Reserve

In order to allow us to listen to our thoughts, someone came up with the idea of inventing words. Someone thought that the sound of the words could…

With an introduction by Hans Hollein

In order to allow us to listen to our thoughts, someone came up with the idea of inventing words. Someone thought that the sound of the words could in some way represent the wanderings of our thoughts; of some of our thoughts.

Someone else got the idea of representing thoughts by making marks, by making them with light, with something you could see.

I make marks. What I mean is that I always, and only, draw in order to represent certain thoughts that pursue me. These thoughts trace out the forms, dimensions, weight, materials, colors and temperatures to use in building the stage onto which I, or we, will drag existence, including — in the theater set — all the furniture, curtains, lamps and objects in general — you know, vases for flowers, plates for eating, baskets for bread (if there is any) or fruit (if there is any) and so on… (Ettore Sottsass, 1997)

 

Ettore Sottsass was born in Innsbruck, Austria in 1917.

In 1958 he began working with Olivetti as a consultant for the design of the company’s new electronic division, a period of collaboration that would last for more than thirty years. Among other achievements, he created the design for the first Italian electronic calculator in 1959, followed by the design for a number of peripherals and electric or portable typewriters such as the Praxis, the Tekne, and the Valentine. In 1981, with collaborators, friends and internationally renowned architects, he founded the Memphis group, which soon became the symbol for ‘new design’ and a point of reference for the contemporary avant-garde. That same year he founded the studio, Sottsass Associati, where he continued his work as architect and designer.

His projects and works are part of the permanent collections of preeminent museums all over the world, including the New York Museum of Modern Art, the New York Metropolitan Museum, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

 

This volume has been published in occasion of the exhibition

Sottsass progetti 1946–2005

 

Rovereto, Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto

February 26 – May 22, 2005

 

 

The official catalogue is available at the exhibition bookshop and at the Skira bookstore in via Torino 61 in Milan and from Mar 9 2005 in all Italian bookstores.