Io Sono Un Drago

The exhibition "I Am a Dragon. The True Story of Alessandro Mendini," organized by Triennale Milano and Fondation Cartier, offers a comprehensiveoverview of one of the mostinfluential and multifacetedfigures in contemporary design and architecture. Curated by Fulvio Irace with the exhibition design by Pierre Charpin, the exhibitiontraces over sixtyyears of Alessandro Mendini's career, with the title, inspired by an emblematic self-portrait, highlighting the complexity of his work within the international scene of design, architecture, and art.

The exhibition brings together over four hundred works of various formats, materials, and subjects, from public and private collections, including the Alessi Museum collection, with which Mendini had a long and fruit ful collaboration from the late 1970s until his death in 2019.

May 20, 2024

Produced in collaboration with Atelier Mendini, the exhibition is divided into six the matic sections. "Identikit" presents self-portraits that Mendini created through out his life, including the one that gives the exhibition it stitle. "Gulliver's Syndrome" is dedicated to his "out of scale" objects like the Petite Cathédrale and La Giostra delle Meraviglie, created to represent the history of Alessi's research in an exhibition held in Germany in 2000.

"Architectures" offers an overview of his most significant buildings, suchas the Groninger Museum and the threeNaples Metro stations, while "Fragilismi" delves into the research culminating in the manifesto and the eponymous exhibition conceived by Mendiniat the invitation of the Fondation Cartier.

Held in Paris in 2002, the Fragilismi exhibition included a series of large ceramic vases produced specifically by Alessi for the exhibition, one of whichi snow on display at Triennale. Finally, "Radical Melancholy" illustrates the radical design of which Mendini was one of the main theorists, while "Rooms" immersive lyre constructs three rooms designed by the architect. In this area, you can admire the collection of 100% make-up vases, the result of research on the theme of coordinated decoration for Alessi by Alessandro Mendini in 1992.

An extraordinary collection that saw the participation of one hundred authors from different cultural backgrounds and creative disciplines, from musician Brian Eno to artist Alighiero Boetti, from architect Ettore Sottsass to graphic designer and illustrator Milton Glaser. Open until October 13th and accompanied by the video installation "What?", Philippe Starck's tribute to Alessandro Mendini, the exhibition "I Am a Dragon" is an unmissable opportunity to discover or rediscover an author who marked the revolutions of design thinking in the late 20th century and the new millennium.