In conjunction with Milan Design Week 2018, Swiss furniture company Vitra will debut an exhibition at Milan’s former sports arena, La Pelota. Dubbed “Typecasting: An Assembly of Iconic, Forgotten and New Vitra Characters,” the show opens on April 17 and will remain on display through April 22.
Curated by Austrian designer Robert Stadler, “Typecasting” features nearly 200 items from the company’s archive and current product lines, accompanied by pieces from the collection of the Vitra Design Museum in Rhein, Germany. According to the company, the show emphasizes the “social function of furniture in society” and is divided into nine categories—based on human characteristics—that Stadler calls “communities,” including “the communals” (furniture that brings people together), “the compulsive organizers” (objects that help organize belongings), “the slashers” (objects that possess the same form but are made up of different materials), and “the restless” (featuring dynamic furniture).
Zak Group/Courtesy Vitra
“This film-set-like display of iconic, forgotten, and new Vitra objects is as much about furniture as it is about us,” said Stadler in a press release. “Along with its practical task, furniture has always had a representational function. As such, chairs can typically be read as personalities or portraits.”
As the show aims to emphasize the social function of furniture in society, pieces in “the communals” category function as the centerpiece of the exhibition. Vitra has touched upon the concept of communal living before in its 2017 exhibition “Together! The New Architecture of the Collective,” at the Vitra Design Museum. As communal living and working spaces become an integral part of our society, home interiors undergo the same transition. “The sofa moves from the private living room to a shared communal space and becomes the central stage for living and working together,” according to the same release. “The communals” debuts works by Stadler, Paris-based artists Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, German industrial designer Konstantin Grcic, London-based industrial designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, and the Amsterdam-based design practice Commonplace Studio, and features a new typology of furniture called “the communal sofa.”
In addition to the extensive range of designer chairs presented at the exhibition, visitors will also be able to see the mold used by the Museum of Modern Art to reproduce La Chaise (1989-90), an iconic lounge chair by Charles and Ray Eames. Some of the other exhibited pieces include Vodöl Armchair (1989) by Austrian architects Coop Himmelb(l)au, the Chair/Chair (1987) by American painter and sculptor Richard Artschwager, and Slow Car (2007) by Dutch designer Jürgen Bey.
