Fornasetti Seoul exhibition opens door to Asia
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Fornasetti Exhibition / Courtesy of Artmon
By Kim Jae-heun
“Fornasetti: Practical Madness,” an exhibition featuring artwork by the late Italian artist Piero Fornasetti, is currently on display at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul. This is its first time being showcased in Asia following dates in Milan and Paris.
The Fornasetti exhibition first came to the Triennale Design Museum in Milan in 2013 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Fornasetti’s birth. It was successful enough to become a traveling exhibition that landed in Paris last year and in Seoul this month.
Barnaba Fornasetti, the son of Piero Fornasetti, organized the special exhibition in Korea himself and brought 1,300 pieces from the Fornasetti archive in Milan. The show divides vast subjects of the Italian’s art collection into 15 sections in chronological order.
The Fornasetti exhibition displays Piero’s work from the 1940s to his collaboration with Gio Ponti in the 1960s and his works up to his death in the 1980s. The exhibition also displays his son Barnaba’s modern collection.
“The main reason to hold the Fornasetti exhibition is to shed new light on my father’s inspiration on arts and share it with the people,” said Barnaba Fornasetti during a press conference at the DDP, Nov. 21. “I am ashamed that after the brand Fornasetti was introduced to the world, only its commodity is being discussed and no one talks about the art itself. Not even people in Milan working with the Fornasetti exhibition asked a single question about the artistic value.”
Fornasetti Exhibition / Courtesy of Artmon
Arturo Dell’Acqua Bellavitis, the president of Fondazione Museo del Design who helped Barnaba bring the exhibition to Korea, said Seoul became the Fornasetti exhibition’s doorway to Asia, as he believes many creative elements in Chinese fashion and art come from Korea.
“I had a chance to introduce Korean art at Milano Design Week last year and I was very impressed by Korean traditional art. When we first meet Asian arts, most of them emphasize minimalism, but Korean art was quite abstruse,” said Bellavitis.
“I was confused whether they were just decorations or one design, but the Korean exhibition hall developed every year and I started to understand the art in terms of its decoration concept. Then I found Barnaba Fornasetti, an adequate artist to represent decorative art, and suggested he hold the exhibition in Korea.”
Barnaba said he agreed to hold the exhibition in Seoul because of Koreans’ passion and support not only of art but also education and he wanted to share his art with them.
He stressed that his father’s body of work in the exhibition contains special messages that he wants the audience to think about.
Piero Fornasetti was an Italian painter, sculptor, interior decorator and engraver who saw the world differently and expressed it in ironic and humorous ways through art. Many of his art pieces are surreal and imaginative.
Barnaba plays a role in bridging the classic Fornasetti works with the modern art scene as well as reviving the old Fornasetti art collection and designing new pieces.
The exhibition will be held until March 19.