Flexform photography show celebrates the sofa specialist’s heritage in pictures
Defining Flexform photography from its ad campaigns past transforms the brand’s Milan flagship store into a must-visit for Milan Design Week 2023
![archive Flexform photography from ad campaign, showing couple on sofa](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dhcGfaBEYq3ZwbRLaCDD6X-415-80.jpg)
Until 30 April 2023, the Flexform Milano showroom in Via della Moscova is hosting a mainly black-and-white photography exhibition celebrating the company's history. The show – ‘Portraying Design, Celebrating Tradition & Innovation’, coinciding with Milan Design Week 2023 – makes a deliberate choice of black and white photography to highlight the Flexform designs’ production detail, craftsmanship, and shapes. The images are an opportunity to engage with the company’s heritage – just as you would with a family through their photo albums.
The large-scale reproductions on backlit panels are primarily distributed chronologically throughout the space, which is lit by large windows. The visitor is thus guided through a selection of advertising campaigns, as well as photos and products by the designers who have contributed to the evolution of the company's brand identity from the 1980s to 2023.
Flexform photography show revisits defining design moments and celebrates the new
‘Max’ sofas photographed by Gabriele Basilico at the Triennale di Milano museum, 1983
The exhibition starts with a stunning photograph taken by the legendary late Milanese photographer Gabriele Basilico, featuring the ‘Max’ sofa by Antonio Citterio, with its distinctive organic forms, kidney-bean-shaped seat cushion, and spiral backrest.
‘Max’ sofas photographed by Gabriele Basilico, 2001
The ‘Max’ celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and Flexform presents the new ‘Supermax’ – a revisit of the design by Citterio, with more generous and contemporary proportions. Here, the company puts the new sofa in dialogue with the original, as well as Basilico’s campaign from 1983: the photographer managed to insert the sofa within the characteristic architecture of the Triennale di Milano museum, a large staircase in the background, emphasising shapes and spirals.
Antonio Citterio at the exhibition on the ‘Supermax’ sofa
It's not just Basilico. From the 1980s to the 2000s, the brand's narrative was displayed through deeply evocative, strictly black-and-white ad campaigns shot by master photographers such as Gianni Berengo Gardin, Giovanni Gastel, Gian Paolo Barbieri, Maria Vittoria Backhaus, Fabrizio Ferri, and Mario Ciampi. The large windows also allow passers-by to take a look, and be drawn in by a glimpse of Gianni Berengo Gardin's evocative take on ‘Soft Dream’ sofa from 2011, for example (pictured top).
‘Groundpiece’ sofa photographed by Maria Vittoria Backhaus, 2008
‘Magister’ sofa photographed by Gabriele Basilico, 1983
Backhaus’ photographs are powerful and vaguely mysterious. Her 1999 shot dedicated to the ‘A.B.C’ armchair (1996) is a surprise: two women looking at each other through intensely made-up eyes, in an artificial pose that emphasises the armchair’s square structure – it’s one of the few campaigns devoted entirely to an armchair for a brand whose core business remains sofas.
‘Groundpiece’ sofa, photographed by Gianni Berengo Gardin
‘Groundpiece’ sofa photographed by Maria Vittoria Backhaus, 2006
A 9m corridor follows, with six images of ‘Groundpiece’ (from 2001 to 2022) and numerous sets open to interpretation. The idea is to narrate the story of a piece that reshaped the game at the time when sofas still had precise limited functions and rigid stylistic features. ‘Groundpiece’ pioneered the transition to a piece that can now satisfy not only conversations, but also sleeping, working, eating, and playing needs.
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
‘Groundpiece’ sofa photographed by Gabriele Basilico, 2001
We begin with Basilico, who created a dialogue with the piece’s details and the prominent features of Palazzo Pirelli, all steel and windows. We end with the dreamlike, and colourful style of Pierpaolo Ferrari: a woman dressed in blue floats gracefully at what seems the end of a tea dinner, a small party – or a dream.
‘Groundpiece’ sofa photographed by Pierpaolo Ferrari
‘Gregory’ sofa photographed by Pierpaolo Ferrari
This colourful note brings us up to date. Current Flexform art director Christoph Radl invited Pierpaolo Ferrari to bring his wry, irreverent eye, and colourful, vivid interpretations to the company’s campaigns: the family album keeps expanding.
‘Portraying Design, Celebrating Tradition & Innovation’
Until 30 April 2023 (10 am – 9 pm)
Flexform Flagship Store
Via della Moscova 33
Milan
flexform.it
Exhibition view ‘Portraying Design, Celebrating Tradition & Innovation’, at the Flexform Milan showroom, including Maria Vittoria Backhaus’ photograph of ‘A.B.C’ armchairs
Exhibition view ‘Portraying Design, Celebrating Tradition & Innovation’, at the Flexform Milan showroom
Cristina Kiran Piotti is an Italian-Indian freelance journalist. After completing her studies in journalism in Milan, she pursued a master's degree in the economic relations between Italy and India at the Ca' Foscari Challenge School in Venice. She splits her time between Milan and Mumbai and, since 2008, she has concentrated her work mostly on design, current affairs, and culture stories, often drawing on her enduring passion for geopolitics. She writes for several publications in both English and Italian, and she is a consultant for communication firms and publishing houses.
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
The Mercury Prize nominees for 2024 have been revealed
Charli XCX, The Last Dinner Party and Beth Gibbons are amongst this year's nominees
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
Elevate your interiors with Wallpaper* July 2024, the Design Directory
Wallpaper* July 2024 rounds up the best new furniture, lighting, kitchens, bathrooms and more – on sale now
By Bill Prince Published
-
Meridiani House in Milan is a showroom that feels like home
The newly styled Meridiani House at Milan’s Corso Venezia 29 is conceived as an elegant living space specific to its local context
By Simon Mills Published
-
Pioneering designer Gae Aulenti’s illustrious career is celebrated in a new Milan retrospective
Gae Aulenti, the Italian designer, architect and original thinker, is celebrated with a dedicated retrospective at Milan’s Triennale Design Museum
By Laura May Todd Published
-
Casa Mutina displays Ronan Bouroullec's creative universe
Ronan Bouroullec's designs for Mutina at Milan Design Week 2024 include outdoor tiles as well as ceramic editions
By Cristina Kiran Piotti Published
-
Jaipur Rugs unveils collaboration with Chanel's yarn maker Vimar1991
During Milan Design Week 2024, Jaipur Rugs demonstrated its expertise through a collaboration with Chanel-owned yarn experts Vimar1991
By Cristina Kiran Piotti Published
-
Wallpaper* and SNOW explore the alchemy of grown diamonds in a new film
Wallpaper* and grown-diamond specialist SNOW partnered on the Class of ’24 exhibition during Milan Design Week 2024 and a new film exploring the art and alchemy of the laboratory’s process
By Simon Mills Published
-
Adal brings Japan's disappearing natural materials to furniture design
Japanese brand Adal Look into Nature exhibited for the first time at Salone del Mobile 2024, showcasing its contemporary products made using igusa, a traditional material whose manufacturing is slowly disappearing
By Danielle Demetriou Published
-
Toiletpaper Apartment debuts in Milan with a 'sophisticated' Alex Prager collaboration
Toiletpaper present 'ToiletAlex PaperPrager' their new unsettling projects on the occasion of Milan Design Week 2024
By Cristina Kiran Piotti Published