Io sono un drago. The true story of Alessandro Mendini

As part of their cultural partnership, Triennale Milano and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain present a dual homage to Alessandro Mendini, the architect, designer, artist and theorist who left his mark on the revolutions in thought and behavior of the 20th century and the new millennium. Triennale hosts the retrospective exhibition Io sono un drago. The true story of Alessandro Mendini—staged in collaboration with the Archivio Alessandro Mendini, curated by Fulvio Irace with exhibition design by Pierre Charpin—and the installation What?, an homage to Alessandro Mendini by Philippe Starck.

The retrospective and the installation—two new projects designed specifically for the spaces of Triennale Milano—sprang from the close bond that existed between Mendini and both Triennale and the Fondation Cartier. Among the projects that he designed for Triennale were the installation Architettura sussurrante (Whispering Architecture) (1979) as part of the 16th International Exhibition, the exhibition Quali Cose Siamo (What Things we are) (2010), and the Teatro dei Burattini (Puppet Theater) (2015), designed with his brother Francesco and situated in the Triennale garden. In 2002, the Fondation Cartier dedicated an exhibition to Alessandro Mendini, Fragilisme, that prompted the elaboration of a founding concept of his theoretical thinking. Ten years later he was invited to design the staging of the exhibition Histoires de voir, to imagine site-specific works, and to participate to the exhibitions that the Fondation Cartier presented internationally. Numerous works by Mendini, presented in this show, are part of the collections of both institutions.

The retrospective Io sono un drago. The true story of Alessandro Mendini displays over 400 works with different formats, materials and subjects, from many private and public collections, in particular those from: Alessandro Mendini Archive, Fondation Cartier, Triennale Milano, Groninger Museum, Vitra Design Museum, Abet Laminati Museum, Alessi and Bisazza.

The title of the exhibition, Io sono un drago (I am a dragon), draws on one of the most emblematic self-portraits by Alessandro Mendini and is intended to emphasize the complexity of this figure in the worlds of international design, architecture, and art. The exhibition sets out to restore Mendini’s gaze on the world, his empathy for everyday objects and the mystery of his artistic philosophy that can transform even the most humdrum into a surprise that reveals the magic of the everyday.

The exhibition itinerary is structured in six thematic nuclei: Identikit, featuring the series of self-portraits that Mendini created over the course of his whole life, using different techniques and formats; La sindrome di Gulliver (The Gulliver syndrome), with a succession of objects that are out of scale, from extra-large ones—such as the Poltrona di Proust and the Petite Cathédrale, both part of the Fondation Cartier collection—to some of the reduced-size projects created for Alessi; Architetture (Architectures), which presents the architectural works of the Mendini workshop, including the Groninger Museum, the Mediazentrum Madsack in Hanover, the three stations of the Naples Metro, and his most recent works in South Korea, from the Olympic Stadium to the Posco district in Seoul; Fragilismi, a nucleus dedicated to the research that led to the “Fragilisme” exhibition, conceived by Mendini on the invitation of the Fondation Cartier: a hymn to the fragility of the earth in a world marked by war and violence; Radical Melancholy, a section dedicated to the years of radical design, of which Mendini was one of the principal theorists; and Stanze (Rooms), with three of the rooms that Mendini designed: immersive environments where references, memories, dreams and nightmares accumulate.

Beside the retrospective, Philippe Starck, who shared creative and professional experiences with Alessandro Mendini, imagined the site-specific installation What?. An impressionistic journey that takes visitors into Mendini’s subconscious and his creative universe, guided by sounds and images in constant transformation. The French creator has invited Soundwalk Collective in his project, a collective of artists and musicians founded by Stephan Crasneanscki.