“Out of the shadows: female architects, designers, artists of the twentieth century”: three meetings at the Belvedere of the Villa Reale in Monza

“Out of the shadows: female architects, designers, artists of the twentieth century”: three meetings at the Belvedere of the Villa Reale in Monza.

Monza. Promoted byNovaluna Association, with the patronage of the Municipality of Monza, and the collaboration of the Order of Architects, Planners, Landscapers and Conservators of the Province of Monza Brianza, of the Monza Biennale, of the Royal Palace of Monza and of the Association ArcoDonna, the project "Out of the Shadow: architects, designers, artists of the twentieth century” proposes three meetings during which, starting from three publications, we will reflect on the role of some central figures of the twentieth century artistic panorama:

Charlotte Perriand, Anni Albers, Anna Castelli Ferrieri.

Following, for each meeting, there is a guided tour of the Biennale Monza 2023 exhibition conducted by the scientific director Daniele Astrologer Abdal.

Taking inspiration from the title of one new series from the publisher Marinonibooks, dedicated to those pioneers of architecture and design who remained in the shadow of men who have often relegated them to the margins or forgotten, a series of meetings is inaugurated which intends to pay homage to some central figures of the artistic panorama of the twentieth century: Charlotte Perriand, Anni Albers, Anna Castelli Ferrieri. Three meetings that they present the work of three publishing houses which, despite their design differences, are linked by the same desire to remember the work of some brilliant protagonists of the history of the last century. The project, promoted byNovaluna Association, with the patronage of the Municipality of Monza, sees the collaboration ofOrder of Architects, Planners, Landscapers and Conservators of the Province of Monza Brianza, the Monza Biennale, the Royal Palace of Monza and the ArcoDonna Association.

“An initiative we care a lot about" - points out Cristina Sello, President of Novaluna “because it involves many important realities and confirms the traditional desire of our Association to network, dialogue and discuss with those who work in the area, creating virtuous synergies capable of promoting cultural initiatives of great value. A desire that we have always demonstrated starting from the Monza Park Festival, which just concluded successfully, and from the Ripensiamoci series of meetings.”

“It is with great enthusiasm that our Order welcomed the proposal to collaborate on this cultural initiative, which enchants for its contents and the places that host it.” Thus begins the President Michela Locati, of the Order of Architects, Planners, Landscape Architects and Conservators of the Province of Monza Brianza. “Vision, tenacity, passion and courage characterize the lives of these women, pioneers of architecture and design, in a historical moment of difficulty in reclaiming their social role and the value of professional activity. A project which, looking at the past, launches a polite message of awareness of equality and gender parity".

Following, for each meeting, there is a guided tour of the Biennale Monza 2023 exhibition conducted by the scientific director Daniele Astrologer Abdal which emphasizes "I am happy about this collaboration and to offer the public of these meetings dedicated to architecture and design the opportunity to admire the works exhibited in this edition which broadens the aesthetic horizon with the involvement of artistic disciplines ranging from the traditional artefact, which it is ceramic, the dematerialisation of the artefact, as it can be a sound piece or more specifically musical”.

Programme:

Saturday 11 November 2023, from 10.15am to 12.15pm, will be presented “Charlotte Perriand, an illustrated biography, Marinonibooks”, graphic project studio òbelo (2023) with the authors Gisella Bassanini and Giovanna Canzi and the illustrator Emi Ligabue. Journalist Carla Colmegna moderates the meeting.

The book

An illustrated monograph that traces the life and the professional adventure of a woman suspended between innovation and tradition, between West and East, between war and peace. A woman in whom we find the love for the mountains and for nature, her warrior instinct that allowed her to realize her desires, the steely sweetness that constituted the stylistic signature of his projects (including the revolutionary tilting chaise longue), the attraction for industrial reality and mass production and at the same time love for Japan, where he stayed for a long time during the Second World War. Charlotte Perriand, as he recalls Adele Cassina in the afterword, she was endowed with a very personal kindness, made up of attention to others, a typical characteristic of that virtue of humility which, contrary to how it is understood today, it belongs only to the greats. A vital, non-conformist, courageous woman. This is the image that the shapes and colors of Emi Ligabue – always fascinated by the objects of everyday life, to which she dedicates her artistic research – transmit to the reader, thanks to a personal and original interpretation of her intense existence and her numerous projects. And this is the image that Gisella Bassanini and Giovanna Canzi tell with philological rigor and at the same time lightly to those who are preparing to retrace the life of this brilliant experimenter an unprecedented and sensitive look at the diversity of life.

Saturday 25 November, from 10.15am to 12.15pm, will be presented"On design” by Anni Albers, with a preface by Nicholas Fox Weber, Johan & Levi (2023). The architect will discuss the book Massimiliano Spadoni and the reporter Fulvio Ravagnani.

The book

Al Black mountain college, the experimental school in North Carolina who had welcomed the Albers couple fleeing from Nazism, Anni used to repeat: «We need to explore places where no one has ever been before.". An unscrupulous attitude that should not, however, preclude a retrospective look, capable of measuring the progress made in the field of arts and design.

This collection of texts gives access to enlightened thought that has taken shape in fifty years of activity – from period to Weimar Bauhaus and Dessau until the 1980s in the United States – nourished by experience in the field as well as theoretical and philosophical readings. Among the most important textile and graphic artists of the twentieth century, Anni returns to themes that are particularly close to her heart, starting from the superiority of an anonymous and timeless design, functional and not self-referential, and from the belief that the act of creating is the most intense emotion one can know.

Today again his writings on design and the art of weaving they are studied in universities around the world, and his teaching continues to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration.

Saturday 2 December, from 10.15 to 12.15, Giovanna Canzi will present "I know what I'm doing to myself. Anna Castelli Ferrieri"of Chiara Alessi, Electa, Oilà series, graphic project Studioo Sonnoli. (2023).

A lesson will follow Matteo Iannello researcher in History of Architecture and curator of the archive Anna Castelli Ferrieri.

The book

“In the photos that portray her Anna always smiles, often with others, almost always for others. But there's at least one time when she doesn't. Once in which the tones through which we are given the image of her as a composed, elegant, tidy, placid lady completely change. And I like that that opportunity occurs precisely when she finds herself defending an all-female project, all about architecture and all for herself”. So Clare Alessi summarizes his biography dedicated to the Milanese architect.

The volume is part of the OILÀ series, edited by Chiara Alessi, which presents the stories of protagonists of the twentieth century. Female figures who, in Italian and international “creative” panorama (from design to fashion, from architecture to music, from illustration to graphics, from photography to literature) have distinguished themselves in relation to disciplines and professions always considered the prerogative ofmale universe. Books, designed to be read aloud from start to finish in forty-five minutes -a short journey-, are stories of people led through a special lens on their biographies, jobs, private facts and public results.