“Ettore Sottsass. There is a Planet” exhibition

The monographic exhibition “There is a Planet” celebrates Ettore Sottsass on the occasion of the centenary of his birth and takes place in the spaces of the Gallery of Architecture located on the ground floor of the Palazzo della Triennale.
The title of the exhibition refers to a book, never published, that Sottsass designed in the 1990s for the German publisher Wasmuth. The book gathered together the photographs taken by Sottsass during his trips around the world as evidence of the relationship between humankind and the planet. The exhibition is structured into nine exhibition rooms, each devoted to a different theme. Displayed inside the rooms are the architecture, art, design and painting works and objects, sculptures and ceramics that bear witness to the vast and multi-faceted activities of Ettore Sottsass. Texts on walls and scrollable illuminated lettering on led banners celebrate Sottsass’ most famous quotations and guide the chronological route of the exhibition. The themes of the rooms have strong names, rich in fascination: a few to mention are Space (1946-1955) Magical Design (1956-1964); Memories of Whipped Cream (1965-1972); Political Design (1972-1976); The Structures Tremble (1977-1984); Barbaric Design (1985-1992); Ruins (1993-1999); Real Space (1993-1999); I Would Like to Know Why… (2000-2007).
In the rooms the exhibition is organised both on the walls and in the central space: paintings and drawings are hung on the walls, while mobile display cases in mirror materials house the ceramic objects, the aluminium objects and the architectural models protected by glass cases. In Room 02 a large metal cage houses an extensive collection, Le Ceramiche delle Tenebre [The Ceramics of Darkness]. In the rooms large light images (light boxes) are present on the walls, reproducing photographs of architectures or design objects. Led banners with scrollable illuminated lettering are suspended from the downstands of the rooms and celebrate Sottsass’ most famous phrases.
The colours selected for the layout design play a fundamental role: the entire ceiling has been painted dark grey to highlight the walls; the Gallery walls are blue on the left side (where painting works and reproductions are displayed) and white on the right side (where the photographic collection is displayed). The rooms are painted white, dark grey, grey with sponged effect or covered with wall tapestries reproducing the sketches and texts written by the architect’s hand.
The exhibition closes with the large central room fitted with furnishings from the 2000s provided on loan by collectors of international renown.