On the occasion of Milan Design Week 2024, FRAGILE, one of the most fervent realities on the Italian and international scene of the twentieth century and historical design, opens the doors of its new space in via Simone D’Orsenigo 27 in Milan presenting the exhibition “ANNI LUCE. ARREDOLUCE. 100 LAMPS”, curated by Anty Pansera.
The exhibition, dedicated to the lighting design company Arredoluce, features around a hundred historic lamps from the Monza brand, expertly collected over the years by Alessandro Padoan and Alessandro Palmaghini – at the helm of FRAGILE – who still certify their authenticity today.
From 5 April to 12 May 2024, on the occasion of Milan Design Week 2024, FRAGILE, a gallery of historical and contemporary design led by Alessandro Padoan and Alessandro Palmaghini, born in Milan in 2000 and which has quickly become a point of reference for home decoration and collecting, inaugurates its new exhibition space in via Simone D’Orsenigo, 27 with the exhibition “ANNI LUCE. ARREDOLUCE. 100 LAMPS”, curated by Anty Pansera.
With the new headquarters, located inside a former industrial space designed in 1950 by Elio Frisia, FRAGILE now presents itself differently: no longer a street gallery, but a more private space where you can discover the exceptional collection of objects – furniture, lighting, jewelry and designer ornaments – signed by icons of Italian design, and some collector’s items, the result of long and careful research and cataloging.
An intent was signed with the inaugural exhibition “ANNI LUCE. ARREDOLUCE. 100 LAMPADE”, which tells the story and evolution of the gallery’s activity well through an exhibition dedicated to a historic lighting design brand, Arredoluce.
The choice to dedicate an exhibition to the Monza brand founded in 1943 by Angelo Lelii is not accidental: in 2015 Alessandro Padoan and Alessandro Palmaghini acquired the Arredoluce brand – subsequently sold – and together with Anty Pansera, design historian and critic, and with the help of the designer Nanda Vigo, who for years worked closely with Angelo Lelii, they began a fascinating research which materialized in 2018 in “Arredoluce Catalogo raisonné 1943-1987” (ed. Silvana): a precise reconstruction of the history of the company and the designers who worked there, which brings together 555 lamps and furnishing accessories produced and/or designed by Angelo Lelii.
Furthermore, the activity of certifying the authenticity of vintage Arredoluce lamps has allowed Alessandro Padoan and Alessandro Palmaghini to collect one of the most important and complete collections in the world of the company’s precious historical lamps, around a hundred, which for the For the first time they are all exhibited together in the exhibition “ANNI LUCE. ARREDOLUCE. 100 LAMPS”.
The exhibition therefore tells through the lamps on display – floor, table, ceiling, wall – the extraordinary and very particular story of an “enterprise” that is still too little known, that of Angelo Lelii: an adventure in the world of light , three decades long, which is fully part of the “history” of Made in Italy and its pioneering entrepreneurs. An activity that was immediately appreciated abroad, both in the USA and in the East, which only later took off in Italy.
The collaborations that Angelo Lelii managed to activate with the great designers of the twentieth century were famous. Just to mention a few, the one with Castiglioni, for example: the first edition of the Tubino from 1949 is actually by Arredoluce. And again with Gio Ponti: from the 1957 Triennale, through the many interior creations designed by the architect up to the large exhibitions/events that Ponti organized with “Domus”. Not to be forgotten, then, is the partnership with Ettore Sottsass Jr, which came to fruition in the mid-1950s when he designed numerous lamps for Lelii. And again, the one with Nanda Vigo, architect, designer, artist, for almost a decade the designer closest to Angelo Lelii. Finally, only one other woman designed for Arredoluce: Egle Amaldi, in the mid-Seventies. But Angelo Lelii was himself a designer of great value: his work as a “designer” of lamps can be seen from the first to the last day of activity.
The curator, Anty Pansera, writes: “Quality in details and finishes which, to date, represent a “figure” of the recognisability of Arredoluce products: the brass turned from solid, the welds so perfect as to be invisible which unmask remade/copied products. And the switch: unmistakable. In short, Lelii’s lamps stand out for their extremely simple design, with an apparent “minimal” complexity and a strong sense of unadorned sensitivity”.
The exhibition “LIGHT YEARS. ARREDOLUCE. 100 LAMPADE” therefore wants to tell this intense activity through the most significant Arredoluce productions. Among the 100 lamps exhibited by Fragile there is no shortage of the most iconic and famous pieces starting from the Triennale, a floor lamp with a linear structure with three movable arms that end with three colored diffusers. Perhaps Angelo Lelii’s best-known project, the lamp, presented at the VII Triennale di Milano in 1947, appears behind Peggy Guggenheim in the interview recovered and included in the extraordinary documentary dedicated to it by director Lisa Immordino Vreeland. And again, Stellina , designed by Lelii in the early fifties, went down in history for being included in the supply that the company sent to the Kennedy family. And then the Cobra from 1962, also designed by Angelo Lelii, one of the first lamps to mount an adjustable magnetized globe. Finally, Golden gate , designed by Nanda Vigo and presented in the Arredoluce space for Euroluce in May 1970: a metal stem almost two meters high that supports a neon arch inserted into a light metal structure.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog published by Nomos.
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