”The philosophy of the exhibition is to take an object and show how the beauty is made, the whole manufacturing principle behind it,” says Christian K. Laine, director of the Chicago Athenaeum, one of the sponsors of ”Elegant Techniques: Italian Furniture Design 1980-1992.”
The exhibition, first presented in Paris at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in the Louvre, will run through Dec. 13 at the Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph St.
With it the Italian Trade Commission and the Italian Association of Furniture Manufacturers illustrate the progress of Italian furniture design over the last 13 years by presenting the products of 30 Italian manufacturers.
The work of 50 designers will be displayed in the exhibit, which details the steps involved in producing the furniture.
”There`s a lot of detail, showing unassembled pieces as well as finished ones,” Laine says. ”The range is from chairs to lamps to sinks and closets.”
The exhibit, curated by two of Italy`s renowned architects, Michele De Lucchi and Achille Castiglioni, is divided by materials into eight sections:
steel, fiber, aluminum, upholstery, wood, plastics, glass and other surfaces. Every material is shown in the form that best expresses its technical accomplishment.
”A pavilion of steel has been built to deal with the issue of steel, as well as a glass pavilion to deal with glass and so on,” Laine says. ”It is a huge exhibition. When it was done at the Louvre they had to build a new entrance.”
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