Heritage Landscapes vol.19

Look closely at the painting Guernica, by Pablo Picasso.

On April 26, 1937, the city of Guernica was bombed. Earlier that year Pablo Picasso was commissioned to paint a large-scale painting for the Spanish Pavilion at the World's Fair in Paris. For months, however, Picasso failed to work, until the day the Spanish city was bombed. The news shocks him. But it will begin a period of extreme, non-stop work that within a month will lead Picasso to finish a huge canvas and more than fifty sketches.

Rethinking Guernica is a platform open to all, made up of documents, testimonies, lines, years. The Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia, working with the communications company Telefonica, has created a way to look closely at Picasso's work. It has collected and sorted more than 2,000 documents, put together interviews and testimonies, including that of his son. On the site, the painting can also be viewed through Gigapixel technology, seeing its minutest details even in different electromagnetic spectra.

An in-depth tour, reconstructing the entire history, artistic debate, and agreements, around one of the most famous paintings of the century. A work considered to be the masterpiece of its author, and which turned into a political symbol, generating an enormous influence on the artistic and popular imagination.

The PROSPECTIVE Archives portal is a fascinating online curatorial space that celebrates a century of Fiera di Milano's history through photographic images from Fondazione Fiera Milano's Historical Archives. Through seven key themes, the portal explores the evolution and changes of the Fiera, reflecting on its impact over time. The site includes two other sections: Funds, where you can find photographs from archives that have already been included or will be included in the project in the future, such as the Franco Bottino Archive and the Giovanni Gastel Archive; and Exhibitions, where you can explore exhibition events, including “Fashion in Archival Photography,” on display at CityLife Milan until Sept. 25.

The first chapter of Archivi d'Affetto-the platform curated by the Turin Design Circle-was dedicated to designers, artists and architects Laura Castagno and Leonardo Mosso. The Ca' Bianca is the house they elected as their archive, lost in the woods of the Turin hills. Full of works, materials, objects, books, lines. On the website of Archivi d'Affetto one can get lost in the photographs of the house, in the stories, in the videos, in the description of their work, in their ideas marked in diaries.

Until Jan. 25, the retrospective on Gae Aulenti in collaboration with the Gae Aulenti Archive and curated by Giovanni Agosti, Nina Artioli and Nina Bassoli is on view at Triennale Milano. Thirteen rooms reconstruct the main projects of this unique figure: from the Olivetti store to the works in Buenos Aires, to the great projects for museums or the works for the theater. The retrospective allows you to peek into one of the most representative personalities of contemporary architecture and design, to discover in a personal way of seeing and imagining, enjoying beauty, visionary and resistance to time. The Gae Aulenti Archive is also in the new issue of our magazine, ARCHIVE No. 10, entirely dedicated to Design.

Credits: Fondazione Fiera Milano; Circolo del Design di Torino; Archivio Gae Aulenti, Triennale di Milano.

About a year ago our editorial adventure among fashion archives began. We have traveled the world and met many people, many archives, reflected on materials and told incredible stories. But the time has come to take a step forward, and begin a new journey in this third cycle of the magazine.

On September 18, we presented the fruit of our latest research: ARCHIVE No. 10 - The Design Issue. The launch of the issue was in London, in the studio of renowned designer Jasper Morrison (Guest Editor of N°10), during Design Week. Also with him were Marco Sammicheli, Editor of the issue and director of the Museum of Italian Design at the Milan Triennale, and Daniela Hamaui, Editorial Director of ARCHIVIO.
Also on view for the evening was Jasper Morrison's “Object Lessons” exhibition, which make up the cover and a visual essay inside the issue.

It was an electrifying evening in which we unveiled to the audience the incredible worlds of Design Archives. Places where objects are not just objects, but are stories full of inspiration, messages, imaginary and real dialogues, points of view that condense art and functionality into them.

Follow the adventure of ARCHIVE No. 10 on our Ig and LinkedIn channels.