Milano (MI), Italia

Tutti a Tavola!

Salone del Mobile 2010. An exhibition at Villa Reale, Via Palestro, Milan, 14 April – 9 May 2010

 Each year Cosmit commissions a cultural event to support the Salone. The location and theme of the event changes every year; in 2010 the theme is the art of the kitchen and takes place at theVilla Reale, a magnificent nineteenth-century neoclassical villa home to Milan’s Museum of Modern Art, and the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan’s most prestigious historic museum. These two venues host a multi-media event telling the story of Italian conviviality through a mosaic of multi-sensorial interventions based on memories, historical imagery and the visionary talent of a wide range of contemporary artists, designers, chefs and curators.

Tutti a Tavola! leads the visitor on a journey to rediscover the Italian preoccupation with conviviality, from the Renaissance to the present day. The expression “Everyone to the table!” brings to mind family, friendship, well-being and togetherness. Sitting together around a table is a rite that is typical of the Italian way of life, in which it is not simply the food that matters but also the way it is presented, shared and consumed in company. Within the setting of the two museums’ existing collections a series of installations and projections will highlight and reinterpret exhibits that celebrate the art of dining, from the most intimate family occasions through to official receptions.

The centre piece of the Villa Reale is a giant dining table designed by David Kohn Architects located in the courtyard. The table is dressed with a vase taken from a painting by Morandi on display in the exhibition. The objects are rendered at a scale that suggests the courtyard is a room or that the table is a shelter – the visitor is at once Gulliver and Lilliputian.

David Kohn Architects has also used a lightweight scaffolding system by Milanese company Fratelli Marinelli to create a variety of settings for artworks on the ground and first floors of the villa. These range from screens for projections, theatre-sets for puppets and small structures for displaying wall hangings.

In one of the finest neo-Renaissance interiors of the Villa, David Kohn Architects and Milanese fashion designer Colomba Leddi have created a room within a room of silk curtains printed with fragments of the eighteenth century painting “Il Banchetto in Casa Nani” by Pietro Longhi, which depicts a feast in a Venetian palazzo on the occasion of a visiting dignitary. The installation creates an environment based on the painted scene that visitors can enter into and immerse themselves in the intricate detail given to the description of the guests and the table setting.

Tutti a Tavola! is accompanied by a 150-page catalogue, edited by curator Franco Laera, which features an essay by David Kohn on theatre and conviviality.

Europaconcorsi Beta

Tutti a Tavola!