiano Luciano

Exhibitions of Particular Note Rome The Myth of Italy in Victorian England Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones Through June 12, 2011 National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art Low Risks: Giulia Piscitelli.

Through April 2, 2011 Giuliani Foundation Odyssey of Homo Sapiens: Mario Ballocco.

Through June 12, 2011 Rome Museum of Contemporary Art Lorenzo Lotto Through June 12, 2011 Scuderie del Quirinale Michelangelo Pistoletti: Da Uno a Molti, 1956-1974 Through August 15 Il confine evanescente: Arte italiana 1960-2010 Through November 2 MAXXI

Venice From Luca Cambiaso to Magnasco: Great Genoese painters from the Hermitage March 16, 2011- June 30, 2011 Palazzo Ducale

backstage at the maxxi during the installation of Michelangelo pistoletti’s solo exhibition. In the foreground, his Venus of the rags.

Chicago What’s Greek About A Roman Copy?

Ongoing

Torino La Bella Italia: Art and Identity of the Capital City Through September 11, 2011 Reggia di Veneria

New York

Fashion in Italy: 150 Years of Elegance July 23rd- December 11, 2011 Reggia di Veneria

The Roman Mosaic from Lod, Israel Through April 3, 2011 Metropolitan Museum of Art

Leonardo Italian Genius, Universal Myth October 22, 2011- January 8, 2012

Sacriligeous: Francesco Vezzoli Through March 12, 2011 Gagosian Gallery

Paris Arnaldo Pomodoro Through June 11, 2011 Tornabuoni Art Gallery

Theatre of Architecture, History and Magnificence Ongoing La Veneria Reale Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Pandora, 1879. Watercolor.

Private collection

16 advertisement

La Scuola d’Italia Guglielmo Marconi The only Italian/American school in Northern America.

Scuola Materna - PreK and K Scuola Elementare - Grades 1-5 Scuola Media - Grades 6-8 Liceo Scientifico - Grades 9-12

La Scuola is an English/Italian bilingual school, offering an international education to a diverse student body.

The academically rigorous curriculum provides a strong foundation in liberal arts, mathematics and science; total immersion in foreign languages from the outset; in-depth study and appreciation of American, European and Italian civilizations and cultures.

La Scuola d’Italia 12 East 96th Street, New York, NY 10128 Tel: (212) 369.3290 Fax: (212) 369.1164 E-mail: secretary@lascuoladitalia.org

www.lascuoladitalia.org

The Euro and Italy 17

The stability of the euro and the role of Italy Ambassador Giulio Terzi speaks on the European financial picture to the members of Gruppo Esponenti Italiani (G.E.I.) The following is a reprint of the speech given

by Ambassador Giulio Terzi at the February 17, 2011 G.E.I. Luncheon. am delighted to be here with you again today and honored by your invitation, a most welcome sign of your great friendship.

The last time I had the pleasure of being with you – as Permanent Representative to the United Nations - I talked about international security issues. Over the last year and a half, I have somehow changed my perspective – but not too much: in Washington, diplomatic work is at once global and bilateral too. Today I would like to address a topic which has both a global scope, as it relates to the world’s monetary system, and a “bilateral” one which refers to relations between the EU and the US: I am referring to the stability of the euro-zone.

Since the stability of Europe’s single currency is pivotal for our business here in the United States, I believe it is very important to cast light on its real value both for European economic integration and for the health of the global economy.

It was therefore only natural that in May last year, President Napolitano put this topic high on the agenda of his conversation with President Obama and with Congressional leaders.

And it is only natural that I and other colleagues from the euro-zone, when given the opportunity, focus on this theme.

Indeed, we feel that in many layers of the American public opinion there is a dangerous lack of information, and even prejudices, in understanding what is happening in Europe, in terms of a stronger economic governance and of reinforcement of the tools available to respond to an economic crisis which the EU has suffered rather than provoked. A more balanced information and the correction of undue euro-skepticism could be benefi-

I

cial to our economies.

More confidence in the euro could entail positive consequences for the growth of the whole Transatlantic economy: First of all, it could strengthen investors’ confidence – a very important aspect given the fact that in 2008 US direct investments in Europe amounted to 1,8 trillion dollars, over four Le Cirque, New York: Ambassador Terzi times all US investreceives the G.E.I. Friendship Award from ments in Asia; G.E.I. Chairman Cav. di Gran Cr. As a second conseLucio Caputo quence, it could foster private and public answers called upon by Krugman. My inpartnerships and innovation, and be partention is obviously not to refute these ticularly beneficial to medium and small authoritative and solid economic theory businesses; arguments. I only would like to point at In the third place, it could prove to some political factors which, in my opinbe vital for the fiscal sustainability of ion, are of great relevance to the analysis. budgetary policies of the euro-zone and beyond.

It is true that, from the outset, Europe On the contrary, American skepticism could not be defined as an “optimal curon the future of the euro would be most rency area.” But the euro was born with detrimental. Among those who are ina political commitment by the European clined to this kind of approach, let me countries to deepen and strengthen the mention Paul Krugman and his article ties that bind them together. Caught in recently published in the New York Times the perfect storm of a deep crisis, unpreceMagazine. dented in our generation, European leadKrugman appears to question the very ers demonstrated their capacity to work foundations of the euro. However, he together quickly and decisively to coordiconcludes by setting Europe a challenge, nate an appropriate policy response. and expresses the hope that European By facing the threats to the stability of leaders will be able to take the necessary the Euro, the European Union has been steps to save the common currency. able to tackle not only the symptoms, but A glance at recent developments in also the root causes of their problems. ObEurope and at the history of the single servers have often been focusing too much currency leads us to respond to many of on the sometimes noisy internal debates. these observations and to conclude that But if we look at the substance of deciEuropean leaders have provided the very sions that were taken, we may find that

18 the Euro and Italy

Today, despite the problems in the European countries which have been most hit by the sovereign debt crisis, the average deficit of Eurozone countries was 6.3% of 2010 GDP, well below many other advanced economies such as the U.S. (10.5%) and Japan (7.7%).

European leaders are already providing for the response that Krugman invokes, simultaneously addressing fiscal consolidation, structural reforms and strengthening the governance of the euro.

We must not forget that in less than twelve months – a break-neck speed in political terms – the EU has unveiled a comprehensive package to restore financial stability and avert contagion from the Greek crisis. Indeed, on February 4, the European Council examined the socalled “competitiveness pact” in view of an overall agreement, to be discussed by the Eurogroup first and, subsequently, by the extraordinary E.U. Summit at the end of March. In return for a stricter fiscal discipline, the European Financial Stability Facility (EESF), which can provide lending up to 440 billion euro, might be strengthened further so as to ensure sovereign debt sustainability in the short and medium term. To avoid future crises, by 2013 a permanent financial safety net will be created - the European Stability Mechanism – to provide further aid to Countries struggling to balance their books.

The European Council is preparing a new round of stress tests for European Banks which will be conducted under more rigorous criteria than last summer, under the auspices of the new European Banking Authority that was established by a recent regulation of the European Parliament and Council and which started operating in January. Let me mention, with great satisfaction, that this new Authority is headed by an Italian, Dr. Andrea Enria.

Strengthening the governance of the

euro, a fiscal consolidation plan and the start of structural reforms in eurozone Countries have transformed the crisis of the euro into an opportunity. It is not fortuitous that the proposal of a European Debt Agency that would issue E-bonds, suggested by the Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti and Prime Minister of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker, is gathering increasing support. It is the embryonic beginning of a common fiscal policy. Even Mr Krugman seems to like the idea, albeit considering it only a “small step” towards fiscal integration.

The euro/dollar exchange rate in the weeks preceding the European Council shows that markets granted credibility to the European response. The euro rallied against the dollar to 1.38 in the full swing of the Egyptian crisis, as positive opinions on the euro were also reported from Davos. The theory of the vicious circle, therefore, seems to be contradicted by the timely European response.

Yet, the underlying question is: is the euro worth all these efforts? Let us take a glance at the history of the first decade of the common European currency.

In the first ten years following its introduction, the average rate of inflation in the euro-zone was 2.3%, amounting to 30% less than in the previous decade.

Monetary integration encouraged economic growth and contributed to a massive increase in employment. Trade and investment flows between Euro member States grew significantly – quite the opposite of what Krugman argues – and the common currency has fostered competitiveness, an increased price trans-

parency and a significant reduction in transaction costs.

But, as one might argue, that was before the crisis.

So how would the recent financial crisis have unfolded without the euro?

The euro protected member states from the worst effects of the 2008 financial crisis. It not only prevented countries from pursuing currency devaluations instead of addressing the root causes of their problems, but also managed to avoid exchange rate turbulence between euro area countries that would have been highly detrimental to trade and investment flows, and ultimately to jobs, in Europe. Finally, absent a European Central Bank, individual central banks would have struggled to coordinate liquidity provision.

Today, despite the problems in the European countries which have been most hit by the sovereign debt crisis, the average deficit of eurozone countries was 6.3% of 2010 GDP, well below many other advanced economies such as the United States (10.5%) and Japan (7.7%).

Over the last few months, a comeback of the manufacturing sector in Europe shows how growth is again gaining traction.

As was stated here in New York last December 10 by Bank of Italy Governor Mario Draghi, who is also Chairman of the Financial Stability Board: “The euro is not in question. The euro is one of the pillars of European economic integration and all countries, all individual countries, have greatly benefited from that.”

Italy has definitely benefited from the Euro. Although, undeniably hit by the crisis, my Country has fared better than many others thanks to four specific strengths, which are directly or indirectly related to Italy’s participation in the euro.

First of all, the Italian banking system weathered the global financial crisis relatively well, thanks to limited exposure to toxic assets, the absence of a real estate bubble, retail-based business

The Euro and Italy

19

“Europe and the United States have more in common with each other than either does with anyone else in the world. (…) Europeans and Americans have the common responsibility to support their vision on the rule of law, on the respect of human rights and the empowerment of people and on sustainable economic growth in the new multipolar arena”.

-Former Prime Minister Giuliano Amato models, and a sound supervisory and regulatory framework.

year, of “Europe 2020 strategy for growth and employment”.

Secondly, [private debt is far below that of many other advanced economies.

Household net wealth almost doubles the value of GDP when considering only the financial assets, and reaches five and a half times GDP if real estate property is included. ] household debt to GDP ratio is among the lowest in the eurozone. If we look at the overall debt of the Italian economy, both public and private, its ratio to GDP is amongst the lowest in advanced economies.

In third place, fiscal discipline has already been in place for some years. The appetite for Italian government bonds, which remains very high, is a proof of the credibility of these measures.

Finally, Italy’s industrial system is based on a robust and competitive manufacturing sector, strongly export oriented and with a pro-innovation bias, both of which are prerequisites to competitiveness in today’s global economic environment. In the decade of the euro, the level of internationalization of Italian small and medium enterprises has risen significantly.

Since the very beginning of the crisis Italy has always supported a strong, collective and coherent response within the European Union. It has participated in the system of bilateral loans and guarantees implemented for those Countries facing difficulties. My Country has advocated the creation of the European Financial Stability Facility which will be replaced, in 2013, by a 500 billion euro permanent financial safety net, the European Stability Mechanism. Italy also strongly supported the adoption, last

The economic performance of the eurozone is nevertheless closely related to global growth. Growth policies must increasingly be the result of coordinated efforts at a global level. Italy has therefore actively participated in the G20 as the best governance tool to promote global coordination on measures needed to face global economic imbalances.

This year’s French Presidency of both the G8 and the G20 is an excellent opportunity for Italy to contribute to defining a shared platform on many global economic issues: reform of the international monetary system, food safety, innovation, energy efficiency, and the reduction of the volatility of the prices of raw materials. On the latter, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s proposal on addressing speculation on raw materials scored an important success at the Seoul Summit. As proposed by Italy, it was agreed that shared guidelines for regulations, aiming at creating regulated and transparent markets rules will be identified and submitted to the G20 Summit this year.

Whatever shape the global economic governance will eventually take, the future of our economies is about winning the race for competitiveness. In the new global economic environment, where we face competition “not between Countries, but between Continents”, as Minister Tremonti recently noted, transatlantic relations are of absolute strategic importance. Let us look at some figures.

Exchanges between the European Union and the United States account for the

largest portion of international trade and their daily volume amounts to three billion dollars. In 2010 Europe’s direct investments in the United States created 70 per cents of jobs originating from foreign investments.

Former Prime Minister Giuliano Amato, in his foreword to an essay on the foreign policy of the E.U. edited by Professor Federiga Bindi and published just a few months ago, noted that “Europe and the United States have more in common with each other than either does with anyone else in the world. (…) Europeans and Americans have the common responsibility to support their vision on the rule of law, on the respect of human rights and the empowerment of people and on sustainable economic growth in the new multipolar arena”.

The E.U-U.S. Summit in Lisbon on November 20, 2010, finally put aside the discussion on whether this traditional alliance still makes sense. Lisbon has set the basis for strengthening the transatlantic market. The Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) has been tasked with pursuing the harmonization of standards, so as to provide for an authoritative example to other emerging Countries such as China, addressing non tariff barriers to trade, innovation policies and intellectual property, which today are crucial to international competition. Italy is closely following this process and firmly believes that it is of strategic importance to foster growth and employment on both sides of the Atlantic.

The success of the euro is therefore crucial - and beneficial - to both the United States and Europe.

20 Designer hotels

Hotel Moschino

Hotel MIssoni

The ARmani HOtel

Franco Zefferelli in his Villa Tre Ville, a complex of three large homes, each with a different design theme, Pictured above.

a look inside the hotels by top designers and art directors.

designer hotels

21

hotels: the latest in italian luxury labeling Boutique hotels and villas by top designers make a smart aesthetic – and business –– statement

by Michael BOTTARI

Some of the biggest names in Italian design and fashion have a new way to enjoy their aesthetic luxury, to become enveloped in its greatness instead of just wearing it. This new phenomenon comes in the form of design or boutique hotels, located in some of the most alluring cities in the world.

The Versace Mansion, transformed

by Barton G. into The Villa, in South Beach, Miami, has attracted the likes of John Elton, Madonna and Sting. As the residence was slowly morphed from the Versace Mansion to The Villa, most of the late designer’s ideas for the building remained intact, keeping with elegant luxury and staying away from a Hefnerstyle Playboy mansion. Golden mosaics, Italian marble, coral columns, an enormous pool and an observatory are just some of the invigorating aspects of this hotel.

On the picturesque Amalfi Coast near Positano sits another luxurious getaway,

Villa Tre Ville, the previous residence of renowned set designer and director Franco Zeffirelli. As per the name—villa of three villas—this hotel is separated into a number of separate buildings, each suite with its own name, story and color scheme. There is La Dimora, the main residence; Villa Rosa, the pink residence; Villa Azzurra, the blue residence; Villa Bianca, the white residence; and Villa Tre Pini, the residence of three pines.

The Armani Hotel was built across ten floors of the Burj Kalifa, which happens to be the tallest man-made structure ever built, in the oasis of the city Dubai.

The seamless design of this hotel models Armani’s elegant subtlety with curved walls adorned with Florentine leather, Japanese Tatami arranged on the floors and dark colored walls that cultivate a relaxed and sophisticated environment away from the brutal Dubai sun.

The Hotel Missoni in Edinburgh was designed with a black and white foundation but also added a mix of vibrant colors to please the eye. Staying in synch with the Missoni style, each room of the hotel features bold patterns, fine linens, attention to detail and surprising use of color.

The Hotel Moschino in Milan used to be a busy train station in the mid 19th Century, but Rossella Jardini, Jo Ann Tan, and Luca Strada Associati have transformed the space into a hotel unique and demonstrative of the eccentric Moschino style. Each room emulates a calm and organized luxury, which is aimed to cultivate the relaxation of a sleep state and cater to the wants of dreams.

These luxurious wonderlands will cost the consumer from around 1,000 Euros for the smallest room to 5,000 Euros a night.

Design What has marked Italy’s success in the past 50 years is its genius for making iconic, enduring solutions in practically all areas of design, from clothing to cars to coffee.

DEsign group italia, The tratto pen.

S design save Italy

23

What is Italian Design ? by Gianpiero

Bosoni, page 22

Save Italy The Italian Journal asks designers, curators and economists if the country’s tradition of design excellence is both thriving and if it can sustain the country despite economic and political challenges.

Italian Lifestyle in Ten Design Classics

by Laura Giacalone, page 23

Design v. Styling

by Stefano Giovannoni, page 24

Il Design

by Tonino Paris, page 26

The Courage and Risk of A Vision by Domitilla Dardi, page 28

It is in the Use of an Object that its Destiny is Written

by Silvana Annicchiarico, page 30

What Does Italian Design Mean to You? page 32 Two Interviews Gaetano Pesce and Gabriele Pezzini, by

Laura Giacalone, page 35

Italian Design New York, page 37 Four in Fashion by Michael Bottari, page 35

24 design save italy

Design

What is italian design ?

A look to history for ideas

by Giampiero Bosoni

To uncover the secret of Italian design, if there is one, it is necessary to look from the right perspective, searching not through the discipline’s celebrated recent past but rather in the grand cultural and artistic history of that

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, Dome of the Chigi Chapel, 1513-15. Fresco and mosaics Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.

ancient peninsula in the middle of the Mediterranean and at the center of Europe. From this historical perspective we can admire the extremely rich, complex and often contradictory patrimony of knowledge and research from which the most capable practitioners of so-called Italian design have drawn deeply. They have absorbed ways of seeing, thinking, and doing and skillfully translated them into the design of everyday objects.

The Italian designer is a difficult figure to identify, given the various directions research has taken and the expressive forms artists have pursued. One characteristic, though, resides in the figure itself: he or she is the antithesis of the engineer or pure technician who is concerned only with function and production. This designer performs creative research but is also involved with a certain culture of production that includes industry and that has been developed through the continuous regeneration of a sophisticated legacy of craftsmanship.

Because of its creativity, originality, innovation, and capacity to adapt rapidly to the market, the produce of this culture has received significant recognition in the current international context, labeled “Made in Italy.”

Italian design is a continuous play of affirmations and negations, which is what the mature phase of design always should be. It should be noted that for quite some time (particularly in the discipline’s heroic phase, roughly from the 1920s to the 1970s), the history of design in Italy was written by a relatively small

group of designers and entrepreneurs who overlapped most frequently in artisan studios, literary salons, and the workshops of small and midsized companies or art galleries, and almost never met in design offices and rarely in the style centers of major industries. Their work, at its best, was separate from the inner workings of industry and the market (and in certain cases and periods has openly rebelled against it), and it emerged for the most part to provide answers to questions that were still unexpressed—concerning a new way of dwelling, a new way of moving, a new way of living. Perhaps this explains why, historically, almost all Italian designers have come from architecture or the art world—although a certain humanistic culture has allowed some technicians and engineers to look at what things mean in addition to their purely technical functions.

The Italian peninsula began to unify politically in 1860, a mere century and a half ago. This explains the variety of languages and expressions that have been cultivated for centuries in this country of “a thousand bell towers,” kept alive in strong regionalisms and very specific local identities.1 Italy has metabolized modernity through its complex and unique history, and for this reason it has never fully shared the modes and tempos of Great Britain, France, Germany, the United States and most other industrialized nations. In this sense, modernity in Italy has developed in a manner we might call uncertain and imperfect; Italian artistic and design research must

design save italy

25

Save Italy

Italian lifestyle in ten design classics

by Laura Giacalone mediate between a desire to break with the burden of history and difficult but powerful attempts to establish a dialogue with it. These two profound impulses continually attract and reject modernity, diverting its most well established effects into unusual, hybrid solutions with original and unpredictable features. We know that Italians have always had a passion for adversarial factions and oppositional alignments (Montagues and Capulets, Guelphs and Ghibellines), and it is no accident that a decade-to-decade alternation, an irresolvable dichotomy between strong dualisms expressed by new philosophies, new aesthetics, and new signs, has profoundly marked the debate throughout the history of Italian arts and design.

Many of the outcomes of Italian design cannot be explained without acknowledging, for better or worse, the philosophical and aesthetic legacy of the Italian humanist culture of the Renaissance. Beginning in the early years of the 20th century, this legacy was reinterpreted, rejected and regenerated from the different cultural positions (some more reformist, others more conservative) that addressed the theme of design in the industrial and, later, postindustrial eras.

Of course, interpretation only in these terms would be too schematic. The richness of the Italian model has always consisted in its almost individualistic heterodoxy of ideas and investigations. This condition has been imposed with truly original autonomy by artists blazing trails that are still little traveled and which will be appreciated for their power and premonition only with time. A certain Italian way of creating and designing, elaborating a truly nuanced and malleable concept of modernity, seems to have drawn the energy for continuous adjustment and uninterrupted experimental research from this unique condition.

[1]

1932 Campari Soda Bottle

Designed by Futurist artist and pioneer of contemporary design Fortunato Depero, it has become the symbol of the brand and is still in production today, thanks to its timeless conic shape and the striking rubyred colour of the drink, which is intended as an integral part of the design.

[2]

1933 Moka Express

It is the only industrial object that has remained unchanged since its first appearance. Patented by Alfonso Bialetti, it is based on the principle of preparing coffee with steam pressurising water. It holds a place of honour in all Italian houses, as well as in many museums of modern art, such as MoMA.

26 Design save italy

Design

design v. styling Domodinamica. Calla, 2003

Alessi. Alessiscale, 2003

Alessi. Fruit mama, fruit bowl, 1993

The role of the traditional Italian design studio in contemporary business culture

by Stefano GIOVANNONi

T

he design activities of Italian and American design studios are based on totally different business models. In the American system we find large professional studios, multinational organizations that reach a company size measured in hundreds of employees, while Italian design factories work with designers who usually operate from small professional studios with which the company has a consolidated relationship. Many designers of the older generation – Castiglioni, Magistretti, Sapper, Mari and Zanuso – worked with facilities reduced to the limits!

The work that is developed in the American-type studio is basically different from that of the design studio working for Italian design-oriented companies.

In the first case, design is often conceived as an engineering idea generated inside the company itself, often already patented.

Design has to provide an external housing for a mechanism or an electronic system that is supplied complete. In this case, design adds a relative value to the product, with respect to the product’s market value.

The approach to design in studios based on the Italian system is totally different. In this case, the company asks the designer to

invent a new concept, a new type of product that would enable them to achieve a market price perhaps even four or five times higher than the standard price for that sort of product. If I have to design a plastic breadbin for Alessi, I know that, regardless of the way I design it, it will cost about 50 Euros, while in a department store, a breadbin can be found at about 1015 Euro. The designer has to think of an idea or a strategy that enables the product to be sold at that price, within the appropriate system of distribution.

Here we have to be careful. A design-oriented company does not sell its products at high prices to achieve a greater profit margin. On the contrary, very careful consideration is given to the price. It is the very mechanism of manufacturing and distribution, based on limited quantities, the necessity for quality materials and finish, and manufacturing flexibility (the quantity/colours relationship) that determines this approach and the market.

In the best of cases, the hundreds of thousands of units that may be manufactured and sold every year are still low with respect to the millions of units manufactured for large-scale distribution.

Italian companies have traditionally acknowledged the importance of the designer’s work, considering the designer as the “author” and recognising him a certain percentage of the product turnover. This generally does not occur in the case of American studios. Of course, this attitude of working on all aspects of a design, continuously reinventing object types and strategy, is linked to the excellence and nobility of a creative process that is so deeply rooted in Italian culture and tradition.

Often the production, and economic health, of an important Italian design factory is linked to one or few designers who did much to guarantee the company’s success. The designer feels a continuous desire to work as best as possible, in direct contact with the manufacturer, participating in the success – or failure – of a product. The reason for this is linked to Italian design culture, and this is why Italian companies usually work with Italian designers as their primary point of reference, even though there are more and more examples of cooperation with designers from abroad.

Large multinational companies working in the most technologically advanced sectors of the market, as consumer electronics, audio-video equipment, telephones or cars, have always worked with large studios based on the American model.

Today, companies are beginning to understand the cultural

Strapline

27

Save Italy

Italian lifestyle in ten design classics, continued [3] limits of this approach related to styling instead of design and they are increasingly turning to design studios reflecting the Italian model of design. They find themselves having to differentiate product categories according to both consumer target and price target. The future generations of cell phones, and equally cameras and watches, will reflect four different product lines: business, smart and managerial; family, with a lower, more basic entry level; fashion, with more sophisticated image; and new technology, in which new software is tested, with high target price. This is something difficult to achieve with internal designers, and so there is an increasing demand for design on the part of large international companies working in the various sectors, whether telephones, household electrical appliances, audio and video products, and the automobile industry.

This category specialisation requires the designer’s intervention, in the role of image specialist. He or she has to be able to give the object a powerful identity that corresponds to the above-mentioned categories. Design becomes a factor that can create added value based on identity, quality and difference.

International companies have understood that the added value provided by design can be converted into capital in terms of the market. Markets are saturated today, and so companies consider design as a potential weapon enabling the conquest of new, more exclusive and better evolved, consumer niches. In this way they avoid a crippling downwards price spiral. They use design as a factor of competition, and invest in the personality, great emotional and sensorial appeal, positioned at a high price sector. This enables them to restructure manufacturing by extending the range in a vertical direction.

1945 Vespa

Special guest star in William Wyler’s cult Roman Holiday, with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn, it was designed by aeronautical engineer Corradino D’Ascanio.

It seems that, when manufacturer Enrico Piaggio first saw the prototype, exclaimed: “It looks like a wasp!” From there came a name that has become a legend.

[4]

1950 Lettera 22

Designed by the chief designer for Olivetti Marcello Nizzoli, the iconic portable typewriter became a must for students and journalists of the time, thanks to its compactness and portability. It was awarded the Compasso d’Oro design prize in 1954 and is part of MoMA’s permanent collection.

[5]

1957 Fiat 500

A symbol of the Italian post-war economic boom and of the enhanced mobility of Italian population, Dante Giacosa’s creation conjugated engineering and styling, introducing the revolutionary idea of miniaturisation in the car industry. Becoming an instant commercial success, it is still a source of inspiration for new nostalgic reinterpretations of that inimitable little jewel.

28 Design save italy

Design

Il Design ITaliano

Characterizing the tradition that is inherent.

by Tonino PARIS

G

randi maestri hanno contribuito all’affermazione del Design italiano nel mondo, e hanno grandemente contribuito allo sviluppo industriale, sia con il loro patrimonio di conoscenze e competenze tecniche, sia con le loro straordinarie capacità creative. È il Design il principale fattore dell’affermazione del Made in Italy caratterizzato dall’incontro della capacità di alcuni imprenditori con quella dei designer che, attraverso intuizioni individuali, hanno avviato attività fortunate, dando forza all’originale e particolare struttura produttiva italiana, quella della Piccola e Media Impresa. Pur nell’assenza di adeguate e specifiche politiche industriali e di sostegno alla ricerca, esso ha fornito una straordinaria varietà di progetti e prodotti innovativi che, rivolti alle esigenze dell’individuo e della collettività, hanno avuto la capacità di inserirsi nei più svariati contesti sociali ed economici, in tutto il mondo. Il design italiano e la sua struttura produttiva sono così diventati punto di riferimento di vasti strati di consumo internazionale e di articolati interessi economici, professionali e culturali.

Il Design italiano oggi ha straordinariamente ampliato il suo campo di applicazione tanto da investire la vita dell’uomo, nelle sue varie declinazioni.

Oggi oltre che sugli oggetti tecnici, ovvero sui prodotti materiali presenti e visibili nel paesaggio artificiale che costituisce lo scenario della nostra vita quotidiana, dallo spazio domestico ai luoghi del lavoro o allo spazio urbano dove si svolge la nostra mobilità, l’innovazione tecnologica incide sullo sviluppo di prodotti immateriali, intervenendo direttamente sul nostro corpo attraverso variazioni biologiche, o introducendo prodotti artificiali con prestazioni estranee al nostro apparato sensoriale per arricchirlo di nuovi attributi.

Nuove tecnologie rendono “intelligenti” i prodotti artificiali per farli interagire

e dialogare con l’uomo, per interpretarne l’umore, per ascoltarlo a distanza, per sollecitarne il benessere o per farsi da tramite fra uomo e uomo.

Nuove tecnologie consentono non solo di prolungare all’esterno del nostro corpo organi artificiali, ma di integrare direttamente nel nostro corpo nuove funzioni, come guardare al buio, parlare ed ascoltare nell’acqua o a distanza, vedere oltre la dimensione reale.

Si ripropone una condizione dell’uomo e dei suoi rapporti con la scienza e le nuove applicazioni tecnologiche non nuova, ma mai come oggi le potenzialità dell’innovazione tecnologica ci spingono a superare ogni limite immaginato. È ormai diffusa una percezione del Design italiano nuova, come un sistema policentrico, espressione di una rete articolata e diffusa in tutto il paese.

Il nuovo Design italiano, infatti, non è più espressione unitaria univoca ma poliedrica, multiforme, espressione di differenti peculiarità e vocazioni dislocate sull’intero territorio nazionale.

Si fa Design, nella sua espressione più efficace di prodotto ad altissimi contenuti estetici e tecnologici, a Maranello in quello straordinario laboratorio che è la Ferrari, come anche in tutto il Distretto Motoristico di Bologna. Si fa Design a Trieste, nei cantieri navali della Fincantieri per il varo dei grandi transatlantici ordinati dagli armatori di tutto il mondo o nei distretti della nautica (Gruppo Ferretti ad Ancona, Forlì, Torre Annunziata, Fano, Cattolica, La Spezia, Sarnico; Gruppo Rizzardi a Fiumicino, a Sabaudia a Gaeta a Posillipo, Gruppo Aicon a Messina).

Si fa Design nel Centro Ricerche di Indesit Group per l’importante settore degli elettrodomestici - che ha fatto la storia stessa del design italiano - e in tutto il Distretto della Meccanica di Fabriano e a Jesi, dove esistono assolute eccellenze come Elica Group.

Si fa Design nei distretti manifatturieri del Nord|Est - come quello della Mecca-

nica e della subfornitura - dove delle PMI sono leader nel mondo per la produzione di macchine utensili per il settore tessile o per la meccanica di precisione.

Si fa Design intorno agli avanzatissimi laboratori di ricerca sulle nanotecnologie per le applicazioni dell’innovazione nell’infinitesimamente piccolo nel Veneto (Veneto Nanotech), così come in Puglia, a Lecce, e in Emilia Romagna, a Modena. Si fa Design nella costellazione ASI e Alenia intorno alla quale sono cresciuti i Distretti dell’Aeronautica e dell’Aerospazio nel Lazio, oltre a quello interregionale del Piemonte e della Campania. Si fa Design nel distretto dell’Audiovisivo, che ha trovato a Roma una storia di eccellenza sulla quale porre le basi per una ricerca sempre più avanzata. Si fa Design a Roma nei settori dell’allestimento, della scenografia e dei costumi, in continuità con una tradizione che in questo settore ha, e ha avuto, riconoscimenti internazionali - come testimoniano i numerosi premi Oscar.

Si fa Design nel fashion non solo a Roma, a Firenze e a Milano, ma ormai in tutto il territorio nazionale dove accanto ai grandi e storici maestri come Valentino, Capucci, Armani, Versace, Ferragamo, Biagiotti, Prada, Missoni ecc, non solo è viva e produttiva una rete di numerosi ed affermati atelier, ma è attivo uno dei sistemi d’innovazione di processo, oltre che di prodotto, fra i più significativi al mondo.

Così come si fa Design in tutti quei Distretti più tipici del Made in Italy, dal tessile di Prato alla ceramica di Sassuolo e di Civita Castellana, dal conciario di Solfora al calzaturiero di Fermo e della Valle del Brenta, dal distretto dell’occhiale a quello della calzatura sportiva nel Triveneto, solo per citarne alcuni e sapendo di omettere tante altre esperienze di assoluto interesse.

Penso, quindi, che per comprendere la cultura del Design italiano in tutte le sue più contemporanee declinazioni, si debba guardare alla complessa rete de-

Strapline

29

Save Italy gli attori dell’innovazione: di quanti cioè hanno la capacità di analizzare i fenomeni del e intorno al Design, oltre quella concezione stucchevole e patinata di una nozione di Made in Italy fin troppo consumata; di quanti hanno la capacità di promuovere una nozione di design oltre l’ambito tradizionale, verso nuovi statuti disciplinari che assegnano al Design il compito di progettare l’artificiale, tutto l’artificiale sia materiale che immateriale.

Si debba guardare inoltre, al complesso sistema di iniziative che nel nostro Paese si producono anche spontaneamente, fuori da quei circuiti spesso troppo autoreferenziali, per esplorare e promuovere anche quei piccoli e grandi fenomeni che, esplosi come manifestazioni creative, hanno via via generato nuovi mestieri capaci di trasformare in prodotti e servizi i nuovi bisogni. Come a Palermo ad esempio, che - come esito di un lungo calendario di iniziative una per tutte ha organizzato una settimana dedicata al Design delle “ Luminarie”.

Come a Roma, dove la cultura del Design viene promossa da anni dalla Rivista “Disegno Industriale”, che ha specifici spazi di approfondimento sui temi dell’innovazione e della ricerca o sulle caratteristiche di specifici prodotti di design o sulle peculiarità aziende o sul lavoro di designer, con contributi nazionali ed internazionali di una rete aperta al confronto dialettico; e dove - attraverso la Sapienza - promuove con la manifestazione Week Roma Design Più, la ricerca e la sperimentazione internazionale del design attraverso mostre di progetti e prototipi, piuttosto che prodotti, ad integrazione di altre importantissime manifestazione italiane che promuovono invece la produzione. Quanto accaduto nella Capitale, tra l’altro, è lo specchio di molte altre realtà (penso all’effimero evento dell’Estate Romana, che ha generato la grande impresa culturale di soggetti pubblici e privati come Zètema, Enzimi, MaXXI, Macro, Città della Musica, Festa del Cinema, e la stessa Week Rd+ ). Ne sono testimonianza tutte le altre iniziative che arricchiscono ogni anno gli appuntamenti nell’area del design, come da tempo si fa a Genova con l’importante mostra Me-design, dedicata al design del Mediterraneo o a Bolzano, con le tante mostre e convegni o a Vene-

Italian lifestyle in ten design classics, continued [6]

1962 Arco Lamp

Conceived as an interior version of a standard street lamp, it is one of the most celebrated design objects of the post-war period, and perfectly exemplifies Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni’s design philosophy: using the minimum amount of material while creating forms of maximum impact.

[7]

1964 Algol

Designed by Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper, and produced by Brionvega, it was the first truly portable television set.

Thanks to its compactness and small size, it was easy to transport and could be watched at even without the support of a piece of furniture. Because of the upward tilting of its screen, Zanuso compared it to a small dog looking up at its owner.

zia che alla tradizionale vocazione storica e museologia, affianca oggi iniziative sull’innovazione del design per l’ambiente, l’energia e le nuove tecnologie. O come a Torino che, dopo la positiva esperienza della Mostra “Piemonte design Torino”, ha organizzato - come Capitale Europea del Design - numerose iniziative promosse da tutta la rete nazionale del Design.

Penso infine, che si debba cogliere l’importante funzione del sistema formativo nazionale, che nel settore del Design

si è arricchito di offerte da quando, a metà degli anni novanta, accanto a meritorie scuole private è stata organizzata la formazione nell’area del Design nel sistema universitario nazionale: Corsi di laurea triennali, lauree specialistiche, Master, Dottorati. Una realtà che negli ultimi anni si è sempre più consolidata (da Milano a Genova e a Torino, da Bolzano a Venezia, da Firenze a Roma, da Camerino a Bari, da Napoli a Palermo) immettendo nell’Università una grande continued on page 40

30 Design save italy

Design

The courage and risk of a vision Using past successes to inspire, not overshadow, the present

by Domitilla Dardi

I

Paolo Ulian. Drinkable Watercard, limited edition, 2003.

Giulio Iacchetti. “Lingotto” ice tray, F.lli Guzzini, 2006 Giulio Iacchetti and Matteo Ragni. “Moscardino” Cutlery made of biodegradable Mater Bi, Pandora Design, 2000

n 1972 Italy: the new domestic landscape, the exhibition curated by Emilio Ambasz, opened at MoMA: it was a momentous event for Italian design, consecrating the industrial production of the glorious decade of the Sixties in the world. The exhibition pointed out the experimental character of Italian design, the courage of a vision of interior design able to fill the industrial and technological gap between Italy and other countries with a stronger training and production background.

Italy, as presented to the world, was a country where two groups of 30-year-old designers were creating an inflatable plastic armchair – The Blow Chair by De Pas, D’Urbino and Lomazzi (1967) – and a beanbag chair containing polystyrene beads – the Sacco Chair by Gatti, Paolini and Teodoro (1968). These two projects legitimately appeared as “radical” because they broke with a design tradition and launched a new conception of design.

Their vision did not remain a theoretical concern, but was actually realised by a manufacturer such as Aurelio Zanotta, who had the entrepreneurial courage to overcome a mere sales-oriented strategy, sharing a superior objective with designers: the vision of a different future.

In the post-war Italy, investing in young people was not rare at all. In 1959, for instance, Nuccio Bertone entrusted twentyone-year-old Giorgetto Giugiaro with the management of his company, which seems science fiction in today’s Italy. We can’t help but wonder whether that depends on the lack of new talents, or of far-sighted entrepreneurs able to take on the risk of an investment driven by intuition, by a common vision shared by manufacturers and designers.

It has been said that the new generations of Italian designers, unlike the glorious masters of the past, are only left a narrow space in the conception of a project within the corporate organisation. Those who are nostalgic for the past, those who have continued to give space only to the great masters, those who have only invested in internationally reputed designers in order to contain risks, have certainly sheltered behind this conviction.

The good news is, however, that today there is actually a generation of Italian designers who have taken the best from the masters’ lesson, developing an independent attitude in the creation of projects that convey a responsible and critical view of the present.

What designers such as Paolo Ulian, Giulio Iacchetti, Lorenzo Damiani, Formafantasma – only to name a few – seem to be carrying out is a critical research project, which has probably arisen

Strapline

31

Save Italy

there is actually a generation of Italian designers who have taken the best from the masters’ lesson, developing an independent attitude in the creation of projects that convey a responsible and critical view of the present.

Italian lifestyle in ten design classics, continued [8]

1968 Sacco

An icon of the Pop furniture, the beanbag seat designed by Piero Gatti, Cesare Paolini and Franco Teodoro, still produced

by Zanotta, easily adapts to whatever position the sitter assumes. Made of semiexpanded polystyrene beads, it rejects any rigid structure, thus symbolising a new era of nonconformity and liberty.

[9]

1975 Tratto Pen from their “liminal” condition. Some of them work for large companies, others don’t, but the central thread is that nobody is content to design a product exclusively conceived for the market. All of them, each in their own way, design objects that analytically question our society, our behaviours and consumption habits.

Their research projects take on the responsibility for a reflection on consumption, on nature reserves threatened with extinction, on the varied uses of everyday life. As their work shows, this can even be done starting from small everyday objects, by using the winning weapon of irony, being aware that a smile is more able to convey a thought, or a doubt, than a lecture.

In a nutshell, their objects are beautiful to see, of course, but also functional to use, and have an additional feature as well: they provide food for thought. So, what is missing in Italy is certainly not the vision.

That probably won’t save Italy, but is still good news.

Designed by Design Group Italia and still manufactured by Fila, it reshaped the traditional pen in a modern, innovative and elegant design object that instantly became a triumph, winning the Compasso d’Oro in 1979. Indestructible and accessible to all, it can mark up to 1 km with just 1.4 grams of ink.

[10]

1997 Bombo Stool

Ever-present in the trendiest bars, restaurants and salons, Stefano Giovannoni’s creation produced by Magis combines a sophisticated retro style with contemporary technology. With ergonomically moulded ABS seats and adjustable height with gas piston, it is a delight to the eyes and a pleasure for the body.

32 Design save italy

Design

It is in the use of an object that its destiny is written

The director of Milan’s Triennale Design Museum reflects on the functional side of design

by Silvana Annicchiarico

“And since all the objects will always be visible from any angulation, the visitors will gradually lose their sense of Time. To be emancipated from the sense of Time, to transcend Time: this is life’s greatest consolation. In museums that are made with passion and well organized, it is not the sight of the objects we love that comforts us, but rather, this eternity we experience by visiting them.”

Orhan Pamuk The Museum of Innocence

A

little more than two years have passed since December 2007, when we inaugurated the Triennale di Milano Design Museum. Since that time, the bearing idea for our project—that of giving life to a changing museum that would be capable of periodically renewing itself in terms of contents, of selection criteria, and of modalities of fruition—has been refined and consolidated, becoming even a pilot model for significant foreign experiences.

It is our intention and hope that each new edition of the Museum will correspond to a new way of interrogating Italian Design and of recounting its story. In the first edition, we confronted the baroque outlook of Peter Greenaway with the eclectic approach of Italo Rota and the radical viewpoint of Andrea Branzi, to investigate the Seven Obsessions recurring in Italian Design. In the second, we staged a dialog between Antonio Citterio’s classicality, rigor, and rationalist clarity and Andrea Branzi’s scientific, didactic approach, to investigate the complex relationship between Series and Off Series.

Now, in the third edition, we are shortcircuiting Pierre Charpin’s poetic and

conceptual minimalism with Alessandro Mendini’s punctilious and astonishing encyclopedism, with his boundless and proteiform passion for all the manifestations of material culture and, above all, with his idea that design objects have an intrinsic “responsibility.” The objective, once again, is to astonish and to reveal: starting from the same query that inspired the two preceding editions (“What is Italian Design”), this time a possible response takes shape that—I am certain— will evoke discussions and possibly even divisions. Because Mendini is casting his gaze beyond the confines of the territory canonically attributable to institutional design, toward that “infinite parallel world” inhabited by objects and things that are expressions of a design that is invisible and unorthodox, though not, for this, any less connected to the lives of persons and to our most intimate daily landscapes. Mendini needs but little to open a new perspective: for him a small deviation with respect to the usual point of observation suffices to discover that perhaps Italian Design is not only what, up to now, we have believed it is, and also that many objects or processes not referable to disciplinary orthodoxy have, however, an undisputable anthropological and social relevance.

As we were working to put together this Third Museum, Mendini gave me two precious books in Italian: Il museo dell’innocenza (The Museum of Innocence) by Orhan Pamuk and Oggetto quasi (Almost Object) by José Saramago.

I believe that traces, remains, and echoes of these two splendid texts have even remained in the Museum, in its soul. For my part, I gave Mendini Wu Ming’s Altai, because I like the idea of a plural, anonymous “authorship” that expresses itself in this “collective” of writers. And because the novel has the idea of the

design save italy 33

installation view, the triennale design museum, Milan.

Tower of Babel, which we used as a point of departure to involve some designers from the latest generation, giving them incentive to measure themselves against a utopia that obliged them to come out into the open. I recall all this to reaffirm that this edition did not derive from a reading of manuals about the history of design, but rather from other itineraries, other paths, other stories.

Generally, museum orderings are arranged by typologies, by districts, by chronologies, by styles, by poetics, by authors, and so forth. Alessandro Mendini, for his part, wanted to avoid recourse to previously codified grids. He moved in an intuitive, rather than a structured, manner. He started out from a strong hypothesis, but he guarded well against categorizing, against stiffening. His selection is polymorphous, unforeseeable, unsettling. There are certain theses, of course, but there is no one absolute answer. Each person can come out of it with his own history of design: the discourse remains open. Because Mendini proceeds by networks, by sudden pairings, by couplings with little of the judicious. At times,

he works around an object of his election; other times, he makes groupings of things that seem similar, as though to form little “puppet theaters.” There are miniature objects beside other, outsized objects. There are objects that are singular, or common, or quotidian. Magical things next to poetical things. Antique objects and contemporary objects. Banal and refined. Sumptuous and poor.

Provocative and political. In his hands, under his gaze, design becomes anthropology, an account of what has been lived. Each object becomes personage and mask. And the Museum becomes theater, or the space for a staging where things reveal their contribution toward making us What We Are. And this time, as well, the story told by the Museum commences in the remote past, with the boat—the Phaselus— of Catullus. Mendini proposes finding again the roots of design, rather than in Renaissance workshops, in the ancient, for there he retraces project hypotheses much more current than the humanisticRenaissance ones. Thus conceived, the Museum is not so much a concern of

memory as it is of the uses that persons make of the objects during the course of their lives. The visitor will not find many of the so-called icons of Italian Design, and certain canonical design objects are present only for very singular reasons: the mythical typewriter, Olivetti Lettera 22, for example, is included in the selection only because it is the very one used

by Indro Montanelli. Ettore Sottsass, for his part, appears, not with an object, but with his own body transformed into icon.

What is displayed, in fact, is a portrait of him, full-length and in his birthday suit, realized by painter-designer Roberto Sambonet. And further, Enzo Mari’s curbstone is there, but it undergoes a radical semantic shift, to become—opportunely revised and corrected—a work

by Pao. Objects of extremely high craftsmanship, objects of common use, objects on the frontier between art and design.

Above all, objects that have been used.

As though this Third Museum wanted to suggest that it is in their use that the destiny of things is written, and that only by using them is it possible for us to hope to understand The Things We Are.

34 Design save italy

Design

what does italian design mean to you ?

The design world answers the Italian Journal’s question. compiled by Laura GIACALONE

“I believe that, in some respects, the great fortune of Castiglionis’ work, and of Italian design in general, was that we had a very free, disenchanted relationship with technology. Experimenting was quite affordable, which probably helped our research, whereas today it requires the support of large manufacturing companies, and needs huge investments. Luckily there still exist, within large companies, very talented craftsmen with whom it is easy to work, and that surely helps the research a lot.”

Achille Castiglioni “Ours is a kind of design culture that has not confined itself to this country but has actually expanded out to every single industrialised nation. We have been copied a lot, but what does that matter? This is the best compliment we could have received, because our limit and our dream is to design archetypes.”

“Italian design, and the one in the furniture sector in particular, is something really special. Something still able, 50 years after its first acclaim, to excite people from all over the world. This is possible thanks to the great passion of the Italian entrepreneurs together with the designers, who face the preparation of an industrial product that is studied not only from a technical-functional point of view but also from the expressive one”.

Zanotta

“Most of my work was inspired by machines, rather than by cars.

The mechanical component is in fact the pulsing heart of the object, it is what makes the object work.”

Carlo Scarpa

Vico Magistretti

“Carmina Campus does not refuse goods consumption, it rather consumes refused goods. Its research is towards alternative ways to promote a new economy in which every product is created and regenerated in awareness of a planet to be respected and saved from irrecoverable sickness.

Each piece is one-off and it is made with reused materials by skilful Italian craftsmen with the same care and attention dedicated to precious materials and to high quality items. Promoting the onset of a new approach to production means first of all changing the way of thinking, which is the only possibility we have to foresee a positive future.”

Carmina Campus

“Design is a word with many meanings and misunderstandings.

We can better capture the nature of Design in the word “progetto,” especially if we talk about Italian design, because progetto is a word related to life, a word open to people with different skills and dreams, people able to manage details and global processes.

Progetto is also a way to say that creativity is everywhere in our life, we just need to follow our intuition and emotions. That is what Italian design is and does, with commitment and hard work. Italian design is the way to better understand life, always looking at the quality of it, trying to make people grow up and feel happy.”

Gabriele Pezzini

design save italy

35

Save Italy “In this global society, it is difficult to talk about design as an expression of “Made in Italy” as it was intended in the past. Today, Italian companies work with designers from all over the world.

“Made in Italy”, in a strict sense, can still be referred to those artisan realities that are disappearing, realities where design was the result of the work and care of skilled Italian craftsmen. In this respect, we are pleased to mention the work of Pierluigi Ghianda, a cabinetmaker of exceptional talent. In the past, Italian design established a connection between designers and craftsmen, and the relationship was extremely tight. Today, instead, this relationship is lost. Designers such as Castiglioni and Magistretti, who are among the greatest masters of “Made in Italy”, used to design their products thinking about their use, drawing on the shapes that could be found in nature and turning them into icons, conjugating beauty and usefulness.”

De Padova “To me, design is not so much the project of a chair, a table, a lamp, a car, as the thought, the corporate vision driving the company through original paths, in search of an element of distinction for its own products. Design means to work in tandem, with the manufacturer and the designer working in harness, side by side, in perfect synchrony. However, the manufacturer always needs to be at the helm, because there can be no successful designer if the manufacturer does not know where to go. “Made in Italy” means a project conceived and realised in Italy. Today, many manufacturers develop their projects in Italy, but have them produced abroad, and yet they label them as “Made in Italy”. I don’t think this is fair. It should be more appropriate, in this case, to say “Created in Italy and Made in…”.

Magis, for its part, conceives its projects in Italy and there it produces them. An authentic “Made in Italy” product only should be as such when it brings about distinctive elements and qualities of its own, which can hardly be reproduced elsewhere. This is, to me, the sense of the real ‘Made in Italy.’”

Eugenio Perazza – President of Magis

“The winning feature of Italian design is the ability to be “contemporary”, to keep up with the times and also be an example of the times, so that every object becomes an icon and a manifest. The value of Italian design, and of the Italian spirit, lies in the perceived quality of Italian products, which respect a balance between form and expectations: the real goal is to produce an object that “promises a lot” (perceived quality) and “offers still more” (objective quality).”

Roberto Giolito – Head of Style Fiat & Abarth Brands

“Evergreen donates character to all environments. Thanks to their sober and elegant design, these five “classical” pieces have survived intact all the changes in fashion and taste of the last fifty years and can be inserted harmoniously in ever-changing – and often distant – surroundings such as the home and the office. The P40 armchair (Osvaldo Borsani, 1955) furnishes all kinds of spaces, homes and museums, private collections and galleries. D70, the divan with movable wings (Osvaldo Borsani, 1954), was designed to satisfy the needs of a customer wanting somewhere to sit and admire the panorama from his window and also to rest in the evenings in front of the fire. Versatility is guaranteed by a mechanism that allows movement of the wings. And the D70 (X Triennale - Diploma d’onore), is still chosen for its beauty and functionality. The PS142 armchairs (Eugenio Gerli, 1966) and Tlinkit (Gae Aulenti, 1991) can be integrated perfectly in the home or even the most modern executive offices. Just as in the new Tecno spaces where the PS142 with Nomos tables (Foster and Partners, 1986), while the shiny lacquered T335 is accompanied by natural rattan Tlinkit chairs. The T1 and T2 side tables (Osvaldo Borsani, 1949-50), are ideal for meeting areas or for the sitting room at home, and are an up to date solution thanks to their clean and modern lines.”

Tecno

36 Design save italy

Design

Gaetano Pesce. Up Series (1969).

A Series of anthropomorphic armchairs created for C&B Italia and still in production today, Premiered at the 1969 Milan Furniture Show. the series was comprised of a set of seven chairs suitable for different needs, but the real innovation was in the packaging: the chairs were moulded out of polyurethane foam, compressed under a vacuum until they were flat and then packaged in PVC envelopes. The expanded polyurethane took on the volume specified in the design only when the envelopes were opened and the materials came into contact with air. In Gaetano Pesce’s conception, this allowed the purchaser to be an active participant in the final phase of the product’s creation.

design save italy 37

The Memory of Objects, an Interview with

Gaetano Pesce

by Laura GIACALONE

A

n unrelenting research on new materials, an unrestrained use of colour, the political dimension of his projects, the handcrafted quality of his creations make Gaetano Pesce one of the greatest and most unconventional artists of Italian contemporary design scene. His career is studded with memorable masterpieces, which blur the distinction between art and design: from “Up” (1969), a series of “feminine” anthropomorphic armchairs which exploit the morphological memory of the polyurethane, returning to their shape and consistency as soon as they are freed from their packaging, to the “Rag Chair” (1972) and the “Sit Down” seat furniture (1975), based on the intriguing idea of having no two pieces alike. Other notable works include the “Dalila” chairs (1980), whose sensuous shape intentionally evokes the soft forms of the female body, the humorous “Umbrella” chair (1995), which folds up like an umbrella and opens out like its namesake, and “Sessantuna” (2010), sixty-one different tables, all of them unique, to celebrate Italy on the 150th anniversary of its unification.

Mr. Pesce, where do you find inspiration for keeping your creativity high?

“My creativity comes from observing street life and the ordinary values that are part of that world. In some cases the ordinary becomes the extraordinary and in that case they become synonymous of our age.”

Once you said that objects are “documents on reality”: what does contemporary Italian design say about the present state of Italy?

“For sure the objects are the documents of the society in which we are living. By observing them we are able to understand the level of evolution of our historical moment.”

What does Italian design mean to you?

“Italian design is the most advanced art expression in this moment. It includes the best technological, economical and philosophical languages of our period.”

As for technological languages, how has the technological development changed the designers’ work over the years?

Save Italy

“Technological development gave to design the possibility to make limited production at reasonable cost without having to make large production.”

In this respect, do you think that Italian design can be a driving force for economic recovery?

“Absolutely. I think Italian design can help the country’s economy to become more performing.”

You have been living and working in New York for many years. What is your perspective on Italy now that you look at the country from a distance, and what differences or similarities can you see between the two countries with regard to your work as a designer?

“Now that I have been living in New York since a long time I can see the difference between Italian and American cultures, and it consists of depth. In Italy for sure people are more sensitive to progress of culture and knowledge in the art field than in the US.” You have contributed to the history of Italian design and architecture with many excellent creations. What is the work you are most proud of? Can you tell us an anecdote about it?

“One of the most important objects I designed is, in my opinion, the UP 5 chair. This object is a commentary on women’s condition in our historical moment. Until today women are prisoners of prejudices including in the most evolved countries without mentioning the less evolved ones such as the Islamic countries, China and African countries, to name a few. It was the first time that a chair was able to express a political content. A funny anecdote regarding this chair happened in Italy. The chair was then sold in an envelop under vacuum reducing its original volume by 8. A truck full of these chairs / envelops was traveling from Milan to Roma and got into an accident when another truck hit it in the back. In the accident one of the packaging got broken and the chair inside of it immediately expanded, leading to break the other packaging and other chairs to expand. At the end, all these chairs protected the back of the truck from being totally destroyed. Also the chairs ended up falling on the highway and by doing so transformed it into a domestic landscape.”

38 design save italy

Design

Design as an approach to life, an interview with

Gabriele Pezzini

by Laura GIACALONE

B

orn in 1963, Gabriele Pezzini is one of the most prominent figures in the Italian design’s contemporary scene. His strong artistic background has always driven him into the field of experimenta-

Manufactured by LaPalma in 2010, the Linea Chair was conceived as an archetypal seat characterized by pure lines and the use of simple materials: a metal tube with square section and the plywood. The final product is the perfect balance of lightweight structure, comfort and visual resolution.

tion. Interested in the relations between product and industry, he has dedicated himself to innovative research projects, focusing on the conception and organisation of exhibitions that have allowed him to develop his analyses and theories on perception and cross-contamination of everyday objects. He works with Italian and international companies and has lectured at several universities. Among his most successful creations, the “Sunny Day Bench” for Union Corporation, the “Moving Stool” and “Wired Chair” for Maxdesign, the “Hélicoptére” for Hermès, the “Match Radio” for Areaplus, the “Clartè Lamp” for Oluce. He has recently published a limited-edition book entitled “Meteorite – Looking far, watching closely”, which contains a series of interesting reflections on “the process of a project”, starting from the evocative images of meteorites and sand as metaphors for the creative process. His works, along with the design classics realised by the great Italian designer Enzo Mari, were on display last January at the Galerie Alain Gutharc of Paris, for an exhibition entitled provocatively “Che fare” (“What to do”), which was conceived to stimulate a critical discussion on the situation of industrial design today.

What does it mean to work as a designer in the presentday Italy?

Working as a designer in Italy is not that easy. Of course, it depends on the quality of work one aims for. There are very few companies producing quality projects.

Most of them produce quality products, which is not exactly the same.

Is there any difference, in the way of working or in the concept of design itself, between the new generation of Italian designers and the

masters of the past, from Castiglioni to Scarpa, from Munari to Gio Ponti?

I think those designers, in comparison with the younger generations, had a rich intellectual background that supported their creative talent. However, what old and young designers have in common is certainly a genetic attitude toward the project, which makes Italian design so different from that of other countries.

To what extent is it possible to talk about creative freedom in the design industry today? I am referring, in particular, to the relationship with manufacturers and to the degree of autonomy that it entails.

Creativity, in a project, is defined by its constraints: an unrestrained creative freedom never produces good projects.

The point is that the quality of a project depends on the joint effort and shared vision of designer and manufacturer, which is very rare today, because it is the market that rules every choice they make, and influences their attitude. Finding captains courageous, pursuing ideals, is very rare on both sides.

What difficulties and/or opportunities lie on the path of those who approach the design profession in Italy?

Honestly, I see many difficulties, and just one opportunity offered by such difficulties. I mean, the reason why Italy is such a creative country is that it has always been affected by political instability: nobody has been given any form of support, and therefore everybody has to do their best to work their way up to the ladder.

We can see that clearly if we consider how design in Italy is not only represented by designers, but also, and more importantly, by manufacturers, magazines,

design save italy 39

Save Italy and by the whole economic system that has established itself autonomously, as a private system made up of small and medium enterprises.

ITalian design, nY

Do you think design can be a driving force for economic recovery in times of crisis?

It depends on what we mean when we talk about design.

Design does not mean producing objects: it means understanding the reality of things. As Ettore Sottsass said, “design is a way to understand life”. For me it is exactly the same. In this sense, it can probably be a driving force. You know, in England, where design was born, design is regarded as a cultural process. Anyway, I think the real challenge for our economy is not in the industry of design, but in a certain political stability and cultural growth. If we look back at the history, we can see that this is how economies have developed in the past.

As they say, necessity is the mother of invention: how has economic crisis affected the creative processes at the origin of a design product?

Unlike what is commonly believed abroad, I think Italians are great workers, and this crisis is only an incentive for us to work more. Apart from a few lucky ones, in Italy we have always been in a crisis. As for creativity, it is not an exclusive quality of designers: the human being, in general, is creative; otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to evolve. In Italy, due to structural and socio-economic deficiencies, we have developed this attitude even more.

What are the challenges facing the design of next generation?

The challenge for design is to be conceived as an educational process, not with the aim of becoming designers, but of turning into citizens with a stronger critical attitude, and a clearer vision of the state of things: citizens able to be masters of themselves, rather than slaves of mass media and barkers.

I

n celebration of Italian art, design and culture, I Saloni Milano in New York present “Italian Design Street Walking.” The six-week program, through to January 8, offers a variety of events and promotions within the 20 participating Italian design showrooms around New York City. The self-guided tour features these prominent Italian design houses in honor of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Milan Furniture Fair. The program also includes special exhibitions by artists that pay homage to Italian creativity. Of note is the U.S debut of “Leonardo’s Last Supper: A Vision by Peter Greenway” at the Park Avenue Armory.

Artemide 46 Greene Street New York, NY 10013 www.artemidestore.com

Fontanaarte 45 Greene Street New York, NY 10013 www.fontanaarte.it

B&B Italia (Soho) 138 Greene Street New York, NY 10012 www.bebitalia.it

Giorgetti 200 Lexington Avenue New York, NY 10016 www.giorgettiusa.com

B&B Italia (58th) 150 East 58th Street New York, NY10155 www.bebitalia.it

Glas Italia DDC Domus Design Collection 136 Madison Avenue at 31st Street New York, NY 10016 www.glasitalia.com

Boffi 31 1/2 Greene Street New York, NY 10013 www.boffi-soho.com

By New York 142 Greene Street, 5/F New York, NY 10012 www.bynewyork.com Cesana 150 East 58th Street 9th Floor New York, NY 10155 www.cesanausa.com Flos 152 Greene Street New York, NY 10012 www.flos.com Flou 42 Greene Street New York, NY 10013 www.flou.it

Kartell 39 Greene Street New York, NY 10013 www.kartell.com

Matteograssi DDC Domus Design Collection 136 Madison Avenue at 31st Street New York, NY 10016 www.matteograssi.it Molteni&C Dada 60 Greene Street New York, NY 10012 www.molteni.it Pedini 40 Lispenard Street New York, NY 10013 www.pedini.it Poliform Varenna 150 East 58th Street 6th Floor New York, NY 10155 www.poliform.it

La Murrina D&D Building 979 Third Avenue 12th Floor New York, NY 10022 www.lamurrina.us

Poltrona Frau 145 Wooster Street New York, NY 10012 www.frausa.com

Lualdi 110 Greene Street New York, NY 10012 www.lualdiporte.it

Scavolini Scavolini Soho Gallery 429 West Broadway New York, NY 10012 www.scavolinisohogallery.com

Luceplan 47-49 Greene Street New York, NY 10013 www.luceplan.com

Tre P & Tre Più 150 East 58th Street, Fl 3 New York, NY 10155 www.trep-trepiu.com

40 advertisement Il Design,

The Montfort Academy is an awardwinning, classical, Roman Catholic high school for boys and girls.

We promote the highest ideals of scholarship, sportsmanship, moral development, and citizenship, providing our students a priceless and unparalleled education that will last a lifetime.

As a private school we aim for all of our graduates to attend the finest colleges, universities, and vocational schools.

The Montfort Academy 99 Valley Road Katonah, NY 10536 (914) 767-0325

continued from page 29 spinta innovatrice: ordinamenti nuovi, svincolati dalle tradizionali sclerotizzazioni disciplinari, basate sulla forte integrazione fra le pratiche del conoscere e le pratiche del comprendere, fra le pratiche del saper fare e dell’immaginare. Nuovi profili per espressioni progettuali e professionali in grado di competere nella scena internazionale sono oggi disponibili per il sistema produttivo del Paese. L’area formativa del Design, infatti, copre ormai un ampio spettro di ambiti tematici, che dipendono dalla natura sempre più complessa dei fatti produttivi. La figura del progettista del prodotto industriale, infatti, si è molto articolata: non riguarda più la sola cura dell’estetica di un prodotto, ma profili tematici sempre più specialistici. Si spazia dalla progettazione dei beni materiali, delle infrastrutture e dei servizi a quella dei beni immateriali.

Si va dalla progettazione per l’ambiente, alla progettazione sempre più sofisticata della comunicazione e dell’interazione.

Del resto il prodotto industriale, con l’introduzione della microelettronica e con la diffusione dell’informatica, della telematica, della robotica, delle nanotecnologie e dei nuovi materiali, si è arricchito di contenuti prestazionali e comunicativi che richiedono una molteplicità di competenze, tali da provocare una sistematica revisione delle stesse metodologie progettuali e produttive.

Si tratta di una straordinaria esperienza che via via ha visto proporre Corsi di laurea di Design che, mettendo a sistema l’integrazione di competenze provenienti da diverse aree, ha gestito profili formativi innovativi, sviluppando nuove potenzialità culturali: con i contributi di competenze presenti nelle Facoltà di Architettura, di Scienze della Comunicazione, dell’area della Storia dell’Arte Contemporanea e delle Scienze dello Spettacolo, fino ai contributi scientifici per la gestione dell’innovazione di processo e di prodotto delle Facoltà di Ingegneria ed Economia.

Insomma, il design in Italia attraversa una rete di Università, di professionisti, di aziende, di centri di ricerca, un complesso sistema che fornisce cultura e servizi sempre più alti, le cui esperienze formative, la cui attività di ricerca, la cui capacità produttiva e i cui rapporti internazionali, sono ormai un patrimonio italiano.

Strapline 41

Save Italy

Four in Fashion

1. Albino D’Amato

2. Aquilano Rimondi

1. Chicca Lualdi

4. Marco de Vincenzo

Albino, Aquilano Rimondi, Chicca Lualdi and Marco de Vincenzo. A fashion show at Saks Fifth Avenue in November 2010 introduced these names to New York. Sponsored by the Italian Trade Commission and the Italian Chamber of Fashion, the show featured clothing and furniture by contemporary Italian designers.

by Michael BOTTARI

F

rom fashion shows for the Spring/Summer 2011 season: Roman designer Albino D’Amato (1) projects his humble personality through his collection which favors simplicity and creativity while exhibiting a clear admiration for the past. Albino previously worked in architecture and industrial design before arriving in fashion. The pair, Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi (2), emphasizes attention to detail and base their work on fabrics, images and precise tailoring. The duo doesn’t like to consider themselves artists and they advocate for Italian fashion that breaks ahead of the global trends instead of simply following blindly. Chicca Lualdi (3) presents a collection where modernity mixes with sophistication to create an understated feminine feel. She also places great value in color—looking for the right shade to provoke the correct emotion for the collection. Marco de Vincenzo’s (4) belief that fashion can transform a person to the point where they are unrecognizable is the root of his passion. While working for Fendi, he decided to make his own collection. In his work, he keeps the silhouette close to the body with tight fitting clothes and plays with geometric forms.

42 literature

the superficial truth A controversial video-turned-book looks at the one-dimensional presentation of women in Italian television

by Laura Giacalone

P

lease don’t retouch my wrinkles” – said the great Italian actress Anna Magnani, a muse for Neorealist maestro Roberto Rossellini (Rome, Open City, 1945), while instructing her make-up artist not to conceal the lines on her face – “Leave them all there, it took me so long to earn them.” Many years have passed since then, and women’s concerns and ambitions seem to have changed a lot.

Back from the feminist struggles of the 70s, women still have to face a number of unsolved issues in the present-day Italy – from employment discrimination to political participation, not mentioning the “ordinary” cases of violence against women, which daily fill the pages of all newspapers. Just to put it in figures, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2010, Italy continues to be one of the lowest-ranking countries in the EU and has deteriorated further over the last years (from rank 67 in 2008 to rank 74 out of 134 countries in 2010): women’s average salary is 50% lower than men’s (20,152 vs. 40,000 US$), and the presence of women in Parliament is significantly smaller (21% vs.

79%), especially in comparison to other countries (in Sweden women in Parliament are 46%). Beside this alarming economic and political inequality, Italian women have recently been facing another unexpected challenge: their image.

Since the rise of commercial TV chan-

nels in the 80s, and the consequent establishment of Berlusconi’s anomaly at the core of the Italian political system in the 90s, women – as represented by media and in the narratives of the Italian Prime Minister – have witnessed the progressive disappearance of their true essence, and real body, from the public arena, in favour of a distorted portrait of their own selves. It is enough to turn any Italian TV channel on, at any time of the day or night, to see women reduced to a multitude of inflated breasts, surgically enhanced lips, exhibited buttocks, blank looks and dulled smiles. While sex scandals become a recurrent feature of the political scene, with former TV soubrettes earning a seat at the national and European Parliament, Italian media perform a dangerous “normalization” of such anomalies, conveying a humiliating image of Italian women, who are surreptitiously encouraged to use their body, instead of their brain, to affirm their role in society. Far from the liberating sexual freedom advocated by the early feminists, this constant exhibition of the female body, associated with the absence of really qualifying roles for women in the media, as well as in other fields of society, seems to obey to a logic of annihilation, objectification and disempowerment of women, with negative repercussions on the younger, and more sensitive to the media messages, generations.

Among the few to denounce the degrading use of the female body on the Italian TV, in May 2009 businesswoman Lorella Zanardo, along with Cesare Cantù and Marco Malfi Chindemi, realised a documentary entitled Il corpo delle donne (“The Body of Women”) distributed on the Internet (www.ilcorpodelledonne. net) in several languages, with the aim of raising awareness on this issue. The

film stems from the observation that women, real women, have been evicted from TV screens, only to be replaced by a grotesque, vulgar, humiliating representation of them. Although this happens regularly, there seems to be no reaction against this phenomenon, not even by women themselves (“Why don’t we do something about it? Why are we accepting this constant humiliation? What are we afraid of?” – the author asks at the end of the documentary). This misrepresentation was the reason that induced Lorella Zanardo to select a number of images from popular TV programmes having in common a twisted use of women’s body, in order to communicate what is happening “not only to those who never watch TV, but also, and especially, to those who watch it, but do not “see” it.”

The documentary also focuses on the disappearance of adult women’s faces from TV, as well as on the increasing use of plastic surgery to remove any sign of aging, and the social consequences of such collective removal.

The research at the basis of the film has recently become a book (Il corpo delle donne, Feltrinelli 2010), and is extending further on: the debate ignited by the documentary, and the positive reactions of women, as well as men, eager for a change in the representation of their selves in the media, has prompted Lorella Zanardo to also launch a training course entitled Nuovi occhi per la TV (“New Eyes for TV”), which is mainly addressed to students and anyone interested in enhancing their critical attitude in the consumption of mass media, in the belief that – as philosopher Karl Popper pointed out – “citizens of a civilised society, meaning people who behave civilly, are not the result of chance, but the outcome of an educational process.”

photography

Hidden gem of...

Venice

photography by Mauro Benedetti

In the heart of the Byzantineadorned city, banners of red and green reflect in the melting ice of the after-hours Rialto fish market.

And amidst the splendor of the Basilica of San Marco, a wall of marble inlays with the Tetrarchs sculpture at its base forms an ageless backdrop.

43

44 advertisement

In the best Italian, all-natural* tradition

www.brioschi-usa.com

*Brioschi is the only FDA-recognized all natural effervescent antacid.

Social journal

45

Social Journal Chopin and Schumann BiCentennial Carnegie Concert The Italian Academy Foundation (IAF) presented a solo concert by Sicilian pianist Sandro Sebastian Russo in homage to the bicentennial composers Frederic Chopin and Robert Schumann. He received standing ovations from the 200 guests of the Foundation gathered at Carnegie Hall for the program. A reception followed at Bechstein Piano Hall. During the evening, the IAF chairman Stefano Acunto presented the Foundation’s Bravo! Award for 2010 to screenwriter Michael Ricigliano, creator of Lily of the Feast, a movie starring Paul Sorvino, Federico Castelluccio and Tony LaBianco.

1

5

2

4

1. IAF Chairman Stefano Acunto with the evening’s sponsors, mr. and mrs. carlomusto; 2. pianist sandro russo performs selections from schumann and chopin; 3. Michael Ricigliano, recipient of the Bravo! award; 4. IAF board member Dr. Bilha Fish and Mr. Acunto present the award to Michael Ricigliano.

Silvia Cipriano’s Per Te Book Signing at Rizzoli 1 the author outside rizzoli. 2 with richard, and with rizzoli literary agent

2 1

3

46 Social journal

S ocial Journal NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò 20th Anniversary The Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at New York University held a 20th Anniversary Gala reception this winter at New York University’s beautiful new Skirball Concert Hall on Washington Square. A concert and dinner were held, including more than 400 for the concert and 250 attendees for the gala dinner. At the center of the activity was Baronessa Mariucca Zerilli-Marimò who generously endowed New York University with its Italian center and, in so doing, endowed the city of New York with a great point of referral for all Italians and Americans of Italian extraction. During the evening’s event several dignitaries from the New York community and from Europe were in attendance, making this a highlight of the social season in New York.

2

1 1. Baronessa Zerilli-Marimò (right) with H.E. Renato Cardinal Martino (center) and H.E. Archbishop Francis Chullikat; 2.

Looking out from the stage at the gathering concert crowd; 3. Executive Director Dott.

Stefano Albertini greets visitors. Dott. Albertini is widely regarded in New York as a leading exponent for ItalianitÀ; 4. Among those who traveled great distances were Ambassador Giorgio Radicati from Rome; 5. Italian Academy Foundation Chairman Stefano Acunto with Dott.sa. Genny DiBert of Rome, author, art critic and columnist for the Italian Journal; 6.

Ambassador Giulio Maria Terzi di Sant’Agata (center) and Consul General Francesco Maria Talò (right) speak with Dott. Renato Miracco, former Director of the Italian Cultural institute, New York.

3

4

6

5

Social journal

Andrea Bocelli at Le Cirque

47

Social Journal

The Italian Academy Foundation partnered with the Weill/Cornell Department of Surgery and the University of Pisa and Drs. Fabrizio Michelassi and Franco Mosca to salute Andrea Bocelli and initiate the Art of Medicine, a program to express to internist and doctors the importance of medical practice as an art form to relieve suffering, in an age when technology, legal and other considerations can intrude in the process. The reception, limited to 60 people, raised funds for a documentary to be entitled “The Art of Medicine” which will be created in cooperation with the three entities and Andrea Bocelli, great advocate for those who suffer.

Andrea Bocelli sang four selections for a most appreciative crowd 1

2

3

5

6

7

8

9

10

13

14

11

12

1. IAF Chairman Acunto, Dott. Michelassi and Consul General Talò greet Bocelli; 2. Andrea Bocelli with IAF Chairman Acunto and IAF Board Member Dr. Bilha Fish, Chairman of the Nassau Physicians Foundation; 3. the legendary restaurateur Sirio Machionni with the Maestro. The reception was held at his prestigious Le Cirque Restaurant; 5 15 (left to right) Vivian Cardia, Carole Haarmann Acunto, Maestro Bocelli, Dott Fabrizio Michelassi and Dr. Caren Heller; 6. Senator and Mrs. Alfonse D’Amato with the Maestro; 7. Carl and Roseanne Bonomo with Maestro Bocelli and veronica berti; 8. Maestro Bocelli with business leader Joseph Carlomusto and his daughter, aspiring soprano Cosette carlomusto; 9. (seated) Nadine Carlomusto, Mr. & Mrs. Jerry Elicks, Mr. & Mrs. William Fishlinger; (standing) Vivian Cardia, Carole Haarmann Acunto, Consul General and Mrs. Francesco Talo, Dr. bilha chesner Fish, Mrs. Bruce Winston and IAF Chairman Acunto; 10. Barbara Winston and Vivian Cardia with Congressman Peter King; 11. just before his recital the Maestro has a gentle moment; 13. Dott. Michelassi and IAF Chairman Acunto share a light moment with the crowd; 14. a view of the room on the second floor of Le Cirque; 15. the organizers of the event included: (right to left) Dott. Giuseppina Mosca, Maestro Machionni, Consul General Talo, Dott. Michelassi, Maestro Bocelli and IAF Chairman Acunto.

48 Social journal

SASILM ocial Journal John Cabot University f Rome at Hudson Cliff House 5

4

6

1

2

3

7

8

9

10

The American Society of Italian Legions of Merit held its annual meeting during which two substantial awards were presented. 1. The first award was presented by Ambassador Giulio Terzi to Hon. Frank Guarini: the Cav. di Gran Croce, Italy’s highest award. 2. Hon. Dominic Massaro, himself a Cavalier of the Grand Cross, gave his farewell speech as Chairman and was roundly applauded by the group for the outstanding work he has done for the organization. He is succeeded by 3. Hon. Lucio Caputo, also a Cav. di Gran Croce. Among those in attendance were: 4. Dott. Stefano Albertini, Vivian Cardia, Carole Haarmann Acunto and Cav. di Gran CROce, Frank Guarini; 5. Cav. Claudio Bozzo, Chairman, Italian Chamber of Commerce and Cav. Dott. Marco Grassi; 6. Chairman Caputo with Dott. Berardo Paradiso, Chairman, IACE; 7. Mrs. Acunto with Dr. Antonella Cinque; 8. Consul General Talò expresses greetingS; 9. Comm. Rosemarie Gallina Santangelo, a major force in the success of ASILM; 10. Consul General Talò “pins” Joseph Perella, Cavaliere.

Dante Society, L.I.

Cianfaglione Honored

Savoy The Dante Society of Long Island honored the Italian Academy Foundation in the person of its Chairman (left) and Edward Mangano, Nassau County Executive. the award recognizes the recipients’ advancement of Italian Culture.

Quintino Cianfaglione (second from left) was awarded the distinction of Cavaliere by Consul General Francesco Talò, together with Vice Consul Lucia Pasqualini. HIS WIFE, MARCELLA, HOLDS THE DIPLOMA. Cav. Cianfaglione, radio personality and Chairman of COMITES, has done great work to advance the cause of Italians living in America.

Social journal

49

Social Journal

Cardinal Sepe Visits

The Italian Academy Foundation was pleased to host a reception in homage to Cresenzio Cardinal Sepe on the occasion of his visit to New York in February. Cardinal Sepe, Archbishop of Naples was received in the Church of Saint Jean Baptiste in Manhattan and was feted in a short recital of classical music in his honor. Leaders of the Italian and American Italian communities joined in the event, hosted by IAF together with the ASLIM and the Council of Presidents of Major Italian Organizations, represented by respectively Cav. di Gran Croce Lucio Caputo and Cav. Joseph Sciame.

Saint Jean Baptiste’s pastor Father Scheuller, Cardinal Sepe, IAF Chairman Acunto

Indulge in the Flavors of Real Italy Honorable Aniello Musella, Italian Trade Commissioner in New York, held a gala two-day event in elegant Saratoga, New York, promoting Italian design and products. The event, now in its second year, brings together hundreds of sport car enthusiasts, food lovers and business people to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

2

1

3

4

5

6

1. Aniello Musella begins the proceedings; 2. Aniello Musella (center) with his wife Susie (left); 3. famed baritone Lawrence Harris performs for 400 guests; 4. Hon. Vice Consul Stefano Acunto greets the group; 5.

Andrea Zagato, honored that day as an exponent of one of Italy’s great design firms, here discusses the importance of Italian design; 6. Mayor JOHNSON of Saratoga presents a certificate of appreciation to Musella.

50 Face file

Face File

Frida Giannini

by Michael bottari an elegant, dignified and feminine style. Giannini has also used her influence to support the arts,lessen the company’s carbon footprint and contribute to charity.

A

ppearing on the red carpet at the 2010 International Rome Film Festival alongside renowned director Martin Scorsese and CEO of Gucci Patrizio di Marco, Gucci’s Creative Director Frida Giannini has had an impact on the world that reaches far beyond the realm of fashion.

Giannini was born in Rome in 1972 and inherited her love for fashion from her grandmother, who owned a small dress shop in Italy. She studied at Rome’s Academy of Costume and Fashion where she gained all the preliminary skills needed to grow and become the great fashion icon that she is today.

Her career began as an apprentice in a small scale ready-towear fashion house. She moved to Fendi in 1997 where she designed the ready-to-wear line and, after three seasons, was promoted to the designer of leather goods. In 2002, she acquired her first job at Gucci as the Handbag Design Director.

After Tom Ford left Gucci in 2004, the image of provocative eroticism that he brought to the label was to change, and at this time Giannini was promoted to Creative Director of Accessories. In 2005, while remaining the designer of accessories, Giannini was also promoted to Creative Director of the Women’s ready-to-wear line. Finally, in 2006, she also became the designer for the menswear line and so found herself as the Creative Director of the entire fashion house.

Giannini brought a unique interpretation of the Gucci legacy to the label, emphasizing certain stylistic elements of the fashion house’s past while adding aspects of her confident and joyous Roman personality. She took vintage styles and recreated them with a contemporary feel while retaining the brand’s signature elegance. One of her first projects updated and revitalized the classic Flora scarf pattern that was originally made for Grace Kelly. Her recent collections exhibit

This year, the major fashion house contributed $900,000 to the Martin Scorsese Film Foundation to aid in scorsese, the restoration of the classic Italian giannini and Films La Dolce Vita (1960) and Il di Marco in Gattopardo (1963). The premiere of rome the newly restored La Dolce Vita proved to be one of the highlights of this year’s International Rome Film Festival. In an interview with Vogue, Giannini said: “Gucci has a long history with film dating back to Gucci’s Flora scarf, and, Top, the late Forthe fiat 500, classics reimagties, and we are ined by Giannini. proud to support the work of Martin Scorsese and The Film Foundation to keep these vibrant, timeless films alive. Through preservation, the legacy of visionary filmmakers like Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini can continue to inspire us, as well as future generations.”

Also this year, Gucci announced a plan, conceived by Giannini, to reduce its impact on the environment. The plans include a new packing concept that will reduce the amount of materials used, working only with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paper, and will be 100% recyclable. This concept will be implemented in every Gucci store worldwide.

In 2008, Giannini partnered with hip-hop star Rihanna on a collection of customized handbags and ads, of which 25% of profits would go to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Called the “Tattoo Heart Collection,” it is just one of the annual campaigns that Gucci has participated in to benefit UNICEF and other charities since Giannini became Creative Director.

Connecting fashion with charity, sustainability, responsibility and compassion, Giannini has created a new image and significance to what it means to be a globally renowned fashion house in today’s society.

Subscribe to the

Italian Journal email: subscribe@italianjournal.it mail: Italian Journal

P.O. Box 9001 Mount Vernon, NY 10552 or online at

www.italianacademyfoundation.org Four issues per year 50 dollars.

Tax deductible contribution to The Italian Academy Foundation, Inc.