Investigating the link between writing, art, and matter, promoting manual know-how, expertise and beauty. This is the objective of the artistic project “Scripta?”, a cycle of four exhibitions curated by Cramum artistic director Sabino Maria Frassà and hosted at the Gaggenau in Milan and Rome. The Gaggenau DesignElementi, the showrooms of the German brand that produces house appliances, are incubators of energy and creative contaminations, in which design products and works of art interact and dialogue with each other thanks to succession of artists and exhibitions following the same common thread.
“The idea behind the cycle of exhibitions is to portray an idea of luxury based on the homo faber through a series of art pieces – a topic that is common both my curatorial research and the brand identity. I can say that we both chose each other,” Sabino Maria Frassà tells us. “Gaggenau was established in 1683 and has a very strong connection to history. The craftsmanship, which the exhibitions explore, is a central characteristic to all Gaggenau products. Just think about the iconic EB 333 oven, made of pieces 100% crafted by hand without using any type of automation. Similarly, the word Cramum itself comes from ancient Latin and means “cream,” “the best part,” to indicate the research and scouting of artistic Italian.”
Frassà explains that there is also a coherence between the exhibited projects and the context in which they are exposed – the showrooms. Even if they are not places where we conventionally find contemporary art pieces, we can trace a recent trend in which exhibition spaces of design brands are conceived as hybrid places, in which we can find much more than just the products on display.
The Gaggenau showrooms in Milan and Rome follow this line of thought and even Frassà’s research goes into this direction: “I don’t believe that the white cube aesthetic is the best place to exhibit art works, especially in a context like the Italian one. Private collecting here are made up of apartments, offices, companies…Gaggenau started the dialogue at the design phase; together with the architect, we decided to have a neutral zone, a central corridor in which we could also have white walls. But people who visit the showroom in Milan will never have the perception of seeing the pieces in a white cube but always within their context,” Frassà says.
“The Gaggenau showrooms are not retail shops, but purely exhibition spaces, conceived as if they were luxurious houses: visitors will find themselves in a highly domestic environment, in which there simply is a higher concentration of home appliances and art, but they will never feel like they are at an exhibit. Everything coexists in the name of a refined and welcoming environment.”
Right now, the project is going through a deep reflection through art of the future of the language and the importance of understanding each other. In the Rome showroom, we can find “Romantitas,” the personal exhibition of Fulvio Morella, which is a reflection on the existence of humans, straddling between Friedrich Nietzsche’s visionary philosophy and the exemplary values of Ancient Rome. On the other hand, the showroom in Milan houses “NO, NO? NO. NO!”, by Chinese artist H.H. Lim, who tackles the unresolved theme, but still very current, of today’s words and communication. The exhibitions, both curated by Sabino Maria Frassà, are open until July 31st, 2023 (“Romanitas”) and October 13th, 2023 (“NO, NO? NO. NO!”).