Alessi 100–001 at the Manzoni Gallery

Alessi 100-001 in the rationalist spaces of the Manzoni Gallery

Occupying in an unexpected, inclusive and participatory way the entire Galleria Manzoni, designed by rationalist architect Alziro Bergonzo in 1949, Alessi 100-001 expresses the character of the company, an excellence in practice in the field of applied arts among the factories of Italian design, retracing the past, presenting the present and anticipating the future. It explores the first hundred years and, at the same time and in a meaningful way, presents the first project of the next century.

The exhibition is divided into two parts:

• The first - identified by the number 100 - is a gallery of wonders

Alberto Alessi invited AMDL Circle, the multidisciplinary studio founded by his friend and longtime collaborator Michele De Lucchi, to design 12 rooms expressing and illustrate the 12 values founding the company: Industrial Craftsmanship, Art, Paradox, Beyond, Hybridization, Research Lab, Irony, Borderline, Poetry, Thingness, Transgression, Futurespective.

12 representative products

To represent them, Alessi has created the 100 Alessi Values Collection: 12 limited edition products, presented one a month starting from May 2021. The Alessi 100-001 exhibition collects for the first time the 12 products in a series of installations , some of them interactive, created by AMDL Circle.

The different set-ups

If the Industrial Craftsmanship value is represented by a room in which a corner of the Alessi factory in Omegna, in Piedmont, has been reproduced, Poetry is identified with a live performance by an actor. Research Lab is a wunderkammer where a selection of over 30 different coffee makers designed by 30 internationally renowned designers are exhibited, including the prototypes of projects never put into production , belonging to the collection of the Museo Alessi and exhibited to the public for the first time, while Paradox is an ironic artistic installation, created with toilet paper inside of a entirely gilded room to celebrate the gold edition of the Merdolino toilet brush.

• The second part - identified by 001 - marks the beginning of a new era of experimentation

Occasional Object is the new cutlery project created for Alessi by the late Virgil Abloh, one of the most famous designers of our time. The collaboration is represented through an extraordinary path with a bright green color that reproduces a natural environment interpreted by a computer programmer. In this geometric landscape , designed by the Italian graphic design studio Studio Temp , giant versions of the objects of this project are inserted, giving life to a surreal experience for the visitor. But the color green is not just an aesthetic choice. Through a Instagram filter specially developed with green screen technology, visitors can create images that blend the digital world with the physical one.

Archive objects

A selection of objects from the brand's archive, from the 1920s to the 1960s, are also on display at the Manzoni Gallery, a period in which Alessi became a real Italian Design Factory. These pieces are exhibited together with a series of products from the historical archive of the British company Globe-Trotter.

More than history, Alessi's ability to evolve the domestic landscape

“The exhibition in Milan for our anniversary is an important synthesis of this adventure ” explains Alberto Alessi , president of the company. “The parallel exhibition of our new project - the first of the next 100 years - and the project itself, testify to Alessi's commitment to continue to be a reference for this and for future generations. Because, to be completely honest, the past interests me only insofar as it can make us understand what we will do tomorrow”.

Traveling exhibition

At the end of the (extended) Milan Design Week, Alessi 100-001 will become an international traveling exhibition that will touch the main markets of the company.