Film Screening: Achille Castiglioni and Richard Sapper
The Mohile Parikh Center for the Contemporary (MPCC), will screen two documentaries on Italian architecture and design on September 30, 2009 at 6.00 pm at the Little Theatre of the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai. Free passes are available at the Mohile Parikh Center.
Summary: A series of portraits from which comes out the wealth of meanings of the term design, which avoids any definition that claims to be univocal and conclusive. The author’s story has been collected in video interviews which are filled with spontaneity and immediacy of the conversation, in which the expression of experiences, reflections and considerations about life and work of planning is free flowing.
Achille Castiglioni (Architect): Achille Castiglioni was a renowned industrial designer. He was often inspired by everyday things and made use of ordinary materials. He uses the minimal amount of materials while creating forms with a maximum effect.
In 1982 Castiglioni created the cutlery design called “Dry” for Alessi, Alessi’s first cutlery line and a seminal product. The design was something of a reaction to the over-formalist, over-functionalist decades of particularly Scandinavian design. Castiglioni’s method, to have “a constant and consistent way of designing, not a style” led him to help create new products to restore Italy’s quality of life in the post-war years and to innovate upon the household object.The New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has his most important designs in its permanent collection.
Richard Sapper (Designer): Richard Sapper is a German industrial designer located in Milan, Italy. He has received numerous international design awards, including 10 prestigious Compasso d’Oro industrial design awards, the first being in 1959, and 15 of his products are in New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) as a permanent collection.
In 1980 he became the IBM corporate industrial design consultant and began designing portable computers, including the first ThinkPad 700C in 1992 and follow-on models such as ThinkPad 770. Sapper continues today to influence the iconic ThinkPad brand as design consultant to Lenovo after it acquired the IBM PC Division in May 2005.