Across exhibitions as in a museum, a gallery where different arts – design and photography – coexist side by side. Amidst elegant sofas and signature shots, narrating the evolution through the decades. The flagship stores of Flexform in the world become the destinations of a visual narrative that comes to life in the exhibition “Portraying Design,” opened in the store in Milan during Milano Design Week, and now on view in Tokyo and Amsterdam.
The protagonists are a selection of authorial images and products that have contributed to build the identity of Flexform and its distinctive character over time. The advertising campaigns of the past, and those of recent years, become large-scale works on view: reproduced on backlit panels, they generate an original timeline inside the different stores, narrating the history of the brand from the 1980s to the present. The photographs are accompanied by the physical presence of their subjects. Bearing witness not only to the avant-garde communication of the company, but also to the timeless design of its collections.
Masters of the lens like Gabriele Basilico, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Giovanni Gastel, Gian Paolo Barbieri, Maria Vittoria Backhaus, Mario Ciampi and Fabrizio Ferri are behind the black and white images, from the 1980s to the 2000s, called in by the artistic director of the time, Natalia Corbetta. In recent years this position has been held by Christoph Radl, who has involved Pierpaolo Ferrari in the new Flexform campaign, a new chapter in the company’s history of communication, ironic, feminine, full of personality, conveyed in vivid hues.
After the debut in the store in Milan, the exhibition has traveled to the spaces of Flexform Tokyo, in coordination with Tokyo Art Week and then Tokyo Design Week, in October. In November it reappeared at the flagship store Flexform Amsterdam, with the opening event “Portraying Design, a celebration of tradition & innovation,” a tribute to the company’s heritage.
Back in Milan, the story and know-how of Flexform return as the protagonists of the windows of the concept store Salvioni Milano Durini, featuring some of the most emblematic products of the collection, including the Supermax and Groundpiece sofas and the A.B.C. chair, all designed by Antonio Citterio, interpreted through the artistic sensibilities of great photographers.
