In honour of the 25th anniversary of the Groninger Museum building, its architect, Alessandro Mendini, was asked to organise an exhibition of his work. What makes the exhibition perhaps even more special is the timing: organising Mondo Mendini was one of the last projects Mendini (1931-2019) undertook before he passed away early this year. What can you expect from this exhibition?
Melancholy will be the furthest thing from your mind at the exhibition. It surrounds you with soft, warm colours and round shapes, largely decked out in brilliant metal surfaces. As soon as you walk into the rooms, it also becomes clear that there is no clear chronology present or hierarchy among the objects. To boot, the informational texts on the wall provide the bare minimum: just enough is offered to get a bit of a handle on the exhibition, but nothing more. The result is that you are fairly reliant on yourself to draw connections and make associations. It’s actually quite nice and even essential to better understand Mendini's mindset.
MENDINI'S WAY OF THINKING
It is not a retrospective in the traditional sense of the word, but rather a glimpse into Mendini's way of thinking. Mondo Mendini, in particular, is one large installation in which the tone and atmosphere are as important as the objects in it. It clarifies how he positioned and oriented himself in the world around him, like the way he responded to prevailing and emerging trends during his career and to the work of others. Furthermore, anything he had an affinity for or that served as inspiration in this exhibition has been given the same treatment as his own work. The effect is disarming. Nothing has been presented as a heavily charged example from the hand of the icon of Italian postmodernist design, to which the contemporary young designer or artist could not possibly measure up. Everything is presented to the visitor in a completely open and transparent manner. You can easily follow Mendini's thought processes — from the original source of inspiration to the final product — in the exhibition, without it being presented didactically or with an authoritarian air.
Mendini may be an icon of postmodernism, but his works are as relevant as when they debut. His use of colour and form sometimes feel a bit Disney-like, but we can all appreciate that again post-ironically. His preference for entering into collaborations with various disciplines lasted until the very end as well. For example, skateboards by Supreme from 2016 can be seen bearing his designs. The exhibition also features necklaces from 2015 that would not look out of place on many an Instagram influencer. This is further confirmed by a group of millennials who seem to be totally in their element, strolling through the exhibition and loudly proclaiming which items they would or would not want in their apartment: the giant Proust chair would be cool as a bed, the Kandissi sofa in the living room, the Moka pot and whistling kettle in the kitchen, etc. — and they are right. They would look great.
RESONANCE WITH THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD
And perhaps that is precisely where Mendini's appeal lies: it is not only that his works resonate with contemporary aesthetics in terms of design, but it is also that his preference and willingness to collaborate with others, his buoyant playful quality, his multidisciplinary practice, his disdain for hierarchy, his preference for inclusiveness and his optimism seamlessly align with the idealistic mindset of today's urban creative. That mindset is exactly what you take away from the exhibition.
The lack of hierarchy, texts and chronology to serve as exhibition structure creates an equality between the visitor and the exhibition and in turn gives the visitor a certain freedom to look things over and draw their own conclusions. Of course, this is a strategy that has been used many times throughout the history of curatorship, but rarely works as effectively as here with Mondo Mendini. Despite the bare minimum of text explanations, the necessary information is given by virtue of the simple fact that the sources of inspiration, the works, his affinities and collaborations are in the room. That information may be withheld textually, but it is actually available in visual form and provided with a certain sharpness. In that respect, the exhibition is set up as freely as the way Mendino himself seemed to design his own practice. It creates the freedom to approach the exhibition from different perspectives. You can look at it from an art-historical point of view or purely from a design perspective. You actually feel free to observe and absorb everything on your own terms: as inspiration, as study material for your own design or maybe even as ideas for your living room. In Mondo Mendini, it can and does happen.