May 2022 [Milan] – Casa Baglioni – the newest hotel in the Baglioni Hotels & Resorts Collection, which will open soon in the Brera district – offers a look behind the scenes during Milan Design Week. Recently redesigned by renowned Milanese architects, Spagnulo & Partners, the hotel will take center stage with an exclusive art exhibition: In-Between: Where Art Meets Design.
The Concept Behind The Exhibition
Spagnulo & Partners has created a unique show that explores the subtle relationship between art & design, which underpins the concept behind Casa Baglioni Milan. The exhibition features works by four international artists – Agostino Bonalumi, Anne Imhof, Enrico Castellani, and Giulio Paolini – from the Stefano Cecchi Trust Collection, which was created by entrepreneur Stefano Cecchi and curated by Iole Pellion di Persano.
The exhibition examines the idea that combining interior design + works of art can be used as a means of discovering new visual languages. It is a process that leads to a vision of an integrated space where art, design, and architecture interweave to create a world of original expressive possibilities.
With this event, Baglioni Hotels & Resorts and Spagnulo & Partners are championing a creative approach, as a conceptual overture to the future Casa Baglioni’s defining themes, while taking inspiration from the past, specifically the great artistic flowering of Milan’s 1960’s avant-garde era.
About The Exhibition
In-Between: Where Art Meets Design features 4 spaces on the ground floor, each with a dedicated theme.
The first room features a display of fine metal lines and neon lights, which trace a lightweight structure that interacts with its surroundings, similar to a pencil. The design evokes an openness to present and future possibilities.
Three white, monochrome works exemplify an avant-garde language developed during the ’60s abstract period. Included in this section are works by Agostino Bonalumi and Enrico Castellani’s, which reflect the formal trend in a period of change that saw industrial Milan assume a stand-out role on the international design scene.
Castellani’s White Surface (1980) – an iconic, large, shaped canvas with a precise yet rhythmical composition in a wave of solids and voids – is juxtaposed with 2 pieces from Bonalumi’s White series (1973 & 1974).
Together, these three works, with different yet equally pronounced relief shapes, underline the beauty of a technique that transcends its own rigid repetitiveness to keep creating new rhythms and impressions in a play of light and shade.
The second room explores the theme of reflections and mirrored surfaces – that ambiguous dimension that muses on a work’s role, whether starring or bit-part, and that of the spectator in becoming part of it – and bringing it alive in a continual interplay of meaning.
On the floor, a pool of water accentuates the sense of disorientation and indeterminacy pondered by the 2 Untitled (2018, 2019) works by Anne Imhof. This paradoxical artist wowed the contemporary-art establishment and market three years ago with her powerful installations and performance pieces, including a one-woman show at Paris’s Palais de Tokyo and SEX at Rivoli Castle.
The third installation plays with the permeability of the gaze, using light and surfaces to create moods and sight lines, where the work is revealed in a syncopated rhythm. The textile walls conjure up a juxtaposition of weaves and transparencies to accompany Giulio Paolini’s Comédie Italienne (1984), a piece abounding in artistic and literary echoes with intimate links to theatrical themes.
Visitors are invited to discover the artist’s work like a stage when the curtain draws back: the scene teems with a diverse array of extras announcing a performance that we are left constantly awaiting.
The final room is a look to the future, a window on the passage of time through videographer Fabrizio Roscini’s eyes. Contemplating the construction process as it unfolds, bearing witness, framing the various stages of the work like a tableau vivant, it lends its protagonists their rightful importance within the whole.
“I am excited about this artistic venture conceived with our key partners at the new Casa Baglioni to celebrate the art and design of ’60s Milan,” commented Guido Polito, Baglioni Hotels & Resorts CEO.
“A dialogue with art is a unique experience, prompting us to radically rethink how we conceive of space and design. It is a journey that endows designs with meaning, enabling them to interact with the world,” adds Federico Spagnulo, Founder and Senior Partner at Spagnulo & Partners.
The exhibition has been created with top partners from the Made In Italy arena, including: Panzeri Illuminazione, Zucchetti.Kos, and Dedar, and with the cooperation of Guisa Costruzioni, Gabana Arredamenti, and Chef Claudio Sadler, designer of Casa Baglioni’s gourmet cuisine.
In-Between: Where Art Meets Design
Where:
Casa Baglioni Milan
Via Dei Giardini 21, Milan
When:
Press Day: June 6, 2022, 10 am – 7 pm
Open to the public:
7, 8, 11 June, 10 am – 4 pm
9, 10 June, 11 am – 8 pm
12 June, 10 am – 1 pm
CONTACT INFORMATION
Baglioni Hotels & Resorts
Ms. Cristina Massironi, Marketing Director
email: cmassironi@thepalacecompany.com
Ph: +39 02 7733 3710
Spagnulo & Partners
Keywords Design | Monica Tagliabue
Email: M.tagliabue@keywords.design | Ph: +39 347 881 3382
Stefano Cecchi Trust Collection and Art Fund
Email: segreteria.cecchi@gmail.com | Ph: +39 335 740 8364