September 15, 2006 – January 28, 2007 extended until April 29, 2007

Pop Art and Arte Povera, minimalism and Memphis, “neo-baroque” follies and the new purism: the activities of Italian family business Driade fluctuate between these different poles. Since 1968, this company has been associated with the history of design, an almost unparalleled source of stimulation and inspiration. Now, Die Neue Sammlung is devoting an exhibition at Pinakothek der Moderne to the company's extremely quirky universe, embracing as it does seemingly contradictory phenomena. The Driade items are being displayed against the backdrop of Neue Sammlung's permanent exhibits on the history of international design and in the context of a museum that has devoted itself at once to the liberal arts, to applied art, and the graphics and architecture of the 20th and 21st century.

For ages, Italian design has been characterized by family-owned companies committed to the discipline. Established in 1968, Driade is one of the outstanding examples of this phenomenon. The company stands for an attitude to culture that follows on in the tradition of the Werkstätten movement, reinterpreting it for its own purposes. From cutlery, glass and luminaires to sofas, kitchens and system furniture, Driade’s universe features the entire domestic world.
Philippe Starck produced Costes, his famous, three-legged coffee-house chair, for Driade. The same is true of the radiantly playful glass objects produced by Czech designer Borek Sipek, the poetic experiments of Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka and the severe modular systems by Antonia Astori. But the Driade universe also includes Adelaide Acerbi’s award-winning corporate image as well as advertising campaigns with product stills by photographers like Aldo Ballo and Gabriele Basilico.

Driade sees itself as an aesthetics lab investigating all conceivable aspects of the living sphere. The results is lots of different “stories”, developed around a stable core: everyday utility items and objects of art, furniture for the home and the garden, the office and the public domain, cupboards, kitchens, complex modular and furnishing systems etc.
Behind this is a similar kind of “story” about a family: the founders of Driade – with Enrico Astori as director, his wife Adelaide Acerbi as the brains behind the corporate image and communication design plus his sister Antonia Astori as architect and product designer. A story closely interwoven with the history of Italian design and its protagonists that has extensive international ramifications.

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Using its “permanent collection” on the history of design as a backdrop, Die Neue Sammlung – the State Museum of Applied Arts and Design in Munich – is showing this unusual exhibition at its rooms in Pinakothek der Moderne. It develops all kinds of aspects of the “stories” relating to Driade, stories that are still being invented and lived out today – from its beginnings in 1968, the year of the revolts, to the pluralism of the 1980s, and right the way up to the present day.

An exhibition in cooperation with Driade spa, Fossadello di Caorso (PC), Italy.

The exhibition is accompanied by a booklet.

Organizer:
Die Neue Sammlung – State Museum of Applied Arts and Design | Design in the Pinakothek der Moderne

Location:
Pinakothek der Moderne, Barer Strasse 40, D-80333 Munich

Info:
Tel. +49 (0)89-23.805-260, +49 (0)89-27.27.25-0
info@die-neue-sammlung.de