Waiting, moved – ça va sans dire –, reorganized. And finally here it is. To the Fuorisalone 2024the exhibition of Gaetano Pesce, Nice To See Youopens its doors from 19th to 23rd April to the great, great public who can’t wait to fill their eyes with the functional and aesthetic, anthropomorphic and material rainbow designed by Pesce. But before entering the imaginative setup, outside, the installation The Tired Man has his say. Its extra size – extra-large and extra-ordinary – catalyzes the attention of the square facing it Venerable Ambrosiana Librarythat is, the address, this year (also) part of the circuit of 5VIE, which hosts the exhibition. It has an effect. Because it’s as if the creative has left a Milan a frank testament on one of the most pointed issues of our society: tiredness. “It is my opinion that man, in our day, shows signs of tiredness. This being, who in the past has implemented many undertakings such as difficult political decisions, grandiose engineering works, important land reclamations, extraordinary scientific discoveries, accomplishments of “art of great cultural value, today it is tired”, wrote Gaetano Pesce. “The sign of this fatigue is represented by the dishonesty of certain political administrators, entrepreneurs, professionals, men of art, those belonging to criminal or mafia associations, etc.”. The moral exhaustion is in the work. You can see everything: he is in the bowed head, in the body that stands on four legs, in the back-belly contrast that creates a monumental right angle. Thus Gaetano Pesce, before leaving, responded to the desire to construct another political message with imagination and drawing. “With the help of the Municipality of Milan, in April we will conclude what began in 2019 with the His Majesty impatient in the prestigious Piazza Duomo. (…) If the Suffering Majesty spoke of the cruelty with which many men, in many countries and traditions, treat women, The Tired Man speaks of the ethical fatigue from which the so-called Strong Sex suffers.”
Fuorisalone 2024, Nice To See You, exhibition by Gaetano Pesce
Fuorisalone 2024, installation The Tired Man by Gaetano Pesce
And then there is the exhibition beyond the doors, or under the historical roof of the cultural institution which has 460 thousand volumes including pamphlets, incunabula and sixteenth century books. Yes, in the atrium and in the Sala delle Academie, a private room of the Ambrosiana Library, the fantastic iris is (also) confronted with sacredness. But not only. The concept of. lives in the exhibition functionality, for which the designer fought throughout his creative life. “For many years now I have maintained that the future of objects sees them not only satisfying the qualities of functionality and form, but also being bearers of a message. After about sixty years of trying to get this cultural enrichment of Design accepted, I am warned that many young designers follow what has been described above”, he argued. The landscape in shades of red smiles with the chairs, challenges geometry with the tables, faces humanity with bestiality. “The works were carried out at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024”, he tells us Giulia Tosciri, Director of Gaetano Pesce’s New York office. “This family of seats – The older one, the child, the cousin and the little one – presents itself with different expressions: recognizable and human faces. Then there are theOman Chair CappucinaL’Oman Chair el’Oman Chair Throne, which represent the tree. We went on a trip to Oman and Gaetano was inspired by this tree, which produces a resin. From there a research began, an experimentation also from the point of view of the material. These seats are made with a single casting of two different resins: one flexible and one rigid. There is also a reissue of the 60 Arms and the tables Origami, made with a single sheet of translucent resin, folded to perfection to give shape to a structure with shelf and legs”.
Fuorisalone 2024, exhibition Nice To See You by Gaetano Pesce
Fuorisalone 2024, exhibition Nice To See You by Gaetano Pesce
Couldn’t miss itUp series dressed in blue – “We always include it because it is Gaetano’s most famous work, the first object with political significance in defense of women”. And how beautiful that, from a side glance, it is as if protected by a sacred icon. This piece of B&B Italia and the bookshop Luigi (or do you love me) created for Bottega Ghianda are the only ones in production of this collective and temporary exhibition. Everything else is the result of artisanal, manual work done in Brooklyn. Between the hands that hold each other Friendship Lamp, designed by Pesce after the pandemic when touching was no longer forbidden, and the chair Nobody’s Perfect in XL format, the designer’s studio presents another reflection in Milan: you have to get up with the spirit and the mind. “Lately”, continues Giulia Tosciri, “Gaetano had thought of enlarging some seats, filling them with meaning: with the hope of elevating ourselves to be able to sit down”. In all fields, even (and above all) in cultural and political ones. Thus, with this exhibition that ranges from the inside to the outside of a place that delivers knowledge, curiosity and history to its Milan, every day of the year, we draw the final conclusions of a poetics committed on three fronts: form, function and the meaning. We still bring home a sincere philosophical thought according to which design is not just a reflection on aesthetics, but also a message within the message: loyal to ideas today and always.
Fuorisalone 2024, exhibition Nice To See You by Gaetano Pesce
Fuorisalone 2024, exhibition Nice To See You by Gaetano Pesce
INFO
Nice To See YouGaetano Pesce
From 19 to 23 April 2024, from 10am to 6pm
At Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana (piazza Pio XI 2) – Atrium and Hall of the Academy
Free admission
www.ambrosiana.it
Alessia Musillo is editor of Elledecor.it. Graduated from the State University of Milan with a thesis held at the Treccani Foundation in Milan, she also studied Modern Languages at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow (UK) and Semiotics at the University of Tartu (Estonia). After having collaborated with various newspapers, today she transforms current events into stories by writing about cities, design and pop culture for the Elle Decor Italia website. You can follow her on Instagram (@alessia__musillo) or by reading Elledecor.it. Her articles are journeys on the trail of contemporary living. The middle of her? The word.
Tags: Gaetano Pesces exhibition Fuorisalone
