“Unconditional admiration”. Then, “deep esteem”. And again, “brilliant demonstration”. It was August 7, 1962 when The head of the Frecce Tricolori Ferating he sent, on headed paper of the acrobatic patrol, his warmest congratulations to Carlo Mollinoback from a flight performance in Budapest in which he had represented Italy. “It allows me to say,” continues the letter, “that a happier choice was not possible”. Still, Mollino He was an architect-designer who had approached acrobatic aviation only in the second part of his life, becoming a friend and pupil of the world champion Albert Ruesch. So yes, it was certainly also a plane pilot. But also A ski teacher capable of publishing a treaty with innovative descent techniques, a motorist able to design (and drive) a legendary car for the 24 hours of Le Mans, A revolutionary photographer author of a fundamental volume such as The message from the dark room. All, of course, continuing to sign projects – buildings or furniture – become iconic.
“A genius? Let’s say it was an extraordinarily intense character, that nShe produced masterpieces in different directions», He explains to us Fulvio Ferrarischolar and curator who founded the Casa Mollino Museum, in Turin, where we went thanks to Kappa Futurfestival and to its special program Art & Techno, dedicated to music, art and culture of the Piedmontese capital. “In this house, Mollino never lived,” underlines Ferrari, opening the doors of the artist’s “secret” apartment, in the central Via Napione. “Yet we could compare it to A software to decode its enigmatic personality. It is like a novel, only that he uses matter and creates an esoteric, symbolic house, in which everything is to be deciphered. A composition in which every detail tells something: on the other hand, he never explained to others, he was not interested in doing it, it was an explanation to himself ». Chameleontic, a portent with a thousand faces that adapted to anyone in front of itso much so that radically different profiles emerge from the stories of friends.
So who was Carlo Mollino? «Architect indicates his profession, but he was above all A very cultured person who asked himself about the questions about life », adds Ferrari. «Giò Ponti, in a letter from 1943, reveals him twice to consider him a philosopher. In fact, we can safely say that Mollino was: he has not theorized any philosophy, but he spent a life of research and knowledge, which are precisely the purposes of the philosopher ». Born in Turin in 1905, The only child of the famous engineer Eugenio Mollinofrom an early age shows qualities out of normal: its incredible designs of child, already the subject of exhibitions, are the testimony. He graduated in architecture in 1931 and begins to work in the study of his father, from which he inherits the mentality as an engineer who will then apply in all his passions. «There are those who see Mollino like An inconstant person. In reality, when he deals with something, he dissects it to the end. AND When he has global knowledge in his hand, he abandons it, Because if he continued on that road he would be bored ».
«Basically, he managed to excel in different areas because He wanted to explore life in every direction». In the 1930s we find the passion for skiing, which led him to write an important manual on Innovative descent techniques. Then in the 1940s he published a 440 pages on the photograph, The message from the dark roomwhich has become a cornerstone of the subject: since 1956, in real laying theaters that personally settles, He started photographing on Polaroid (he bought it in Switzerland because in Italy, at the time, no one had ever seen it) more or less naked women, that he himself dressed and made up. But it is not an erotic repertoire. «Each photo is a project. It must be said that in Mollino, who had a single girlfriend, eros and sex cared not to do very little. However, he wanted to take over the laws that build the essence of the female body And, from the moment in which he makes them, everything he realizes will be as beautiful as a female body. The link is evident by looking at some of its series ».
The fifties also coincide with the period of motoring, of the Bisiluro Damolnar, designed together with Mario Damonte and Enrico Nardi, led to 24 hours of Le Mans of 1955 And today exhibited at the Museum of Science and Technology in Milan. Then, in fact, the love for acrobatic aviation exploded, another paternal legacy: Mollino has Designed planes, Made by splitting systems of the commands and devices for the graphic calculation of the routes, and of course it took the patent starting to buy aircraft. Unstoppablein the sixties built the two Turin buildings that made it famous: the Chamber of Commerce and the new Royal Theaterwhich add up to other important projects such as the Torinese horse farmhousethe Rai Auditorium and the Casa del Sole in Cervinia. Without considering all the design furniture, Unique or limited series piecesdeveloped mainly in the 1940s by merging the use of artisan construction techniques with the experimentation of new materials and new technologies, such as The plywood curved in overlapping layers.
He died suddenly, in August 1973, a few months after the inauguration of the new Royal Theater. And here comes the house in via Napione, who – in the absence of heirs – He seriously risked being dismantled. Today, fortunately, it is still there, to tell us Mollino, who has designed the interiors of that delicious apartment overlooking the Po by binding to the Egyptian universe and the pyramids. A house for next life? “Exact”, Confirm Ferrari. «In reality, of this, there is only a visible symbol, that is, a pillow with embroidered The Egyptian boat that brings the soul right into the next life, positioned on a boat bed. From here, thanks to the readings of the great Egyptologists Silvio Curto (former director of the Egyptian Museum of Turin, who passed away in 2015) e Alessandro Roccatimany other significant details have emerged, such as the shape of the dining table top which is the same as the cartouche in Egyptian writing, that is, the frame that contained the name of the pharaoh “. From the marble bench to the carpet facing the river, up to game of mirrors.
“People come to see Casa Mollino because they know that there is something hiddenof wonderful, but nobody knows what it is », concludes Ferrari, remembering great stars who have been fascinated: from Nobel prizes to athletes (even Cristiano Ronaldo), then great artists like Madonna (who asked to visit the house but did not have time), the director Bob Wilson and the singer -songwriter Patti Smithwhich last March – on the occasion of an event of Bottega Veneta – He created a show around the historic boat bed, transported to Milan for the performance. To think that with music, Mollino, has no particular connections: he designed a ballroom, the Roi, but he never frequented it. Occasionally it seems that the guitar played, during dinners with friends. Nothing more. Yet his name becomes space even within A special program from the Kappa Futurfestival that – exactly like him – is not limited to electronics, but it intertwines with art and culture. Unpredictable, at times incomprehensible, but always and in any case enthralling. It is the rhythm of the genius.
Source: Vanity Fair
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