Alessi In-Possible

Array

The exhibition

La fabbrica è una sorta di Agorá dove il designer, gli ingegnerizzatori, i disegnatori, i tecnici di produzione, i responsabili del marketing prodotto e della comunicazione, dialogano e il risultato finale è il prodotto industriale.
La mostra è dedicata a questo dialogo e ai molti modi attraverso i quali si svolge. Il punto di vista scelto è inedito: non si racconta la storia di prodotti realizzati, ma quella di progetti rimasti in sospeso. I problemi tecnici e le limitazioni economiche non esauriscono le ragioni per cui un progetto rimane tale. Nello sviluppo di un progetto possono darsi esiti inaspettati che riguardano la dimensione espressiva dell’oggetto, il suo linguaggio, la sua carica emozionale.
In mostra, ordinati cronologicamente dagli anni Venti del Novecento a oggi, oltre 50 progetti mai entrati in produzione di alcuni dei più famosi designer e architetti italiani e internazionali, da Ettore Sottsass, Achille Castiglioni, Aldo Rossi a Philippe Starck, Zaha Hadid, Patricia Urquiola, Ronan e Erwan Bouroullec.


The exhibition invites viewers for a behind-the-scenes glimpse into one of the most important and influential design companies in the world of design. The exhibition will be presenting for the first time more than fifty designs by some of the world's best and most renowned designers and architects, including Philippe Starck, Zaha Hadid, Patricia Urquiola, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, and Ettore Sottsass, whose development process was halted before they reached the finish line. Sketches and simulations of the development stages will be presented next to each design, as well as a description of the work process from the commissioning or initiation stage to the moment the company, or the designer, chose to halt the development process and freeze the idea.


IN-possible décrit le travail à l’origine d’un produit de design industriel. Un objet design est le résultat d’un jeu complexe d’éléments, dans lequel des questions culturelles et sociales élevées se mêlent à des problématiques financières, pratiques et concrètes. La rencontre du designer et de l’entreprise est un moment clé de ce processus. La rencontre d’expertises, de points de vue et de compétences qui donnent corps à l’entrée du produit sur le marché, dans le cadre de ce qui est souvent un processus long et laborieux. En effet, un produit de design industriel est un travail collectif, au cours duquel l’entreprise joue le rôle de « l’éditeur ». Ce dialogue ouvert continu, susceptible d’emprunter d’autres voies, est parfois le témoin, contre toute attente, de la transformation d’une « in-possibilité » en une « possibilité », comme dans le cas de projets qui ont pour ambition de créer des objets innovants et qui acceptent donc implicitement le risque d’un résultat incertain.

The catalogue

The book recounts the behind-the-scenes efforts underlying every industrial design object. They are primarily related to research, an activity that runs the risk of failure yet is necessary and indeed represents the only way to achieve truly innovative objects. Moreover, they are related to a dialogue between different areas of expertise: those of the designer and the variety of professional attributes available within the company.
The pages that follow are dedicated to this dialogue, to the many ways in which it takes place. The exhibition has an original take: the story of projects that never made it out of the factory. The development of a project may produce unexpected results, not exclusively related to technical problems or financial constraints, but also to the expressive dimension of the object, its language, or its emotional impact.

Holon, Design Museum, March - June 2015
Milan, Triennale, December 2016 - January 2017
Brussels, ADAM, June - October 2019