Gae Aulenti: A Creative Universe, and infinite

Gae Aulenti is one of the most influential architects and designers of the post-war period. As early as the 1960s, her iconic creations – such as her »Locus Solus« series (1964), the »Pipistrello« (1965) and »King Sun« (1967) lamps – played a vital role in Italy’s global dominance within the field of product design.

The Italian designer gained international renown for her transformation of a Parisian train station into the Musée d’Orsay (1980–1986). But although Aulenti realized over 700 projects, she is relatively unknown outside her native Italy.

Gae Aulenti/FontanaArte Spa, Giova, 1964 © Vitra Design Museum. Photograph by Andreas Jung

The Vitra Design Museum seeks to counteract this undeserved neglect with »Gae Aulenti: A Creative Universe«. The exhibition explores Aulenti’s multifaceted body of work, one that encompasses not only architectural projects and design objects, but also interiors, set and costume design, as well as exhibitions. The Vitra Schaudepot will present roughly 35 items from across her career, complemented by photographs, sketches, and drawings, as well as a slideshow, documentary films, and interviews.

"Gae Aulenti: A Creative Universe" exhibition opens with Aulenti’s early designs for the company Poltronova. These include her first item of furniture, »Sgarsul« (1962), which is characterized by a highly distinctive and modern use of forms, as well as her garden furniture series, «Locus Solus»(1964). The «Stringa» sofa (1963) and many other items Aulenti designed, she also used to furnish her own home.

Aulenti was less interested in maintaining a homogenous style than in providing visionary solutions to problems. Nevertheless, almost all of her designs share a striking formal language and emblematic silhouettes. Her objects arrest the eye and remain unforgettable.

Additionally, she developed products for Zanotta, including a tubular steel version of «Locus Solus» (1964) and an extremely lightweight, easy-to-store folding chair, the «Aprilina» (1964). In 1970/71, she developed the latter into a more solid side-folding version with a matching footrest.

The products she made concurrently for FontanaArte display her use of diverse materials and her innovative approach to her work. For instance, the top of the «Giova» (1964) glass lamp may be used as a vase, and the sculptural «Rimorchiatore» (1967), made of lacquered metal, is a hybrid lamp, vase, and ashtray.

Along with glass and metal, Aulenti also worked with other materials. Her «Jumbo» (1965) table for Knoll, for example, was made of marble. This massive item evinces her precisely constructed and architectural use of forms, which was visible already in her early designs. Aulenti established her reputation as an interior designer with her work for the typewriter manufacturer Olivetti’s showrooms in Paris (1966/67) and Buenos Aires (1968).

In Paris, she used laminated plastic and stainless steel to emphasize the highly up-to-date quality of the products on display. She also made use of her «Pipistrello» (1965) lamps – one of her most iconic objects, to this day manufactured by Martinelli Luce. In Buenos Aires, she used mirrored ceilings to achieve a kaleidoscopic effect enhanced by her «King Sun» (1967) lamps, designed especially for this showroom like many of her objects. The oversized dimensions of this lamp, which might be unexpected at first glance, are echoed in other designs, such as her «Ruspa» and «Oracolo» lamps (both 1968).

Her metamorphosis of the Gare d’Orsay in Paris from a train station into a museum between 1980 to 1986 is one of her best-known architectural projects, and it garnered her and her architectural practice international fame. This was followed by commissions to redesign the interior of the MNAM - Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (1982–85), to renovate the Palazzo Grassi in Venice (1985/86), and to rebuild the Palau Nacional of Montjuïc in Barcelona between 1985 and 1992, which became the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. Her work on the Gare d’Orsay included items she designed and which later were adopted for home use, such as picture frames with accompanying supports. Aulenti’s furnishings for Palazzo Grassi derived from her set designs for Gioachino Rossini’s opera »Il viaggio a Reims« (1984/85), which drew on her’s long-standing work as a set and costume designer.

Thanks to additional loans, the exhibition "A Creative Universe" also includes a selection of the Italian designer’s lesser-known works, such as packaging designs for make-up products by the French company Rochas in 1978, vases for the Murano glass manufacturer Venini from 1995 to 2008, and «Toaster» (1996) and «Blender» (1998) for the electronics manufacturer Trabo. These works reveal Aulenti’s immense versatility and her great sensitivity to the unique needs of each situation.

Gae Aulenti, Interior for the Olivetti showroom in Paris, 1966/67 Courtesy of Archivio Gae Aulenti. Photograph by RM

Gae Aulenti, Interior for the Olivetti showroom in Buenos Aires, 1968 Courtesy of Archivio Gae Aulenti. Photograph by Erich Hartmann

Advertisement with Stringa and Giova from Poltronova catalogue, 1963 Courtesy of Archivio Gae Aulenti. Photograph by Aldo Ballo

Gae Aulenti/Poltronova, Stringa, 1963 © Vitra Design Museum. Photograph by Andreas Sütterlin

Gae Aulenti/Fontana Spa, Travolo con route, 1980 © Vitra Design Museum. Photograph by Andreas Sütterlin

Gae Aulenti/Kartell, No. 4794, 1968 © Vitra Design Museum. Photograph by Andreas Sütterlin

Gae Aulenti/Martinelli Luce, Pipistrello, 1965 © Vitra Design Museum. Photograph by Andreas Sütterlin

Gae Aulenti/FontanaArte Spa, Rimorchiatore, 1967 © Vitra Design Museum. Photograph by Andreas Jung

Gae Aulenti/Poltronova, Locus Solus, 1964 © Vitra Design Museum. Photograph by Andreas Sütterlin

Gae Aulenti/Poltronova, Sgarsul, 1962 © Vitra Design Museum. Photograph by Andreas Sütterlin

Gae Aulenti’s studio and apartment in Via Annunciata, Milan, 1969 Courtesy of Archivio Gae Aulenti. Photograph by Aldo Ballo

Gae Aulenti‘s apartment at Via Fiori Oscuri, Milan, 1993 Courtesy of Archivio Gae Aulenti. Photograph by Santi Caleca

Gae Aulenti/Kartell, King Sun, 1967 © Vitra Design Museum. Photograph by Andreas Jung

Gae Aulenti, 1989 Courtesy of Archivio Gae Aulenti. Photograph by Hans Visser

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More information

Label

Curator

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Tanja Cunz

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Venue / Adress

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Vitra Schaudepot. Charles-Eames-Str. 2. 79576 Weil am Rhein. Germany.

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Dates

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From 29 February till 11 October 2020. Daily 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Gae Aulenti

Gaetana Aulenti (1927-2012) was an Italian architect who dedicated herself to recovering the architectural values of the past. For almost ten years she worked in the editorial office of Casabella under the direction of Ernesto Nathan Rogers. His works include numerous renovations and rehabilitations of buildings of historical value.

In 1953 she finished her degree in architecture at the Politecnico di Milano. In the fifties Italian architecture was devoted to research into the historical and cultural recovery of the architectural values of the past and the existing built environment. From her pages in the magazine Casabella she proposed the Neoliberty as an alternative to the rationalism prevailing in the architectural conventions of the moment.

After obtaining her doctorate, she taught at the School of Architecture in Venice from 1960 to 1962 and at the School of Architecture in Milan from 1964 to 1967.

As many of her contemporaries, Aulenti designed several furniture series throughout the 1960s for the La Rinascente store and later designed furniture for Zanotta, where she created two of her best-known pieces, Abril, a stainless steel folding chair with a removable lid, and the Sanmarco table built from glass plates.

In 1981 she was chosen to renovate the 1900 Beaux Arts Gare d'Orsay train station, a spectacular landmark originally designed by Victor Laloux, in the Musée d'Orsay. Her work at the Musée d'Orsay led to the creation of a space for the National Museum of Modern Art at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the restoration of Palazzo Grassi as an art museum in Venice (1985); the conversion of a former Italian embassy in Berlin into an Academy of Sciences and the restoration of a 1929 exhibition hall in Barcelona as the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (1985). In San Francisco, she converted the city's Central Library into an Asian art museum. In 2008 she carried out the restoration of the Palazzo Branciforte in Palermo.

In 2012, Gae Aulenti received the Gold Medal of the Triennale di Milano for her artistic career in recognition of her position as one of the masters of Italian design.