PRESS RELEASE JAMES IRVINE AN ENGLISH MAN IN MILAN Curated by Maria Cristina Didero and Marco Sammicheli MUSEO DEL NOVECENTO SALA FOCUS VIA MARCONI 1, MILANO 9th 19th APRIL, 2015 16th April 2015, h. 18.30 opening upon invitation This project is a well deserved homage to the designer James Irvine. James Irvine was deeply in love with Italy and especially with the city of Milan: he was touched by the special atmosphere of the town, its joie de vivre and by the several different relationships often sealed in front of a cappuccino or a glass of wine in the typical local conviviality, a unique mix between personal and professional. In the crucial years of Italian booming in the field of design The Chelsea Boy s Milan office represented a secure and jubilant hub open to the international design community with constant visits of the designers who will become the most significant players in the worldwide contemporary creative scene. Marc Newson, Jasper Morrison, Naoto Fukasawa, Konstantin Grcic and Michael Young, just to name a few, not only liked to spend time with Irvine, but they elected his studio as their Italian headquarter to develop their projects. They were close friends with whom James Irvine shared the passion for design; together they explored the fruitful territory along with the many opportunities that the Italian manufacturing companies could offer. The project JAMES IRVINE. AN ENGLISH MAN IN MILAN at the Museo del Novecento unveils the intimate bond that linked the British designer who passed away in February 2013 to his adoptive city. According to Irvine, Milan represented the quintessential expression of human relationships, where common and everyday habits became a pleasant routine: a quick cup of coffee during his very busy working schedule alone or shared with his team at the studio. James Irvine has chosen Milan as the permanent base not only for his professional career but also on a personal level, marrying Maria Laura Rossiello, whom today, along with Maddalena Casadei, are carrying on the work of Studio Irvine. The moment Irvine was entering his own restaurants as we call them it was welcome as The English. He was well known by all the waiters who loved to chat with him: the corkscrew Luigi was born during one of these conversations and named upon one of those people. Another example is the Open Chair (produced by Alias in 2007) inspired to the outdoors chairs from the notorious bar Gin Rosa. Thanks to the collaboration with the Studio Irvine, the installation at the Sala Focus presents a compact version of his beloved treasure boxes. It consists of a solid, macrorepresentation of Irvine s most intimate world presenting a selection of objects such as products, prototypes, handmade drawings, different raw materials he would use for his projects. This project aims to be a small-scale tribute to the designer and will undrape for the first time some of his very personal effects.
The Museo del Novecento visitors itinerary will lead to the exhibition JAMES IRVINE. AN ENGLISH MAN IN MILAN at Sala Focus, which will also display a selection of paintings from the museum s permanent collection, selected by its curators, to present an unusual portrait of the city of Milan. Among these notable paintings: Fortunato Depero and Umberto Boccioni. JAMES IRVINE. AN ENGLISH MAN IN MILAN is housed during the Milan Design Week days in one of the most significant institutions of the city, located in its historical center, overlooking Piazza del Duomo. JAMES IRVINE. Industrial Designer - 1958 2013. James Irvine was born in London. Graduated in 1984 at The Royal College of Art, London. The same year he moved to Milan Italy. From 1984 to 1992 he was a design consultant for Olivetti design studio Milan designing industrial products under the direction of Michele De Lucchi and Ettore Sottsass. In 1987, for a cultural exchange organised by Olivetti, he worked for one year at the Toshiba Design Centre in Tokyo making design research for industrial products. He returned to Milan in 1988 and opened his private design studio. His first clients were Cappellini and SCP. From 1993 to 1997 in parallel to his private studio he was a partner of Sottsass Associati Milan and was responsible for the industrial design group. In 1999 he completed the design of the new city bus for the Hanover transport system Üstra. 131 buses have been built by Mercedes Benz. In 2004 he was the guest of honour at the fair Interieur in Kortrijk and was also elected RDI (Royal Designer for Industry) by the Royal Society of Arts in London. From 2005 to 2007 he was professor for industrial design at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe. In 2006 he founded James Irvine Srl in Milan. In 2007 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Design from Kingston University. His design studio in Milan has worked with various internationally renowned companies including Alfi, Alias, Amorim, Arper, Artemide, B&B Italia, Canon, Coro, Duravit, Foscarini, LG, Magis, Marsotto Edizioni, MDF Italia, Muji, Olivari, Olivetti, Phaidon, Ströer, Thonet, Whirlpool, WMF and Zumtobel. STUDIO IRVINE is a design studio run by Marialaura Rossiello and Maddalena Casadei based in Milan, founded by James Irvine in 1988. After James Irvine s premature death in 2013, Studio Irvine found its natural continuity in the figures of Marialaura Rossiello Irvine (partner at James Irvine Srl since 2009) and Maddalena Casadei (Irvine s right arm for nine years). www.studio-irvine.com
Maria Cristina Didero. Independent design curator and journalist, she has worked for Vitra Design Musem for more than 10 years and from 2011 to 2015 served as Director of the Bisazza Foundation in Vicenza. She collaborates with several Italian and foreign institutions and contributes on a regular base to several magazines, among which Domus, AD, Vogue Casa, Flair. Marco Sammicheli. Sammicheli teaches esthetics at the Politecnico di Milano. In 2014 he has curated the show titled Munari politecnico at the Museo del Novecento and took part to la Biennale di Architettura in Venice. He was the author of Il Caso Grassi at the Galleria d Arte Moderna in Milan, in 2013 and Omaggio a Lora Lamm at the m.a.x. in Chiasso (CH). Currently, he is design curator for Abitare magazine. JAMES IRVINE. AN ENGLISH MAN IN MILAN curated by Maria Cristina Didero and Marco Sammicheli In occasion of Milan Design Week From the 9th to the 19th of April 2015 Opening the 16th of April 2015 - h. 18.30 - upon invitation Exhibition partner: Amorim e Danese Milano AMORIM: Tracing its roots back to the 19th century, as a simple family business producing cork stoppers for wines, Amorim has now become the world leader in natural cork products, exporting 96% of its production to more than 100 countries through a network of dozens of fully owned subsidiaries. With a multi-million Euro R&D budget, Amorim has applied its specialist knowledge to this centuries-old traditional culture, developing a vast portfolio of 100% sustainable products that are used by blue-chip clients in industries as diverse - and demanding - as aerospace, automotive, construction, fashion design and wines & spirits. Amorim s responsible approach to raw materials and sustainable production illustrates the remarkable interdependence between industry and a vital ecosystem - one of the world s most balanced examples of social, economic and environmental development. www.amorim.com James Irvine touched us all at Amorim. His attention towards natural cork and his immediate understanding of what it represented may have been a professional privilege, but we knew that talking to him, listening to him was also a personal privilege. We can only wish our work together had started much earlier, but that only makes us cherish even more what he gave to cork and to Amorim. Good thing we have so much around here that makes us often think of James and his work. Carlos de Jesus, Head of Marketing and Communication
DANESE MILANO: since the 1957 is one of the brands that marked the Italian Design s history through the material, productive and semantic sperimentation. The iconic products, modern and timeless interpretation of the daily-use object, are supported by research and innovation in the lighting field. Danese offers a new generation of products that allows a different perspective of spaces, creates open sceneries that go beyond any standardization and invites the user to consciously take part in his environment. The widening of Danese s collection provides a complete and transversal offer of lights, accessories and furnishing systems that allows the user to totally renovate an environment.
GENERAL INFORMATIONS Location Museo del Novecento, via Marconi 1, Milano Promoted by Comune di Milano Opening hours lunedì 14.30 19.30 martedì, mercoledì, venerdì e domenica 9.30 19.30 giovedì e sabato 9.30 22.30 Tickets Full price tickets 5 euro Concessions 3 euro (uni students, over 65, municipal employees) Main Sponsors Bank of America Merrill Lynch Finmeccanica Contacts Museo del Novecento tel. 02 88444061 c.museo900@comune.milano.it www.museodelnovecento.org Press Comune di Milano Elena Conenna elenamaria.conenna@comune.milano.it tel. 02 88453314 Guided tours Ad Artem. Info and reservation 02.6597728 info@adartem.it Audio guides Storyville: info@storyville.it Museo del Novecento Clementina Rizzi clementina.rizzi@comune.milano.it Francesco Lucchini francesco.lucchini@comune.milano.it