Scarpa / Olivetti exhibition. Passages from a shared story
09/01/2022.
Exhibition. MAXXI [ROM] Italy
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
The "Scarpa / Olivetti exhibition. Passages from a shared story" tells the extraordinary twenty years of collaboration between Carlo Scarpa and Adriano Olivetti and, more generally, with the Ivrea-based company.
The exhibition itinerary traces the salient episodes of over twenty years of relationships, from the first meeting in 1952 to 1978, the year of the architect's death. In this period, the Scarpa / Olivetti combination saw the birth of three exceptional projects:
These projects are illustrated in detail by drawings, photographs, documents and publications displayed inside the room, coming from the Carlo Scarpa Archive kept by MAXXI Architecture.
The exhibition itinerary traces the salient episodes of over twenty years of relationships, from the first meeting in 1952 to 1978, the year of the architect's death. In this period, the Scarpa / Olivetti combination saw the birth of three exceptional projects:
- the one for the Brusson mountain colony in Valle d'Aosta (never built because Scarpa did not win the competition),
- the very famous shop in Piazza San Marco in Venice and
- the exhibition for British Olivetti in London.
- the very famous shop in Piazza San Marco in Venice and
- the exhibition for British Olivetti in London.
These projects are illustrated in detail by drawings, photographs, documents and publications displayed inside the room, coming from the Carlo Scarpa Archive kept by MAXXI Architecture.
Carlo Scarpa. Layout of the Olivetti store in Piazza San Marco Venice 1957-58. (Carlo Scarpa Archive, MAXXI Architecture Collection).
Carlo Scarpa. Layout of the Olivetti store in Piazza San Marco Venice 1957-58. (Carlo Scarpa Archive, MAXXI Architecture Collection).
Carlo Scarpa. Preparation of the exhibition Frescos de Florencia London 1967. (Carlo Scarpa Archive, MAXXI Architecture Collection).
Carlo Scarpa. Preparation of the exhibition Frescos de Florencia London 1967. (Carlo Scarpa Archive, MAXXI Architecture Collection).
Carlo Scarpa. Competition project for the mountain colony of Olivetti Brusson (Aosta Valley) 1955. (Carlo Scarpa Archive, MAXXI Architecture Collection).
Carlo Scarpa. Competition project for the mountain colony of Olivetti Brusson (Aosta Valley) 1955. (Carlo Scarpa Archive, MAXXI Architecture Collection).
Carlo Scarpa’s relationship with the «Olivetti world» was born and consolidated within the varied Olivetti «community»: the various instances in which the two met were part of a broader and multifaceted network of direct and indirect relationships with figures connected to art, politics, university and culture in general. The result was an atypical architect–client relationship, that revealed an unexpected sharing of values, themes and vicissitudes that marked Italian architectural culture of the 20th century.
The first meeting between Scarpa and Olivetti took place in 1952 on the occasion of the 4th Congress of the National Urban Planning Institute in Venice. The name and work of Scarpa, who was also awarded the Olivetti prize for architecture in 1956, had started being mentioned and recognized in the early 1950s on the pages of the magazines published by Edizioni di Comunità, from «Zodiac» to «Metron» to «seleArte», and also through the mediation of respected art and architecture historians and critics, such as Bruno Zevi, Carlo Ludovico Raggianti, Sergio Bettini, Licisco Magagnato, Giuseppe Mazzariol and Pier Carlo Santini.
The relationship of professional and personal esteem established between Carlo Scarpa and Adriano Olivetti has therefore been translated several times into design occasions commissioned by the Ivrea-based company, also following the death of its charismatic founder in 1960: in addition to the well-known showroom in Piazza San Marco in Venice (1957-58), Scarpa took part in a competition launched by Olivetti in 1955 for the construction of a mountain resort village in Brusson in the Aosta Valley and, in 1969, he set up the Frescoes from Florence exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London as a sign of gratitude for the help provided by the English people in Florence during the 1966 flood.
The three projects drawn up by Carlo Scarpa on behalf of Olivetti, respectively with a social, commercial and cultural vocation, are emblematic expressions of Olivetti's complex architectural program and above all attest to points of convergence and harmony and fields of commitment shared with Scarpa.
The exhibition is also intended to be a contribution to telling this story, very intense and little known in all its many facets.
Competition for the Olivetti mountain resort village
Brusson (Valle d’Aosta) 1955
Carlo Scarpa participated in the competition launched by Olivetti for the design of a summer resort village in Brusson, in Valle d’Aosta. This project was part of Olivetti’s effort to promote many architectural projects with a social–welfare purpose, which was at its apex around the mid–1950s. The competition called for a central building for common services and autonomous residential units. Scarpa’s proposal followed the irregularity of the plot with a complex spatial conformation organized in various areas and on various levels.
The north–south direction was chosen as the backbone of the complex, along which the rooms are distributed: in the northern wing there are the irregularly–shaped cells of the study area; as a hinge, the central nucleus with entrance, ball room and greenhouse; finally, in a vertical layering, the fan–shaped cells for dormitories, mess hall and services.
The roof is pitched, with different inclinations, with dormers, and has fragmented profiles; the internal elevations create sections that feature floors, walkways and differences in height; the facades are marked by series of glass surfaces and reflect the expansion and contraction of the plan. The project by architects Claudio Conte and Leonardo Fiore won the competition, also because Scarpa’s project, although appreciated, had not been sufficiently detailed. The panel’s statement in fact reported that «the deep esteem for Carlo Scarpa may explain the support and appreciation that the Commission reserved for documents which were too summary».
Olivetti showroom in Piazza San Marco in Venice
Venice 1957–1958
Immediately after receiving the Olivetti Award in 1956, Scarpa was assigned the renovation project of the space acquired by Adriano Olivetti to house the company’s showroom in Venice, in one of the most popular places in the world, Piazza San Marco. Not surprisingly, the showroom was meant to be a prestigious «business card» for Olivetti, not destined to selling its products but to put them on display.
The narrow and elongated space was not high enough to create two floors but, by means of a horizontal partition, Scarpa partially doubled the levels without compromising the entirety of the space. The showroom, on the corner between the square and the porch, was provided on both sides with shop windows, with no projecting elements or mouldings and grafted with a frame to the wall; the glass is held in place by metal profiles.
The entrance area, placed beside the window on the square, is closed by a woven iron gate and inside the floor is elevated by thirty centimetres, with a paving made of Murano glass paste tiles. A black stone basin filled with water reflects Alberto Viani’s gilded bronze sculpture Nude in the sun. The interior features a suspended slab staircase in Aurisina marble that leads to the mezzanine; the balconies supported by trusses are made of teak wood, also used for the cladding on the lower floor and for the sliding barriers on the back wall that screen the eye–shaped openings towards the square.
Set up of the exhibition Frescos from Florence
London 1967
The exhibition was conceived as an opportunity to show about 70 Renaissance frescoes saved from the 1966 Florence fl ood, detached with the «strappo» technique and restored; a tribute to the countries who had come to the aid of Florence’s works of art. Scarpa was involved by the sponsor, Olivetti, for the London exhibition, which followed the ones in New York and Amsterdam. Forced to adapt his exhibition methods to the halls of the Hayward Gallery — an undistinguished brutalist building —, the architect created a highly suggestive set up by favouring the dialogue between the works of art and transforming the confused interiors of the building into a sequence of logical and at the same times emotional spaces.
The exhibition itinerary follows the attentive research for harmonious and hierarchical relationships between the pieces, with particular attention to the relationship between the work and the viewer. Scarpa placed the modular panels parallel or perpendicular to the perimeter walls of the halls, also adding other supports, which are also placed in a zig–zag or oblique pattern, to obtain a close dialogue between the frescoes within a limited spatial unit. The precise lighting of the single frescoes with spotlights contrasted sharply with the overall darkness of the halls, highlighting the exceptional nature of the materials on display.
It is no coincidence that the London edition of the Frescoes from Florence exhibition was an incredible success with the public; the press gave a very wide resonance to the event, underlining how the emotions aroused by the display of the frescoes were accentuated by the surprise for how Scarpa excellently transfi gured the unfortunate building that housed them.
The first meeting between Scarpa and Olivetti took place in 1952 on the occasion of the 4th Congress of the National Urban Planning Institute in Venice. The name and work of Scarpa, who was also awarded the Olivetti prize for architecture in 1956, had started being mentioned and recognized in the early 1950s on the pages of the magazines published by Edizioni di Comunità, from «Zodiac» to «Metron» to «seleArte», and also through the mediation of respected art and architecture historians and critics, such as Bruno Zevi, Carlo Ludovico Raggianti, Sergio Bettini, Licisco Magagnato, Giuseppe Mazzariol and Pier Carlo Santini.
The relationship of professional and personal esteem established between Carlo Scarpa and Adriano Olivetti has therefore been translated several times into design occasions commissioned by the Ivrea-based company, also following the death of its charismatic founder in 1960: in addition to the well-known showroom in Piazza San Marco in Venice (1957-58), Scarpa took part in a competition launched by Olivetti in 1955 for the construction of a mountain resort village in Brusson in the Aosta Valley and, in 1969, he set up the Frescoes from Florence exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London as a sign of gratitude for the help provided by the English people in Florence during the 1966 flood.
The three projects drawn up by Carlo Scarpa on behalf of Olivetti, respectively with a social, commercial and cultural vocation, are emblematic expressions of Olivetti's complex architectural program and above all attest to points of convergence and harmony and fields of commitment shared with Scarpa.
The exhibition is also intended to be a contribution to telling this story, very intense and little known in all its many facets.
Competition for the Olivetti mountain resort village
Brusson (Valle d’Aosta) 1955
Carlo Scarpa participated in the competition launched by Olivetti for the design of a summer resort village in Brusson, in Valle d’Aosta. This project was part of Olivetti’s effort to promote many architectural projects with a social–welfare purpose, which was at its apex around the mid–1950s. The competition called for a central building for common services and autonomous residential units. Scarpa’s proposal followed the irregularity of the plot with a complex spatial conformation organized in various areas and on various levels.
The north–south direction was chosen as the backbone of the complex, along which the rooms are distributed: in the northern wing there are the irregularly–shaped cells of the study area; as a hinge, the central nucleus with entrance, ball room and greenhouse; finally, in a vertical layering, the fan–shaped cells for dormitories, mess hall and services.
The roof is pitched, with different inclinations, with dormers, and has fragmented profiles; the internal elevations create sections that feature floors, walkways and differences in height; the facades are marked by series of glass surfaces and reflect the expansion and contraction of the plan. The project by architects Claudio Conte and Leonardo Fiore won the competition, also because Scarpa’s project, although appreciated, had not been sufficiently detailed. The panel’s statement in fact reported that «the deep esteem for Carlo Scarpa may explain the support and appreciation that the Commission reserved for documents which were too summary».
Olivetti showroom in Piazza San Marco in Venice
Venice 1957–1958
Immediately after receiving the Olivetti Award in 1956, Scarpa was assigned the renovation project of the space acquired by Adriano Olivetti to house the company’s showroom in Venice, in one of the most popular places in the world, Piazza San Marco. Not surprisingly, the showroom was meant to be a prestigious «business card» for Olivetti, not destined to selling its products but to put them on display.
The narrow and elongated space was not high enough to create two floors but, by means of a horizontal partition, Scarpa partially doubled the levels without compromising the entirety of the space. The showroom, on the corner between the square and the porch, was provided on both sides with shop windows, with no projecting elements or mouldings and grafted with a frame to the wall; the glass is held in place by metal profiles.
The entrance area, placed beside the window on the square, is closed by a woven iron gate and inside the floor is elevated by thirty centimetres, with a paving made of Murano glass paste tiles. A black stone basin filled with water reflects Alberto Viani’s gilded bronze sculpture Nude in the sun. The interior features a suspended slab staircase in Aurisina marble that leads to the mezzanine; the balconies supported by trusses are made of teak wood, also used for the cladding on the lower floor and for the sliding barriers on the back wall that screen the eye–shaped openings towards the square.
Set up of the exhibition Frescos from Florence
London 1967
The exhibition was conceived as an opportunity to show about 70 Renaissance frescoes saved from the 1966 Florence fl ood, detached with the «strappo» technique and restored; a tribute to the countries who had come to the aid of Florence’s works of art. Scarpa was involved by the sponsor, Olivetti, for the London exhibition, which followed the ones in New York and Amsterdam. Forced to adapt his exhibition methods to the halls of the Hayward Gallery — an undistinguished brutalist building —, the architect created a highly suggestive set up by favouring the dialogue between the works of art and transforming the confused interiors of the building into a sequence of logical and at the same times emotional spaces.
The exhibition itinerary follows the attentive research for harmonious and hierarchical relationships between the pieces, with particular attention to the relationship between the work and the viewer. Scarpa placed the modular panels parallel or perpendicular to the perimeter walls of the halls, also adding other supports, which are also placed in a zig–zag or oblique pattern, to obtain a close dialogue between the frescoes within a limited spatial unit. The precise lighting of the single frescoes with spotlights contrasted sharply with the overall darkness of the halls, highlighting the exceptional nature of the materials on display.
It is no coincidence that the London edition of the Frescoes from Florence exhibition was an incredible success with the public; the press gave a very wide resonance to the event, underlining how the emotions aroused by the display of the frescoes were accentuated by the surprise for how Scarpa excellently transfi gured the unfortunate building that housed them.
More information
Curator
Elena Tinacci.
Exhibition Design and Technical Coordinator
Silvia La Pergola
Organization
Chiara Castiglia, Andrea Di Nezio.
Collaborators
Conservation.- Serena Zuliani with Benedetta Paolino.
Restoration.- Brunella Graziani.
Lighting Coordination.- Paola Mastracci.
Accessibility and Safety.- Elisabetta Virdia.
Coordination Development Department.- Lucia Urciuoli.
Communication Office.- Prisca Cupellini, Giulia Chiapparelli, Eleonora Colizzi, Cecilia Fiorenza, Olivia Salmistrari.
Press office MAXXI.- Beatrice Fabbretti, Flaminia Persichetti.
Graphic Design.- Sara Annunziata.
Exhibition set–up.- Handle srl.
Audio Visual.- Manga Soc. Coop. Cablaggi Sater4show
Graphic production.- SP Systema.
Frames.- Pierluigi Ferro.
Translations.- Sara Triulzi.
Restoration.- Brunella Graziani.
Lighting Coordination.- Paola Mastracci.
Accessibility and Safety.- Elisabetta Virdia.
Coordination Development Department.- Lucia Urciuoli.
Communication Office.- Prisca Cupellini, Giulia Chiapparelli, Eleonora Colizzi, Cecilia Fiorenza, Olivia Salmistrari.
Press office MAXXI.- Beatrice Fabbretti, Flaminia Persichetti.
Graphic Design.- Sara Annunziata.
Exhibition set–up.- Handle srl.
Audio Visual.- Manga Soc. Coop. Cablaggi Sater4show
Graphic production.- SP Systema.
Frames.- Pierluigi Ferro.
Translations.- Sara Triulzi.
Dates
From 03 December 2021 to 29 May 2022.
Location
Centro archivi MAXXI Architettura. Via Guido Reni 4A, 00196 Rome, Lazio, Italy
Carlo Scarpa
Carlo Scarpa, was born in Venice in June 2, 1906, he was an Italian intellectual, artist, architect and designer. Its formation takes place in Venice in 1926, where he graduated in architectural design at the Academy of Fine Arts and began teaching at IUAV where he will continue until 1977, always occupying different positions.
In 1927 a collaboration of Carlo Scarpa with Murano glass masters began, was designer for the company Cappellini and BC, where he experienced for four years the quality and creative possibilities of glass as a material. This will be an important precedent for a future collaboration with Venini, where from 1934 to 1947 Scarpa served as artistic director of the company. For Venini, Scarpa participates in the most prestigious international design exhibitions and the Triennale di Milano in 1934, this will give him the title of honor for glass creations.
Since 1948, with the assembly of the retrospective exhibition of Paul Klee, he begins a long and prolific collaboration with the Venice Biennale, where he experiences his great qualities as builder of spaces for art, confirmed by more than 60 museums and exhibitions which he designed.
In 1956 he was awarded the prize for his project for the Olivetti brand.
From 1954 to 1960 he held series of annual conferences for the Fulbright seminar in Rome at the invitation of the American Commission on cultural exchanges with Italy.
In 1967 he won the prize of the President of the Republic for architecture. In 1970 he became member of the Royal British Institute of Design and in 1976 from the Accademia di San Luca in Rome.
A series of solo exhibitions, gave him an opportunity to present their own work in Italy and abroad. Among them we can mention the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1966, in Venice in 1968, Vicenza, London and Paris in 1974 and Madrid in 1978. In the late sixties his international prestige grows. While the Italian cultural and political climate tends to marginalize, abroad is increasingly known and appreciated because of his intellectual dimension.
He made many trips to North America to deepen his knowledge of the works of Wright and for the assembly of numerous exhibitions. Memorable are the Poetry section in the Italian Pavilion of the Universal Exhibition in Montreal (1967) and the Exhibition of drawings by Erich Mendelsohn in Berkeley and San Francisco in 1969.
He first traveled to Japan in 1969, a country that interested him very much and where, on his second voyage in 1978, he died in an unfortunate accident in Sendai (November 28, 1978). Only after death he will be awarded with an honorary degree in Architecture, ending a long diatribe on the legality of his architectural work in the absence of an appropriate title.
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