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Angelo Mangiarotti Exhibition Tokyo News

Italian Cultural Institute Architecture in Japan – design news

2 Aug 2019

Angelo Mangiarotti Exhibition in Tokyo

Design: tomomi kito architect & associates

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Angelo Mangiarotti – La Tettonica dell’Assemblaggi

13 September – 29 September 2019

Italian Cultural Institute Tokyo
2-1-30 Kudanminami, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0074

Vistosi Giogali lighting by Angelo Mangiarotti:

photo courtesy of Vistosi

This great exhibition is a tribute to the work and the thought of Angelo Mangiarotti, architect, sculptor and designer.

The exhibition is the result of a big work made by the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture of the University of Italian Switzerland in 2015.

The works were hosted in various Swiss locations: Mendrisio 2015, Winterthur 2016, Zurich 2017 and Ginevra 2018, this year took place at the beautiful setting of the Castle of Novara where for six weeks – between May and June – registered more than over 5,000 visitors had the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the work of the great Master. Among the main sponsors of all the events there is the historic Venetian glass factory: Vistosi.

Vistosi owes to Mangiarotti its system of modular lighting, named Giogali, composed of the unique and innovative hand-made crystal glass elements, designed by the Master. “We want to be part of it!” said Vistosi C.E.O. Matteo Moretti from the beginning; “because Giogali is our emblem, that perfectly represents the spirit and the research common to the Master and Vistosi.

Angelo Mangiarotti:

photo courtesy of architects

The work done by Mangiarotti on the ‘module’, both in architecture and in design, reaches one of the highest expression of his research with the Giogali. The element, invented by the Master, was patented in 1967.

It is more than a great example of technical efficiency, simplification of the lines and “essential design” signature of arch. Mangiarotti work, but also of the research on the extreme limits of the material: the artistic Murano glass. Glass, fragile ‘by definition’, became a structure: thus architecture becomes design!”

The Tokyo stage of the exhibition will be held at the prestigious headquarters of the Italian Institute of Culture, one of the most important Italian cultural Institutions abroad, located in an amazing building designed by Gae Aulenti, inside the gardens of the Japanese Imperial Palace.

The event aims to present Mangarotti’s approach to design, Himself, a multifaceted figure dealt with different topics during his professional career: from residential architecture to office spaces, and from lighting to furniture design.

By means of the industrial design projects, some of which are exhibited in Tokyo, the importance of the recurrent element in the designer’s philosophy will be evidenced and the inextricable need for deep study of materials will be highlighted: and in that sense the Giogali system, by Vistosi, is demonstrated in the form of a very precious brilliant crystal curtain.

From its birth in 1967 Giogali has been the object of countless prizes and awards and the star of several permanent exhibitions in prestigious museums such as the Triennale in Milan and the Murano Glass Museum in Venice.

Vistosi Giogali modular lighting by Angelo Mangiarotti:

photograph courtesy of Vistosi

Therefore the necessity to “protect” the product that on top of having obtained various patents in Europe and the United States of America – it is still one of the few objects (together with the Nike logo or the Ferrari horse) that has achieved the recognition of originality: a certificate that came after more than a year of careful analysis by an experts commission in Brussels which for the first time recognized the value of an emblem to a product of a lighting company.

The inauguration of the exhibition will be preceded by a conference attended by the two curators, the Pristker awarded archistar Fumihiko Maki (author of some of the most iconic architecture in Japan), Professor Toshihiko Suzuki of Kougakuin University and the architect Motomi Kawakami, director of Design Association NPO and chairman of the Japan Institute of Design Promotion.

An appointment, that of Tokyo, to turn the spotlights on an outstanding figure of the architecture and modern design: a lesson on the history of architecture for the Japanese visitors but above all a tribute to the poetics of an Italian designer able to absorb the teachings of one of the greatest of his time and elaborate them in a corpus of timeless works.
Ufficio

Angelo Mangiarotti Exhibition Tokyo images / information received 010819

Location: Tokyo, Japan