The approximately 600 exhibited objects provide a snapshot of the diverse and controversial family of plastic materials with an original and multidisciplinary approach encompassing design, art, and fashion. Starting from a selection made from the collection of the Plart Foundation—one of the most important collections in the world—the curators offer a narrative journey through the lens of polymeric materials that testify to the transformations of the last one hundred and fifty years, revealing the deep essence of modernity and the changes that have marked the domestic and cultural landscape in which we are immersed.
The exhibition is organized into thematic macro-areas that traverse the history of plastics, from pre-synthetic ones created from the mid-19th century characterized by an almost alchemical flavor (bois durci, casein formaldehyde, cellulose nitrate), to the most interesting contemporary experiments marked by the aspiration to break free from oil dependency, almost closing an imaginary circle.
Pre-synthetic plastics between imitation and new identity; Bakelite, the first synthetic plastic; The innovation of made in Italy, from Moplen to the golden age of design; The Sounds of Plastic; Plastic Vanity; Plastic Play; Contemporary Alchemies. These are the sections of the exhibition where very rare artifacts from all over the world are displayed, alongside mass-produced anonymous design pieces and objects designed by the most renowned designers: Gio Ponti, the Castiglioni Brothers, Joe Colombo, Marco Zanuso, Enzo Mari, Ettore Sottsass, Mario Bellini, Andrea Branzi… There are also the first, elusive, prototypes of Gufram made between the late sixties and early seventies in polyurethane—Capitello, Incastro, Farfalla—which over time have become rigid and fragile like glass. And then those that seem like precious jewels of lacquer, gold, enamels, precious stones but are instead all strictly plastic; the first television in Bakelite, colorful radios, toys, works by Enrico Baj, Pietro Glardi and, at the end of the exhibition path, a series of “Ballerinas” floating in the air, delicate transparent objects by Riccardo Dalisi.
A great iconographic narrative runs along an entire wall of the museum, in a play of references between images that are part of the collective memory or entirely new, reconstructing the history of plastics from their origins to 3D printers. In contrast, a series of monitors broadcast the words of Andrea Branzi, Donato D’Urbino and Paolo Lomazzi, Formafantasma, Alessandro Mendini, Maurizio Montalti/Officina Corpuscoli, Gaetano Pesce, and the president of the Plart Foundation, Maria Pia Incutti. The curators asked them to express their point of view on these materials.
