Milan, Italy
Born from an idea by Antonio Colombo in collaboration with Elisa and Fulvia Mendini and curated by Stefano Casciani, the exhibition In the Garden of Eden is a collective initiative that brings together design works by celebrated artistic figures who accompanied Alessandro Mendini in projects on many different scales and which takes place in the Milan-based Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea gallery from November 25, 2021 until March 12, 2022.
Chicago Athenaeum Museum President and close friend of Alessandro Mendini, Christian Narkiewicz-Laine who has collaborated with Alessandro to a great extent through the years, had stated during Mendini’s luminous award ceremony for the 2014 European Prize for Architecture:
“Mendini is one of the rare, most iconic minds in the history of art and architecture. In an era where architectural ideas are copied and duplicated worldwide faster than ‘viral’, Mendini and his works remain singular, prophetic and original.”
The European Prize for Architecture is the annual award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, that focuses on the most influential architects that have challenged the direction of contemporary architecture and have blazoned a more humane and intellectual approach to architecture.
Alessandro Mendini strongly believed in the collaboration with other architects, artists, designers, musicians and, writers to be a focal part of his work.
From the editorial staff of the legendary magazine Casabella to his year of the “New Utopia” with Domus, from Studio Alchimia to Atelier Mendini, from products for Alessi to the Groningen Museum, Mendini deeply supported the idea that collaborations and collective work, even heterogeneous ones, can generate small and large aesthetic revolutions.
The exhibition In the Garden of Eden — the Earthly Paradise that also appears in one of his philosophical diagrams is the symbolic formation of a very new group, representing both the diversity and originality of individual initiatives and ideas, which Mendini was passionate about discovering and spreading.
The works on view in the exhibition’s catalogue — paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, glass, furniture and objects, one-of-a-kind pieces or editions — intersect in order to create an intellectual, cultural and physical amalgam of authors with a paramount presence on the landscape of art and design, both in Italy and on international level.
The exhibition In the Garden of Eden demonstrates “Mendini Theorem”: the idea that collective work can trigger achievement, generate important new creations and construct a grand Gesamtkunstwerk of visions, forms and people.
The show also includes new editions by Alessandro Mendini.
Exhibition Project: In the Garden of Eden
Exhibition Space: Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea
Curator: Stefano Casciani
Conceptual idea: Antonio Colombo, Elisa Mendini, and Fulvia Mendini
Exhibition design: Alex Mocika
Catalogue: Stefano Casciani with Aloisia Resch, and Diletta Piemonte
The Authors: Vincent Beaurin, Massimo Caiazzo, Arduino Cantafora, Stefano Casciani, Carla Ceccariglia, Pierre Charpin, Riccardo Dalisi, Michele De Lucchi, Massimo Giacon, Anna Gili, Bruno Gregory, Alessandro Guerriero, Maria Christina Hamel, Jaime Hayon, Dorota Koziara, Alex Mocika, Occhio Magico, Mimmo Paladino, Franco Raggi, Karim Rashid, Studio Job, Oscar Tusquets
