Venezia, Negozio Olivetti, from June 12 to October 27, 2019
Set up for the 58th edition of the Venice Biennale, the exhibition “Wunderkammer Panza di Biumo” features a series of small, intriguing objects gathered at the former store that Carlo Scarpa designed for Adriano Olivetti in 1958: scale models, instruments, mechanical inventions, and other rarities that Milanese art patron Giuseppe Panza di Biumo (1923-2010) collected, or received as gifts from the artists he held dearest.
Counting around 40 works, the exhibition reveals Giuseppe Panza’s special care for a number of artists who created small-sized pieces. Their art, the “art of small objects”, as he defined it, expresses an attitude centered on the intimate, private and individual sphere.
Embracing spaces, perfect geometries, a hectic attention to detail, and delicate light reflections on the marble and the Murano glass: this is how Scarpa’s architecture welcomes the small exhibited creations, displayed on stands originally hosting the Olivetti typewriters – all subtle, exclusive apparitions in a “wunderkammer”, a “hall of wonders”.
The exhibition set-up was planned by Scandurra Studio Architettura, Milan.
The exhibition catalog will be published by Skira.
