Alessandro Mendini

The author outlines a profile of architect and designer Alessandro Mendini, highlighting his design approach in relation to the cultural, social, and political context of Italy - and beyond - from the 1970s to the early 21st century. In the 1970s, with his "objects for spiritual use," designed through techniques of paradox, the grotesque, and performance - borrowed from the early 20th-century avant-gardes - he transcended rationalism and functionalism, dismantling the logic of production and consumerism. Through the redesign of iconic or anonymous objects, he created a new visual language aimed at assigning new meaning to existing things, working through layering and contamination (his Proust Armchair remains a celebrated example). These explorations led to the Alchimia experience, where the autonomous production of non-industrial furniture placed decoration at the center of the design process. From the 1980s onward, Mendini engaged with serial production, collaborating with companies such as Alessi, Zanotta, and Swatch. Perhaps the most autobiographical of his works is the exhibition What Things Are We? held at the Triennale Milano in 2011, in which he overturned the relationship between people and the objects that surround us, initiating a profound reflection on the very concept of design. The contribution is accompanied by descriptive entries of a selection of objects and includes an interview with Alessandro Mendini.