From May 16 to September 27, 2026 Villa Giulia in Verbania hosts the exhibition Alessandro Mendini. Things. Rooms as Worlds, an extensive anthological exhibition dedicated to Alessandro Mendini (Milan, 1931-2019), a central figure in twentieth-century design and architecture. The exhibition project, curated by Loredana Parmesani, brings together 130 works that trace the Milanese designer’s activity from his beginnings related to Radical Design in the 1970s to the postmodern elaborations that characterized the later phases of his research.
The exhibition is organized by the City of Verbania in collaboration with the Alessandro Mendini Archive, represented by Elisa and Fulvia Mendini, with the patronage of the Piedmont Region, the Province of Verbano Cusio Ossola, the Distretto Turistico dei Laghi, the Museo del Paesaggio di Verbania, Ente Giardini Botanici Villa Taranto, the Amalago Association and the Ordine degli Architetti, Pianificatori, Paesaggisti e Conservatori delle Province di Novara e del VCO. The installation, designed by Alex Mocika, is built in relation to the interiors of Villa Giulia. Each room will be dedicated to a single work considered important in Mendini’s creative journey, selected together with his daughters Fulvia and Elisa. Each work will be accompanied by materials useful for reconstructing its ideational and cultural context.
The works featured include the 1974 Poltrona di Paglia, a project conceived in the climate of Radical Design as a critical reflection on the social role of design, understood as an instrument of provocation and cultural intervention. The 1978 Proust Armchair, among Mendini’s best-known works, will also be on display.
The itinerary also includes the K2 sofa made in 2013 for A LOT OF Brazil, a work that recalls numerous artistic and cultural references close to Mendini’s imagination, from Giorgio de Chirico to Alberto Savinio, Carlo Carrà to Vasilij Kandinsky, and Futurism, Czechoslovakian Cubism, and the historical avant-gardes of the 20th century. Also appearing among the works on display is Mendinigraph from 1985, defined as a kind of wooden normograph that collects signs, ornamental motifs and decorative solutions recurring in the author’s production.
One section will be dedicated to 100% Make up by Alessi from 1992, a collection consisting of one hundred porcelain vases with lids designed by Mendini and decorations entrusted to one hundred international artists, architects and designers. The presence of this project also recalls the link with Alessi, a company that has its operational headquarters in the province of Verbano Cusio Ossola and with which Mendini has developed a relevant collaboration. Also on display is Mobili per Uomo: Giacca by Bisazza from 1997, a metal and gold leaf mosaic storage cabinet that transforms the suit into a monumental and functional element intended for the storage of personal items.
According to the curatorial project, the itinerary will take the public through the main lines of research developed by Mendini throughout his activity: from the theoretical and design commitment matured in the years of Radical Design to the reflection on the domestic and everyday dimension of living, up to the use of decoration as an autonomous language capable of redefining the relationship between art, architecture and design.
The exhibition catalog is published by Moebius. The realization of the project is also made possible thanks to the support of Raffineria Metalli Cusiana S.p.a., Gruppo Zenit S.r.l., Banca BPER, Big Emotion, Arredo Jolly, Fondazione Bisazza, Caimi, Magis, Abet Laminati, Grand Hotel Majestic, Ristorante Milano and Caffè delle Rose.
“In each space,” emphasizes Loredana Parmesani, “the iconic object kicks off a design and emotional narrative that develops into a path made of objects, drawings, photographs, and writings that support the theoretical and formal peculiarity of the topic addressed. Why rooms? Why rooms as worlds? Because rooms have been one of the main threads of his research. The room, so dear to him, is a place of reflection, of rest, of quiet, of work but also the place of turbulence, of restlessness that can also become a prison from which to escape thanks to imagination.”
“Welcoming such a wide-ranging and articulate anthology dedicated to Alessandro Mendini to Verbania,” says Giandomenico Albertella, mayor of Verbania, “means paying tribute not only to an undisputed protagonist of twentieth-century design and architecture, but to an intellectual capable of deeply redefining the very meaning of design. His work, suspended between critical tension and imaginative freedom, continues to question us about the role of creativity as a cultural and civic practice. In this fruitful dialogue between space, form and thought, Villa Giulia is configured as a privileged place of reflection, in which the city renews its vocation to be a crossroads of contemporary experiences, languages and visions.”
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| Verbania dedicates a major anthological exhibition to Alessandro Mendini with 130 works |
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