A project by KUEHN MALVEZZI
Curated by Cloe Piccoli
In collaboration with Museo del Novecento
Under the patronage of Goethe-Institut Mailand
During the Milano Design Week, Saporiti Italia presents Seeing Machine, a project by Kuehn Malvezzi architects, curated by Cloe Piccoli. The installation, specifically studied for the Sala Fontana at Museo del Novecento, is the seventh edition of Inside Art, the Saporiti Italia research laboratory aimed to create design objects for art and architecture sites
“Artworks – paintings, sculptures, installations – need large architectural spaces to be exhibited, but they also need interior design objects to be admired”, says Raffaele Saporiti, chairman and chief executive officer of Saporiti Italia SpA. And this is why Saporiti Italia every year proposes world famous architects or international emerging designers to create new objects “to watch art” and “to be watched” inside the art and architectural spaces.
For the 2012 edition of Inside Art, Saporiti Italia has studied with Museo del Novecento the possibility to create an installation inside the fascinating spaces of Sala Fontana. To work on this amazing ambience, embedded in the Arengario, a masterpiece of the architecture of the 30’s with huge windows overlooking Piazza Duomo, Cloe Piccoli, invited Berlin architectural studio Kuehn Malvezzi.
Kuehn Malvezzi, specialized in museums and artwork displays, did study a site-specific project, focused on the peculiar architecture of the museum, the urban background of Milan and the masterpieces of Lucio Fontana displayed in this hall.
The starting point for the Kuehn Malvezzi project is one of the most famous Concetti Spaziali (Spatial Concepts) by Lucio Fontana: la struttura al neon per la IX Triennale di Milano (the neon structure for the IX Triennale di Milano), 1951. “This is a milestone in the history of art, since it marks the transformation from the idea of the artwork as an object, to the artwork as a concept, and consequently as an action (the cut), or as an existential act (the arabesque)”, Cloe Piccoli explains.
The Art becomes a spatial environment to Fontana, as he writes in a document of that time: “The spatial environment was the first trial to get rid of a static plastic matter, the setting was totally black, with the black light wood’s lamp, you stepped in and you were completely isolated by your own, every spectator reacted according to his specific mood, precisely, you did not influence the man through objects or matters imposed like goods for sale, the man was by his own, his consciousness, his ignorance, his matter, the point was to avoid the usual display of artworks and sculptures, and enter the spatial debate“.
Starting from this masterpiece for Milan and for the international history of art, Kuehn Malvezzi Studio conceived Seeing Machine, an architectonic installation which is at the same time invitation, path, vision and vision machine. The Seeing Machine “is a kind of spy glass pointed at the work of art and a display of the city too”, tell Kuehn Malvezzi architects.
The installation is composed by two main architectonic elements that “conduct” the visitors inside Sala Fontana, inviting them to follow selected trajectories, to stop, to seat to observe Fontana’s masterpiece, the museum and the surrounding view.
