The document outlines the exhibition 'Design the Italian Excellence' curated by Vincenzo Basile, showcasing a mix of contemporary Italian design and art at the renovated Caffè Baglioni in Milan. It features unique objects from both historical masters like Achille Castiglioni and Enzo Mari, alongside emerging designers, emphasizing a blend of innovation and tradition. The project represents a vibrant Italian culture eager for societal change, reflected through diverse artistic expressions and styles.

1. Caffè Baglioni
Meet the style.
Design the Italian excellence.

2. Design beyond Design.
Alberto
MEDA
Achille
CASTIGLIONI
Paolo
ULIAN
Marco ROMANELLI e
Marta LAUDANI
Enzo
MARI
Giorgio
BONAGURO
Serena
VESTRUCCI
Giulio
IACCHETTI
Mattia
BONANOMI
BTM
Breaking the Mould
The project is always in progress and open to other authors.

3. “Design the Italian excellence” is the concept of the in-progress exhibition curated by Vincenzo
Basile (Basile Arteco), specially planned for the Baglioni Hotels Group spa, in the renovated venue
of the Nuovo Caffè Baglioni inside the Carlton Hotel Baglioni in Milan.
Twelve wooden glass-cases will become the stage for temporary exhibitions of unique objects
characterised by projectual research, esperimentation and precious and rare realizations of Design.
Quanti numeri in Via Senato: the third edition of the project hosts a selection of Authors who
represent the contemporary “fare italiano”, a mix of Innovation and Tradition comprising different
generations and new fields of Art: Design, but Contemporary Art and Graphics as well.
As it always happens, Art becomes bearer of a vision on contemporaneity that anticipates the
changes in society and suggests a possible direction. New generations of designers, graphics,
artists, entrepreneurs, researchers work in continuity and memory of what was developed by the
Masters, with a new approach and a new idea of research. Italy is not at a standstill, actually it is
a thriving country, eager to start a concrete change in society, and in the ordinary people’s life.
Two Masters of the XXth Century, great Achille Castiglioni and Enzo Mari, the Designer who has
always designed also through words, share the cases with contemporary masters, such as, Paolo
Ulian, Marco Romanelli and Marta Laudani, Giulio Iacchetti, and with the protagonists of the New
Generations of Designers, Giorgio Bonaguro, and the artists of the “Collettivo”, a team of young
creators who work at “Breaking the Mould” the fascinating project realized in mouth-blown glass
in the Murano furnace of Salviati.
The project is made even more appealing by the presence of two figures who are not properly
part of the world of Design, even though they manage to set up a dialogue by wondering, and
asking themselves questions. From the world of contemporary art, Serena Vestrucci, who lives
and works in Venice, exhibits here a beautiful work on colours; graphic designer Mattia Bonanomi,
who studied at the prestigious Saint Martins School in London is present with a work containing
the MILANO font, a new typographic character that he himself elaborated for a project specially
developed for the exhibition.
Design, Graphics, Art. Different styles and approaches to common themes and feelings.
A thin but well visible Fil Rouge linking our history and our future.
Maybe, a new Renaissance.
“Design the Italian excellence” è il concept di un progetto espositivo in progress curato da
Vincenzo Basile (BasileArteco) per il gruppo Baglioni Hotels spa, nella sede rinnovata del Nuovo
Caffè Baglioni all’interno del Carlton Hotel Baglioni in Milano.
Dodici teche in vetro sono teatro di esposizioni temporanee di oggetti unici caratterizzati da percorsi
di ricerca progettuale, di sperimentazione e di realizzazioni preziose e rare legate al Design.
Quanti numeri in Via Senato: la terza edizione del progetto espositivo ospita una selezione di
Autori che rappresentano il fare italiano contemporaneo, un mix di Innovazione e Tradizione che
abbraccia diverse generazioni e ambiti inediti: Design, ma anche Arte Contemporanea e Grafica.
Come sempre accade, l’Arte si rende portatrice di una visione sulla contemporaneità che anticipa
i cambiamenti della società e ne indica la direzione possibile. Nuove generazioni di progettisti,
designers, grafici, artisti, artigiani, imprenditori, ricercatori lavorano in continuità e memoria del
lavoro svolto dai Maestri, ma con nuovi approcci e nuova ricerca. L’Italia non è ferma, ma viva e
desiderosa di avviare un cambiamento concreto nella società e nella vita delle persone normali.
Due Maestri del ‘900, il grande e attualissimo Achille Castiglioni e Enzo Mari, un uomo che sa
progettare da sempre anche con le parole, coabitano con maestri contemporanei, Alberto Meda,
Paolo Ulian, Marco Romanelli & Marta Laudani, Giulio Iacchetti e con i protagonisti delle nuove
generazioni di progettisti, come Giorgio Bonaguro e il Collettivo legato al progetto ‘Breaking the
Mould’ un progetto affascinante realizzato in vetro soffiato nella fornace Salviati a Murano.
Il progetto è infine arricchito dalla presenza di due figure che non appartengono propriamente al
mondo del Design, ma che riescono ad instaurare un dialogo, grazie alla capacità di interrogarsi
e porsi domande. Dal mondo dell’arte contemporanea, Serena Vestrucci, artista che vive e lavora
a Venezia, presente con un bellissimo lavoro sul colore e Mattia Bonanomi, graphic designer con
studi presso la scuola Saint Martins di Londra, con un progetto sviluppato ad hoc per l’esposizione,
che utilizza il font MILANO da lui elaborato.
Design, Grafica, Arte. Approcci e stili diversi a temi e sentire comuni.
Un sottile ma ben visibile filo rosso lega la nostra storia e il nostro futuro.
Forse, un nuovo Rinascimento.

4. A site-specific project curated by Vincenzo Basile
BASILE ARTECO
Caffè Baglioni
co CARLTON HOTEL BAGLIONI
Via Senato, 5 / Via della Spiga, 8 - Milan
March 2014

5. Lightness
Alberto MEDA
Thinking light can be a contempo-
rary way to find a balance between
nature and artifice.
Lightness not only in physical sense
to reduce the material employed
but also to get a visual and trans-
parent appearance to obtain a
discrete object, that does not im-
pose itself, but reflects a respectful
approach to the environment.
Lightness could be a slogan to em-
phasize the contemporary need of
a sense of ethics in all our actions.
Lightness is a 3D structure made of
ABS using a contemporary 3D
printer technology.
LIMITED EDITION (2013)
Black prototype unique
Certificate of Autenticity

6. Kristall Titanium
Alberto MEDA
Unpertre
Alberto MEDA
Unusual combination of titanium and crystal, to solve the structure of a very
slender and very strong stem in titanium for a fragile crystal glass.
PROTOTYPE (1993)
Designer’s private collection.
In the year 2011 Borek Sipek invited Alberto Meda , Gaetano Pesce, Ingo Mau-
rer, Oscar Tusquets, Ron Arad, Shigeru Uchida, Issey Miyake, André Putman and
Nanda Vigo to participate in creation of a new collection of contemporary glass
design, crafted and produced in Boemia.
LIMITED EDITION (2011)
Certificate of Autenticity

7. Cardboard Vases
Paolo ULIAN
Through this vase, impressive in its visual effect, Paolo Ulian poetically reflects
upon the work of traditional ceramics. Similar to flexible cardboard, CARD-
BOARD’s surface is an embroidery of beautiful reliefs imitating the corrugated
cardboard commonly used in industrial packaging.
The very poor material, short-lived, but also recyclable, is turned by Paolo Ul-
ian into a precious and refined object, where we can discover the DNA of the
author’s work: his passion for recycling poor materials.
The CARDBOARD vase requires particular technical skills: complex processes
enable the ceramics to fit to these magical and inconstant forms, and, like true
cardboard, it turns, ripples, creases, curves, bends...
CARDBOARD is also characterised by an audacious mix of colours, metallic and
acid, of shining surfaces (outside) and opaque ones (inside).
An object that must be looked at and touched, in order to fully appreciate its
incredible matter.
LIMITED EDITION
PROTOYPES
Designer’s private collection.

9. Dronero
Enzo MARI
“Dronero” in forged iron, a bridge-shaped fruitstand of unusual weight, yet so
visibly light and full of magic, it creates a striking contrast between the dark of
the forged iron and the bright natural colors of the fruit. A precious Collection,
numbered and signed by the Author. The “Ferri Forgiati” Collection in the Edi-
tion BASILE ARTECO, enclose in the project the secret of what Design should be
today.
UNIQUE PIECES (2010)
Certificate of Authenticity

10. Scythe/Falce
Enzo MARI

11. Monocromi Scontati
Serena VESTRUCCI
“Discounted Monocrome. These three monochrome are refillable endlessly: in their own homes, anyone can empty and fill them again with the colors that prefers.
These works are exclusively sold together, and taking three, you pay only two. I wish art release from the logic of profit, but I wonder then how the artist should live.”
Serena Vestrucci
Water, tempera, plexiglas, metal | 15 x 21 x 6 cm each, five weeks.
UNIQUE PIECES (2011)
Author’s private collection

12. “My work goes in and out of the bed. It is not born out of anything in particular. I stay lying trying not to do anything. To the point where i look at what i’ve got and i look
for a way to complicate our relationship. I like confetti because to make it work you have to let everything go to pieces. I think that if you believe that you don’t need to do
much to create art, one day it will all stop working. I don’t even know how i do it. At the end of the day, it’s just a matter of points of view, and probably elsewhere, every-
thing’s going just fine. Perhaps the same sun that i saw four hours ago and that i can no longer see, is now shining on you. I have always wondered why films make people
cry and exhibitions don’t. I read that up until the 19th century, people cried in front of paintings. And then what happened? Now i’m going to turn off and go for a walk:
one thing amongst others. As if every day of our lives were supposed to make sense.
I think my research is made of incidents, trips, intervals, sometimes repetitions, sometimes a bend of rules, more often doubts.”
Serena Vestrucci

13. BH5 and Tram del Mattino
Mattia BONANOMI
MILANO - typeface. Designed to celebrate the Italian typo-
graphic tradition, this typeface reflects the typographic herit-
age of Milan and the Futurist movement that developed it as
well as several other typographical avant-gardes in the early
20th century.
Silkscreen on painted wood. Unique pieces numbered and
signed by the Author (2014).
LIMITED EDITION (2014)
Certificate of Authenticity

14. 404 Project
Mattia BONANOMI
The “404” is a research project in collaboration with Charles
Hoel.
Its aim is to explore how our perception of space has changed
with the rapid increase of speed in the modern world. In a
society where values are placed on accuracy and precision, we
question the ideas about walking, the unexpected discovery
as well as the forgotten spaces that we pass everyday.”
Book printed with Digital-offset Indigo® machine on 110gsm
Conqueror 100% cotton paper. Posters silkscreen printed on
135gsm Colorplan pale grey paper.

15. Black Marble Ashtray
Achille CASTIGLIONI
Ingenious solution to a recurrent
problem for those who work on
the theme of the ashtray, this
prototype studio, unique piece
realized by Bacci manufacturer
in 1971, owned by Fondazione
Museo Studio Castiglioni, is a large
round container in Black Marquinia
marble, holds on the rim a spiral
spring in chrome steel, that pre-
vents the cigarette from falling.
Very easily removable for clean-
ing, from the prototype a number
of different versions followed, in
silver plated, marble and chrome
steel.
PROTOTYPE (1971)
Author’s collection

16. Fondazione Achille CastiglioniSpirale
Achille CASTIGLIONI STUDIO MUSEO ACHILLE CASTIGLIONI was appointed thanks to the agreement
of “Fondazione Museo del Design”, one of the Institutional charter Members
in Milan. Its support shows how Triennale di Milano/Triennale Design Museum
gives an important help to promote the culture, and in particular Design in Italy
and in the world.
To preserve the Artist’s heritage in a modern key, means cataloguing the works,
telling the whole story, and sharing it with the widest possible audience
The museum Study, in fact, runs the guided tours for singles and groups. Achille
Castiglioni’s wife and daughter, Irma and Giovanna themselves organize the
guided tour in this fantastic study . A unique experience in a charming place
that inspires the visitor, and gives them memories of a recent past in the con-
temporary Milan.
www.achillecastiglioni.it
Ashtray in 18/10 stainless steel,
mirror polished, with spiral, it was
originally produced in marble and
silvered metal by Bacci in Bolo-
gna, and was adopted by Achille
Castiglioni for Alessi in 1986 with
a number of modifications to its
shape and size.

17. Souvenir d’Italie
Marco ROMANELLI and Marta LAUDANI
Dishes like “postcard-souvenirs” from a few of the most famous Italian towns,
those places the whole world loves and admires.
A collage of images rescued from one’s personal memory drawer, selected out
of old collections, or cut out of some primary school students’ geography books.
The “souvenir d’Italie” is, most powerfully, Italy herself.
Do remember her like that, during the dark winters in Helsinki, in the rainy
Scottish countryside, or among the desert’s dunes: the Italy of a distant past,
when history and design, antique and contemporary beauty, culture and nature
constantly intertwined.
In a world of tourists-travellers, the theme of the “souvenir”becomes powerful
and the decorative “local” arts can find here new strenght and a new “raison
d’etre” - justification.
Here, a light boundary line is drawn up between kitsch and good taste, and
Piero Fornasetti, the Master of all decorators, is obviously quoted, with the
result of ceramic dishes that one can “hang on the wall” on their return from a
personal “Grand Tour”, true “souvenir d’Italie”, memories from Italy.
LIMITED EDITION
Certificate of Autenticity

18. Souvenir d’Italie - Milano
Marco ROMANELLI and Marta LAUDANI

19. Root Vases
Giorgio BONAGURO
Root Vases are ambivalent objects: the outer cylinder - sem-transparent - is
connected to the internal element in colour glass representing the roots of a
flower. Designed as top-down vases, they contai none only flore on one side,
and a bunch of flowers on the other.
The “SOFFIATURA A LUME” - glass blowing - is a handicraft technique for work-
ing the glass. The starting poit is a borosilicate glass tubethat is beate a second
time on a horizontal flame from mechanic nozze. The “Maestro di Lume”, the
Glass Master, dilates the glass and moulds it with small tools.
LIMITED EDITION
Certificate of Authenticity

21. Noli - Ceramic Vase
Giulio Iacchetti

22. Collection of ceramic vases.
With their mouths open as if ea-
gerly awaiting for water and flow-
ers, the three fish-shaped vases in
ceramics are a manifestly iconic
and ironic project. The Pesci Ital-
iani Collection is inspired by three
typical Mediterranean fish, each
with a different size and shape: an
anchovy (pink), a gilthead (tur-
quoise) and an opah (yellow).
Handmade in Albisola (Savona) in
the atelier of the historical artisan
firm GIUSEPPE MAZZOTTI 1903
together with the Author Giulio
Iacchetti for Internoitaliano.
LIMITED EDITION (2013)
Certificate of Autenticity
Dego, Noli, Sori - Ceramic Vases
Giulio Iacchetti

23. Experiment.9 - Murano Glass Vase
BTM Breaking the Mould - Collective.
BREAKING THE MOULD is an exploration in experimental approaches to the
traditional techniques of glass making from Murano, Venice. Breaking the
Mould consists of seven designers and a material scientist, formed in the winter
of 2011, with the shared goal of investigating the possibilities of introducing
innovation to glass production, whilst respecting the legacy and nuances of the
Muranese tradition.
Breaking the Mould is a project by MARCO ZITO, AUT, CHIARA ONIDA, DARIO
STELLON, MATTEO STOCCO, TOMMASO CAVALLIN, ANNA PERUGINI.
All pieces have been made by SALVIATI, the historic glass company in Murano
(Venice).
www.breaking-the-mould.com
UNIQUE PIECES (2011)
Prototypes

24. Experiment.11 - Murano Glass Vases
BTM Breaking the Mould - Collective.
Breaking the Mould is an open-ended research project that we hope will lead to a range of interesting results. The structure of the project is based in two main phas-
es; one for research, experimentation and testing on selected topics and materials; the other for showcasing and sharing our achievements through a series of exhibitions
in selected venues. Each project will begin from the results and the outcomes of the previous one, as a consistent continuation of a process in progress. The first step of
Breaking the Mould is called BTM 01/The Mould.
www.breaking-the-mould.com
UNIQUE PIECES (2011)
Prototypes

25. Photo credits
Miro Zagnoli
Benvenuto Saba
Archivio Studio Castiglioni
Frank Vaughan
Archivio Alberto Meda
Riccardo Berrone
Paolo Ulian
Luca Coppola
Federico Bovara
Andrea Basile
Chiara Onida
Matteo Stocco

26. Design the Italian excellence. The Authors.
CHIARA ANDREATTI
GAE AULENTI
GIORGIO BONAGURO
MATTIA BONANOMI
BTM BREAKING THE MOULD – COLLECTIVE
VALENTINA CARRETTA
ACHILLE CASTIGLIONI
MONICA CASTIGLIONI
ELENA CUTOLO
GIULIO IACCHETTI
UGO LA PIETRA
ENZO MARI
ALBERTO MEDA
ENZO MARI
MARCO ROMANELLI & MARTA LAUDANI
DONATA PARUCCINI
ETTORE SOTTSASS
PAOLO ULIAN
SERENA VESTRUCCI
GIORGIA ZANELLATO

27. artworkbyElisaDaidone
Caffè Baglioni
Meet the style.

28. www.basilearteco.it
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Should you desire to acquire
“Design the italian excellence” artworks,
please write to carlton.milano@baglionihotels.com
or call Carlton Hotel Baglioni at +39 02 77077.
A site-specific project curated by Vincenzo Basile
BASILE ARTECO
Texts
VINCENZO BASILE