Opening on May 7, 2022, The Aesthetics of Mario Bellini spans 60 years of Bellini’s unique approach to design. The exhibition will present a selection of furniture, lighting, glassware and porcelain objects, showcasing his innovative and complex oeuvre.
Opening Preview: May 6, 2022 | 5 – 7 PM
May 7 – June 20, 2022
Installation view of AMANTA modular sofa chairs as part of The Aesthetics of Mario Bellini exhibition at Artefact.Berlin. Photo courtesy of A R T Communication.
April 28, 2022 (Berlin, Germany) – After the successful opening of Artefact.Berlin in December 2021 and its inaugural exhibition, titled Remember that Time, featuring large-scale paintings by American artist Gunars Martinsons, the gallery presents The Aesthetics of Mario Bellini. On view in Berlin Schöneberg, from May 7 – June 20, 2022, the exhibition spans over sixty years of Bellini’s unique approach to design and displays different aspects of the designer’s multi-fold oeuvre. Curated by the cultural entrepreneur, Anna Rosa Thomae, the internationally renowned designer’s diversified assemblage is an exemplary symbiosis between art, design and architecture, as per Artefact.Berlin’s mission to supporting and presenting the three avenues as intrinsically connected disciplines.
The exhibition will present furniture, lighting, glassware and porcelain objects presenting a varied assemblage of some of Bellini’s most innovative and iconic designs as well as some of his little- known objects. Although Bellini’s designs were perhaps less ostentatious than his postmodern contemporaries, his work is celebrated for its originality, eternality and technical complexity.
Since the 1980’s Bellini has dedicated himself almost entirely to architecture, yet his furniture remains a timeless relic, celebrating the influential Italian designer and his successful and prolific body of work Anna Rosa Thomae explains, “Mario Bellini is the perfect unification of art, design, and architecture,” qualifying his work as an apt and opportune subsequent exhibition at the Berlin gallery. Accommodating a selection of Bellini’s finest works spanning several decades, witness a staged and curated display of his furnishings carefully sourced, hand-picked and restored to their prior wealth by Anna Rosa Thomae.
Left. Installation view of Mario Bellini's glassware. Right. Installation view of table lamp Model Area 20 Photo courtesy of A R T Communication.
The AMANTA modular sofa chairs were developed in the sixties and seventies, and the artefact records the transformational shift from the rigidity of Bauhaus design toward a playful and curvaceous, silhouette that represented the more informal and relaxed lifestyle of the period. For the exhibition, a set of two sofa chairs have been re-upholstered in a taupe velvet fabric, contrasting the customary white fiberglass shell backing. The designs are prompted by functionality as well as aesthetics and can be arranged and rearranged, as if a fluid sculpture one can sit on; its metamorphic temperament preordains its perpetual nature.
Additionally, the exhibition will present some of Bellini’s most iconic lighting designs, including the table lamp Model Area 20, originally created for the legendary Italian lighting manufacturer Artemide. Built upon an elegant ceramic base, the ivory lampshade is perched atop, and its silhouette is reminiscent of an opening flower. The furniture and lighting pieces are complemented by beautifully crafted porcelain and glassware objects from Bellini ́s long-term partnership with German manufacturer Rosenthal.
Established in December 2021, Artefact.Berlin is a gallery and project space prefiguring itself as an extension and complement to Thomae’s already reputed international cultural communications agency A R T Communication + Brand Consultancy, established in 2014. Through a series of curated exhibitions, the project is rooted in Thomae’s ongoing commitment to promoting the interrelatedness between art, design and architecture. With a rich program of carefully selected exhibitions focusing on contemporary art and design, the space stands as an important reference point for art and design collectors and enthusiasts worldwide.
Rooted in the Schöneberg district’s distinct architectural heritage, Artefact.Berlin will continuously connect with local art and design professionals and general audiences alike through a dense program of multidisciplinary events, talks, and performances, once again fostering Berlin’s extensive and widely diverse cultural community and its visibility worldwide.
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NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Mario Bellini:
Born in 1935, Mario Bellini is an Italian designer, internationally renowned for his menagerie of undertakings, ranging from furniture and product design, to architecture and urban planning. Bellini graduated in Architecture from the Milan Polytechnic – and established the international architectural and design firm Studio Bellini in Milan in 1973. He was chief editor of Domus magazine between 1986-91.
Bellini has won eight Golden Compass Awards, and has twenty-five pieces of his assembly held in the permanent collection of the MoMA - Museum of Modern Art in New York, among other prestigious museums both in Italy and aboard. As for architecture, he has contributed a selection of celebrated edifices including the Tokyo Design Centre, the Museum of Islamic Arts at the Louvre, Paris and the Museum of the City of Bologna, Italy.
About Anna Rosa Thomae:
Growing up in Berlin in the 1990s, Anna Rosa Thomae spent her formative years living and working between New York, London, and Berlin. With a career of over fifteen years in the field of global cultural communications Thomae has ceaselessly nurtured the premise that valuable synergies exist between, and can emerge from, art, design and architecture – a vision that led her to establish her own consultancy, A R T in 2014 in Berlin. Ever since, Thomae has worked with creatives across all continents, ranging from gallerists, museums, and artists to designers, architects, and more.
A versed art and design collector, constantly shaped by her professional and personal encounters, Thomae has developed an extensive collection bringing together vintage European furniture from the 1960s—1980s in tandem with Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art.
Established in 2021, Artefact.Berlin is the symbiosis between these two passions that continue to develop to this day.
The Aesthetics of Mario Bellini, on view at Artefact.Berlin from May 7 2022 — June 20, 2022.
The Aesthetics of Mario Bellini
Artefact.Berlin | Geisbergstraße 12, 10777 Berlin, Germany
Opening Hours:
Monday – Friday
10 – 6 PM and by appointment