Among the many extra experiential choices at this yr’s Milan design week was a three-act play from design studio Formafantasma, presenting a vital perspective on modernism and its legacy.
The present, known as Staging Modernity, was offered at Teatro Lirico in collaboration with Italian design model Cassina to mark 60 years for the reason that tubular metal furnishings of Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand was put into mass manufacturing for the primary time.
Quite than a pure celebration, Formafantasma founders Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin noticed the play as a possibility to reassess our “idealised conception of modernity”.
“Loads of the concepts of Le Corbusier have been simplified and became a method of standardising every part, of reapplying modernism all over the place in the identical method,” Farresin advised Dezeen on the opening.
“And so now we have cities that look the identical, every part is standardised. That is additionally an consequence of modernity.”
Design is “caught” prior to now
The play was centred across the 1929 Salon d’Automne expo in Paris, the place the items by Le Corbusier, Jeanneret and Perriand that may come to epitomise modernist design had been launched to the general public for the primary time.
Right here, the furnishings – and by extension the house – had been offered as a “machine à habiter”, a machine for dwelling, that eschewed present traditions and was as an alternative completely calibrated to satisfy the wants of people.
“Corbusier typically talked in regards to the machine for dwelling, excited about the home as a machine: practical, hygienic, excellent, in some way a shell that protected people from the outside,” Farresin mentioned.
The concept of people as separate from nature continues to pervade design at this time, he argues, regardless of what the worst excesses of this world view have meant for the planet and its different inhabitants.
“We’re not vital of the work of those authors,” Farresin defined. “However something that’s this profitable can also be misinterpret and simplified.”
“I really like these items, they’re great objects,” he added. “But it surely’s additionally vital to recollect they had been designed in 1929. They nonetheless look trendy, which is fascinating. The query is, why is that? Possibly we’re caught.”
Play presents a species-inclusive model of modernity
Staging Modernity argues as an alternative for a brand new form of modernity that makes use of the identical rational, functionalist strategy to satisfy the wants of different species.
To speak this concept, Formafantasma based mostly the scenography on the format of the Salon d’Automne however splintered it into separate fragments.
These had been offered not simply on Teatro Lirico’s important stage but in addition on smaller podiums dotted throughout the stalls, to create a extra porous imaginative and prescient of modernism, with plastic animals posed alongside the furnishings.
“We let what stays outdoor, what stays outdoors of the machine, the animals and the opposite species invade the house,” Farresin defined.
The play itself, staged by Italian theatre director Fabio Cherstich, was based mostly on three separate texts commissioned by Formafantasma that view modernism from the attitude of different species.
French thinker Emanuele Coccia contributed a scene wherein a refrain of animals pleads with the viewers: “Open your modernity to us, we’ll make one thing much more lovely out of it”, whereas the Solitary Foxes monologue by TerriStories’s Feifei explores how animals exist within the margins of our cities.
Lastly, Spanish architect and author Andrés Jaque appeared on the perspective of supplies, dramatising how modernist furnishings launched chrome-plated metallic, initially developed to coat bullets throughout world warfare one, to the overall inhabitants.
“At one level we had been like: fuck, we’re actually loopy”
Staging Modernity marks the primary time the Formafantasma duo – identified for his or her research-heavy deep dives into subjects from wooden to wool – have turned their hand to theatre manufacturing.
“We are typically way more cerebral,” Farresin mentioned. “And this had a component, which was additionally enjoyable and emotional.”
“It is fascinating to see one thing that you simply began being interpreted by others,” he added. “That is the primary time, I believe, that we let go a lot.”
“At one level we had been like: fuck, we’re actually loopy.”
The concept to stage a play for this Milan design week was born initially from Cassina’s selection of Teatro Lirico because the setting and Formafantasma’s want to honour this historic venue, initially constructed in 1779.
However the thought ended up being in step with the cultural zeitgeist. A number of different studios offered theatrical experiences at this yr’s competition, with American theatre director Robert Wilson staging the Object Chairs Opera at La Scala, whereas Dimorestudio crafted a theatrical set and efficiency for Loro Piana.
“I believe efficiency and theater are probably the most related factor on this second,” Farresin defined. “I am utterly positive about that.”
“There may be a lot manufacturing of visuals with AI and every part,” he added. “However what is gorgeous a few reside gathering of people and our bodies is that it is proper right here, proper now. It can’t be faked. It can’t be replicated.”
“It simply is what it’s, with all of the complexities of errors and all the remaining.”
The images is by Omar Sartor.
Milan design week befell from April 7 to 13. See Dezeen Occasions Information for an up-to-date record of structure and design occasions happening all over the world.
The submit Modernism has been "misinterpret and simplified" says Formafantasma appeared first on Dezeen.
