Ettore Sottsass, The Magical Object

« Ettore Sottsass, the magical object » brings together a unique collection of major historical pieces by Italian designer Ettore Sottsass (1917-2007), from the 1940s through to the 1980s. More than 400 works (drawings, paintings, design objects), 500 photographs and 200 original documents from the archives of the Kandinsky library underscore all the creative components of his work. Painting, sculpture, literature, modern avant-gardes and radical architecture are all displayed in the course of a chronological presentation. The high point of the exhibition is the partial reconstitution of an historic exhibition in Stockholm in 1969, with the presentation of an exceptional collection of monumental ceramics, reflecting his approach to « magical design ». For Sottsass, there was no difference between a ceramic item, a piece of furniture, architecture, a photograph or a text, each being a ritual punctuation of a cosmic whole. As a designer, architect and writer, Ettore Sottsass Jr. (Innsbruck, Austria, 1917 – Milan, Italy, 2007) was a precursor at every stage of his life. Opposed to rationalism, he never ceased to lay claim to an emotional experience of objects. He envisaged design as a manner of reforging architecture, as well as weaving a new connection between human beings and objects: « I have always thought that design begins where rational processes end and magic begins ».