Alessandro Mendini discusses end of ideology in design in exclusive audio interview from 2015
Alessandro Mendini, the Italian designer, theorist and editor who passed away this week, speaks to Dezeen about how design magazines have lost their critical edge in this interview recorded in 2015.
Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs interviewed Mendini at the Salone del Mobile, where the designer was that year launching two new products with Italian design brand Kartell. He told Fairs there was "no more ideology" in design today.
The designer, famed for influential works of architecture and design including the Proust armchair and the Groninger Museum, passed away 18 February 2019 aged 87.
He was himself an influential theorist, serving as editor of Italian design magazines Casabella, Modo and Domus in the 1970s and 80s. "If I would do a magazine now, it would be impossible," he said. "The magazines on paper I think could now be good documents, but not in a critical way."
Below is a transcript of the interview with Mendini:
Marcus Fairs: Tell me about the two products you've designed for Kartell. I understand you've been friends with Kartell president Claudio Luti for a long time.
Alessandro Mendini: I was the editor of a magazine. The name of the magazine was Modo. The offices of Modo were inside the Kartell factory. So for five years I went there every day and I got to know all the people there. And I met the young Claudio Luti there. And then for 30 years we never met again.
Then some months ago we met in Florence becaus...
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