The celebrations for the first are not over 60 years old from the red line of the Milan metro designed by Franco Albini, Franca e Helg and Bob Noorda. The Franco Albini Foundation in fact he dedicates the exhibition until 17 April 2025 Franco Albini M1: stories of a red line over 60 years long inside the historic studio that Albini lived in for the last twenty years of his life. Sponsored by the Municipality of Milan and edited by Marco Marzinitogether with Elena Albricci and Arianna Mongardi of the Franco Albini Foundation, the exhibition explores the evolution of handrail signwhich refers to a domestic object, to the armrest of an armchair that follows the dynamic flow of the hand.
The exhibition hosts the armchair Three Pieces by Cassina edited in a special version for the occasion, the clothes of MSGM in which the handrail becomes an iconic sign, and is enriched by photographs of Under Milanwhich since 2018 has been researching and building an intense imagery of the metropolitan universe created by Albini, Helg and Noorda. The gaze of Under Milano, or Sergio Raffaele and Tiziano Demuro, does not dwell on the exception: photography narrows the field of analysis to investigate the multiple meanings of moments, details and atmospheres and to reveal a hidden, intimate, underground and button.
«The subway is a lateral geography, a universe that seems to move according to its own rules. In particular, the Milanese one is used every day by over one million three hundred thousand passengers, a tribe of nomads who pass through hybrid spaces that are codified daily according to ever new, constantly evolving rules. Through this collection, we want restore value to what we look at every day but have often stopped seeingpaying homage to a design that is not only function, but also poetry and memory. This project is an invitation to stop, observe and rediscover the hidden charm in the little things that surround us, rekindling that curiosity that gives meaning and beauty to our daily experience” say the photographers.
Marco Marzini explains how the exhibition is structured: «In the three sections we told stories, sometimes restricted to the M1 theme, sometimes broader, in order to provide a overview of the details of this Albini-Helg-Noorda alphabet: a formal syntax of the curved line of the handrail that starts from private environment projects and arrives at the public M1. The other alphabet is the one told by sculptural elements that I created specifically to illuminate the areas of interest in the exhibition: installations that provide a partial overview of the ways in which the handrail is anchored to the floor or to the walls, details that are always different from each other but united from the same simple syntax”.
And in the meantime for a few more daysADI Design Museum in Milan Numerous materials are on display that tell the story of the strong bond between Atm, the Milanese Transport Company and the city in the exhibition ATM MANIFESTO – Stories, Travels and Design. Edited by Matteo Pirola and with the exhibition project of Lorenzo Damianithe journey through time along the tracks of the company’s communication campaigns traverses the evolution of customs and society, in Milan and beyond.
According to the curator, the exhibition «is an opportunity to reread a piece of history of the city of Milan where design and visual communication have always been integrated to transport and linked to travellers, becoming components of an extraordinary driving force of design culture. While many visual stories flow and are retold, an important anniversary also occurs, the 60th anniversary of M1 Line, which immediately won a Compasso d’Oro in 1964 and deserves further study due to the importance of this emblematic design project for the city».
The materials on display come primarily fromATM historical archivewhich is a deposit in full development, houses thousands of vintage photos and a widespread material culture. This entity has existed for many years within the company and is increasingly being structured as a scientific body for the collection and ordering of a collection that is a public good of particular cultural importance.
dove: Franco Albini Foundation, via Bernardino Telesio 13, Milan
when: until April 17, 2025
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Source: living.corriere.it
