| Ettore Sottsass Jr.
1980
"Faktotum" shelf
Wood, with abet-print-lanuat in various colors
330 x 56 x 48 cm
Manufacturer: Belux AG, Wohlen, Switzerland
The most radical change in the history of contemporary design occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Italy, when an attempt was made to break with the traditional design values of functionality and aesthetics. Mendini, the theorist in the Alchimia and Memphis design groups formulated the design groups' aim as follows:
"The main characteristic is perhaps the thought given to the objects, not in their functional context, which is, so to speak, obvious, but in the thought given to a ritual and relative expressiveness. We are dealing with the relationship between person and object."
The "Faktotum" shelf, which was displayed in Alchimia's purposely confusingly named exhibition "bau.haus" in 1980, is a good example of this. Sottsass resolutely disassociated himself from the fine balance of Italian "Bel Design" and designed a piece of furniture as a fetish.
Despite very early on being considered to have no sustainable future, the Memphis group nonetheless had a prolonged influence on the design image of publishing. The combination of banality and irony, of historical reference and fashionable attitude satisfied the need for crafts that pandered to aesthetics while at the same time, by virtue of there being only a few copies, had the aura of being a one-off. As such design became divided into a trend towards arts and crafts unique editions and industrial design in every sense of the word.
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