Black2 by Konstantin Grcic

The exhibition conceived by the German designer for the Istituto Svizzero di Roma analyzes the presence of the black square shape in the production of the contemporary object

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Through a selection of fifty products that are more or less well-known (or at times popular even), Grcic combines nonhomogeneous objects within a homogeneous formal and linguistic category. With its rich symbolic values, the black and square shape has passed through the millenary history of cultures: from the Egyptian stelae to the Tablets of Law engraved by Moses; from certain Chinese ceramic traditions to the Islamic Kaaba, up to the alchemy and philosopher's stone which, as tradition would have it, was the shape of a black cube. But it is starting from the Twentieth century, with the modern age, that the black and square shape has been given prominence and such widespread diffusion thus becoming a formal trend.

Art of the Twentieth century is irremediably marked by Black square against white background (1913) by Kasimir Malevich, the first attempt to give a modern form to the "I", to the "pure feeling" to use the words from the artist's Manifesto. The era that tried to make dreams rational too is marked by this black and square attribute, that does not exist in nature, being artificial, autonomous. From the psychological theories to the mathematical ones of the Black Box, "black and square" refers to a mysterious model whose internal mechanism is unknown, and is therefore knowable only through the reactions it produces if subjected to a certain external impulse. It is perhaps with reference to these peculiarities that, in the production of technological objects, "black and square" are inevitable and recurrent attributes. Some emblematic examples are part of the exhibition: the Apple iPhone and iPad chip, the IBM ThinkPad, the Marshall amplifier and the BASF audio-cassette tape. And it is precisely the BASF audiocassette tape that has a founding historical value as it was the first object without precedents produced in plastic by modern industry. To make it marketable, significantly the designers chose a black and square shape. In other instances it is a matter of more complex design choices, applied to traditional objects such as a cooking box (it is the case of La Cubica by Aldo Rossi from 1991) or a trolley-container (the Boby by Joe Colombo from 1970), or a chair – exhibited is the Vitra03 by Maarten Van Severen – or the very Diana B Table by Grcic himself (2002) and the TV Black ST 201 by Sapper and Zanuso (1969). Even in fashion too, "black and square" has had a more and more noteworthy diffusion (exhibited are the Comme des Garçons classic men's wallet, Timeless 2.55 hand bag by Chanel, Patagonia men's down sweater vest, an Armani perfume amongst others), to the point that often it has represented a trend, a concept of elegance, but without however losing its radical features and perhaps mystery.

With "Black2" Grcic pursues theoretic reflections and the proposals for interpretation on the topic of the contemporary object at a time when experimentation is in need of new orientation capacities. The exhibition does not establish a method, but takes cognizance of the "horizontal" diffusion of a formal element, that goes from a volume of the Bible to a petrol tank, from technology to electronics, from a diamond to fashion, to the great authors of the Twentieth century. What is important in this exhibition is not the designer's signature, but it is to verify the richness of this linguistic attribute and the certainty that in each of the cases exhibited, and of the hundreds of black and square objects that we are surrounded by, it is about an action that calls into play the heart of the very idea of creation, the deliberated choice of a man in a precise production and social context, that is the contemporary era. The exhibition set-up was deliberately envisaged so as to keep a distance from a vision as a whole or from too often hoped for unitary thesis, but leaves space to single autonomous stories of the objects, to their complexity and, possibly, to the meanings that the couple black-square has become enriched with, entrusted to the choice of the designer.

Black2
December 12, 2010 – February 12, 2011
Istituto Svizzero di Roma

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