The ADI Design Museum hosts an exhibition dedicated to the collaboration between Saporiti Italia and Salvati and Tresoldi running October 7-22
The Art Colors Design / Salvati e Tresoldi x Saporiti Italia exhibition, scheduled at the ADI Design Museum in Milan for October 7 to 22, 2023, traces ten years of intense collaboration between Saporiti Italia, a historic Italian design company founded in 1948 by Sergio Saporiti in Besnate (Varese), with Studio Salvati e Tresoldi.
The exhibition path develops inside the Sala Compasso d’Oro, highlighting the peculiarities that have characterized the design encounter between these two entities, starting with the close relationship between art, architecture, and design. A pioneering insight at the time that Salvati and Tresoldi’s work was able to develop by creating both iconic furniture items produced in the 1980s by Saporiti Italia – such as the Omaggi and Diana chairs, the Geometric and El Lissitksy tables and the Miamina armchair, exhibited along with drawings and publications – and memorable experiences such as the “Moderno e Moderno” exhibition at the Galleria del Milione.
The Moderno & Moderno exhibition in February 1983
The Moderno & Moderno exhibition, curated by Salvati and Tresoldi with Riccardo Barletta, opened at the Galleria del Milione in Milan in February 1983 and is a milestone in Saporiti Italia’s cultural growth path; 35 of the brand’s design objects were juxtaposed with as many works of art created by absolute masters of contemporary Italian art, including Alberto Burri, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Fausto Melotti, Mario Merz, Mimmo Paladino, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mario Schifano, Cy Twombly, Gilberto Zorio and many others.
An absolutely innovative and surprising exhibition, which was able to show how the relationship between the languages of art and design, although independent and different, could contribute to overcoming rational architecture, toward a more imaginative architecture.
ADI DESIGN MUSEUM pays tribute to the MIAMINA armchair
In parallel with the account of Salvati and Tresoldi’s research on architecture and design, the Art Colors Design exhibition by Saporiti Italia devotes an important section to the re-edition of the historic Miamina seat (Honorable Mention at the Compasso d’Oro Award in 1985) in an unprecedented version inspired by 20 cities around the world: Miami, Milan, Rome, Venice, Paris, London, Barcelona, Berlin, Monte Carlo, New York, Los Angeles, Dubai, Riyadh, Lagos, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sydney.
The covers of the armchairs dedicated to the “Saporiti Cities” are made by the Fosca Milano art workshop with precious fabrics, yarns, weaves and embroideries, which are inspired by the characteristics of each of the cities where Saporiti Italia has carried out major projects.
The 20 Miamina armchairs will also be auctioned off by Cambi Casa d’Aste in conjunction with the exhibition. Saporiti Italia will use the proceeds from the auction to support and promote the activities of the Centro Studi e Ricerche Sergio Saporiti and, in particular, to enhance the knowledge and development of industrial design, architecture, art professions and creativity.
Interesting facts about Miamina by Saporiti Italia
Saporiti Italia’s Miamina folding armchair was created in 1984 as a reinterpretation of the Tripolina, the wood and fabric folding seat used by the British army in African campaigns since the 19th century, which had already been redesigned in the 1930s by Bonet, Kurchan and Ferrari, (BKF/Butterfly) and later, in 1995, by Magistretti (Kenia).
Salvati and Tresoldi’s 1984 version for Saporiti Italia was named after the Saporiti Italia showroom in Miami, where it was first presented and launched on the market.
Technical features and special editions
Miamina is characterized by a rather advanced mechanical structure and extreme originality of the seat cloth. The chrome-plated or painted steel rods that form the base and support for the seat are connected by means of a complex cast-iron joint, which allows them to be bent and picked up. The seat cloth is made from multicolored fabrics and leathers from Saporiti Italia’s collection or fabrics created for Saporiti Italia by Ottavio and Rosita Missoni, embossed leathers by Guido Pasquali, woven leathers by Gegia Bronzini.
In addition to these variants, precisely because of the linearity and versatility of its cloth, Miamina has also been made in special editions for various occasions and events, such as in 1990 for the CNR “EV-K2-CNR” Pyramid Research Laboratory at Everest/K2 Base Camp.
An original Miamina from the EV-K2-CNR project will be presented at the ADI Museum, along with original photographic and historical material that has just arrived in Italy from the pyramid-laboratory, which is still active in Nepal.
Also on display will be the Miamina that won the Honorable Mention at the 1985 Compasso d’Oro Award, presented by ADI in the Take Your Seat exhibition at Salone del Mobile.Milano in 2021.
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