Mario Bellini

de Francesco Moschini

This retrospective exhibition opens exactly thirty years since the show devoted to Mario Bellini by MoMA in New York. The MoMA exhibition in 1987 examined his activities as a designer, which even then were represented by 25 works in its permanent collection. 1987 proved to be a watershed year for Bellini, who from that year on has devoted himself mainly to architecture on a large scale and to urban design. This is therefore a tribute to the remarkable, many-sided work of an Italian designer who has achieved all manner of success on both the small scale (eight Compasso d'Oro awards, and objects and furnishings that have become icons in homes and offices around the world, often anticipating or revolutionising tastes and styles), and on the large scale (conference centres, trade fair venues and museums from Japan to the USA, Germany and Australia and, in 2012, the Department of Islamic Art--a golden wave for the Louvre in Paris).