garage BENTIVOGLIO

Many of the objects and works contained in the rooms of Palazzo Bentivoglio, while not sharing the places and times of creation, often share the construction techniques. A 17th century Emilian painting differs little in its production from a contemporary Irish painting; the pigments have changed, which freed the artist from their production, but the way of performing the work has not changed. The industrial revolution has accelerated the production of furniture, but often it has not significantly affected the methods of assembly. The surfaces of a Morozzi cabinet are the normal evolution of the veneer of an eighteenth-century room: with a series of mirrors, a normal structure in aluminum and stainless steel is ennobled and hidden. \n The chairs of the Up series, designed by Gaetano Pesce in the late '60s, are an emblematic example of the evolution of production methods in the history of design. Everything is made possible by the meeting between Piero Ambrogio Busnelli and Cesare Cassina, both already active with their respective companies in the field of upholstery; Busnelli has been interested for some years in the application possibilities of polyurethane, a polymer now extensively marketed; Cassina, on the other hand, wants to experiment with new production methods, and therefore new forms, within a market that is beginning to saturate. \n Pesce thus designs for the newborn C&B, named after the two founders, six different organically inspired models, while the last one is clearly classically inspired, recalling the colossal marble foot of a lost imperial statue. If to the eye they look like sculptural elements obtained by removal, in reality the production method is by way of placing, by cold injection. \n This technology-design combination is emblematic of Italy in the 1960s; first of all, Kartell, where the working and sentimental combination between the chemist Castelli and the designer Ferrieri brings plastic to the center of the discourse on furniture. Or Gufram, where Giuseppe Raimondi's artistic direction brings together a new generation of designers and artists in a small Piedmontese company. The summary of this story is the celebrated exhibition “Italy: The New Domestic Landscape”, curated by Emilio Ambasz and set up at the MOMA in 1972, which, while its intentions were supposed to foreshadow new worlds, represented the bitter conclusion. The energy crises of the Seventies and the neoliberal pressures of the 80s will radically change the ways of living and, therefore, of thinking about design.