6 June – 11 September
Milano Design Week 2022
Turn on, Tune in, Drop by… Afro-Tyrolean kitsch
Fondazione Sozzani, Corso Como 10, Milan

Centro Studi Poltronova presents
GHERPE | PASSIFLORA | SOFO | OFELIA | SPERA | VANITAS | T02 Superstudio
SANREMO | SAFARI | SUPERONDA FARFALLA Archizoom Associati
JOE | JOE BALL De Pas, D’Urbino, Lomazzi
ULTRAFRAGOLA Ettore Sottsass jr.

It was the product that few understood, the one that set out to upset the bourgeois intellectual by exasperating measures, function, coating. The advertising shouted out loud “a beautiful piece… clear out your life!”, to make way for a verve that was, at the same time, playful and socially critical. On the occasion of the 60th edition of MILANO DESIGN WEEK, SAFARI is back as a protagonist in a prestigious location, Fondazione Sozzani, as well as in the catalogue of CENTRO STUDI POLTRONOVA, riding on the reflection of Fuorisalone 2022.
Now that the design scene is populated by eccentric figures, who use creativity as a universal and relational language, the Tuscan company led by Roberta Meloni sees this as the ideal historical moment to give new life to the seat designed by Archizoom Associati, and to other radical pieces by POLTRONOVA.
In the multifunctional living room par excellence of the capital of Lombardy, the design by CSP comes to represent the passage to a new dialectical relationship between art, design and society, necessary to support the change of our habitat.

In addition to the exotic-tasting sofa, which will have a central place in the exhibition room, there will also be SANREMO and SUPERONDA FARFALLA, also by Archizoom; GHERPE, PASSIFLORA, OFELIA, SPERA, VANITAS, T02 by Superstudio; JOE and JOE BALL by De Pas, D’Urbino, Lomazzi, and ULTRAFRAGOLA by Ettore Sottsass jr., all set up in the bookshop. A tower of SOFO by Superstudio will welcome visitors at the entrance of the third floor. The exhibition will be completed by a photographic story on the walls to explain the unconventional approach of the historical designers Archizoom and their interest in the theme of “Afro-Tyrolean kitsch”, Superstudio and Sottsass.

Fondazione Sozzani will also mark the debut of the SUPERONDA FARFALLA prototype, for indoor and outdoor use. A beat of the wings is enough to let the umpteenth version of the chair designed in 1966 to challenge conventions take off. In the butterfly and in the world of shiny sky, polka dots, chequered, flowers and stars, the anti-system art of American artists such as Liechtenstein and, more generally, of Pop Art continues to develop. The butterfly pattern, designed by Archizoom in 1968, was a reinterpretation, in an acid and pop key, of the floral theme that came from a much more composed tradition, and is now part of Poltronova’s nascent fabric catalog. The piece thus becomes a work of art in which we car read the continuity with that part of history.