Biography
Alessandro Mendini is one of the most famous representatives of Radical Design in the 1980s and one of the most important designers of postmodernism worldwide. His oeuvre includes architecture, design, painting, as well as design theoretical and design critical texts.
Since 1970, Mendini was editor-in-chief of several important magazines such as Casabella (1970-1976), Modo (1977-1979) and later DOMUS (1979-1985). Parallel to his editorial work, he thought about innovative ways to design. In 1973 the experimental group 'Global Tools' was founded, in which designers, artists, architects and intellectuals dealt with existential aspects of architecture and design and ultimately presented a comprehensive theoretical basis for design processes of the future. From 1973 to 1975) the members of the group did numerous experiments and workshops, the results were published in 'Casabella'.
In the late 1970s Mendini was one of the intellectual fathers of the group Studio Alchimia, which also included Alessandro Guererrio, Ettore Sottsass, Michele de Lucchi and Andrea Branzi. What they had in common was their critical attitude towards Italian 'Bel Design' and pure functionalism. According to Mendini, design does not consist in creating something new, but in rearranging the familiar. Under the heading of re-design, Mendini took some of the 20th century's most famous designs and rearranged them, such as the 'Zig Zag' chair by Gerriet Rietveld, Joe Colombo's 'Sedia Universale' and Gino Ponti's 'Super leggera' chair, which Mendini decorated with flags.
Read more ...Read less ...
