GOETHE’S CURTAIN

From the collaboration with Alfredo Pirri, master of Italian contemporary art, the project for the new Urban Center in the Milan Triennale was born: an immersive work of art, on an architectural scale, that speaks about the city of Milan.

GOETHE’S CURTAIN is the finalist project in the competition for the new Urban Center of Milan Triennale, which involves the conversion of the original caretaker’s house into a new exhibition space dedicated to the urban changes of the city of Milan.
The Palazzo della Triennale is one of the emblematic buildings of Italian rationalism and the invention of the modern exhibition building, which has hosted legendary exhibitions over the years. Its image, designed by Muzio and amplified by the many artists who have worked there, have made it an iconic site in the city and in the imagery of cultural production.
It was therefore necessary to take on Muzio’s spirit to design a light space in continuity with the architectural elements of the Palazzo della Triennale. The building box is opened to rediscover the relationship with the entrance and to define the sequence atrium – vestibule – garden: a sequence marked by the light from the windows of the Urban Center which, as in the original spaces, leads the way from the atrium to the new space and opens the view towards the monumental staircase.
The project involves Alfredo Pirri, as a tribute to the contribution of great artists in Giovanni Muzio’s project for the Palazzo dell’Arte (including Achille Funi, Gino Severini, Giorgio De Chirico and Mario Sironi).
The result of this collaboration is an immersive artwork committed to the spatial articulation of the Urban Center: a floor mosaic made by layers of mirrors edged by a textile wrapping and placed in correspondence with the emptying of the attic on the first floor.
The artwork becomes a communication device narrowing the historical, utopian and contemporary city: a tribute to Milan and to the idea of Milan as a construction of the modern city. The reference is to Boccioni, to the work of art telling of the emerging panorama of a growing city.