Marcello Morandini

MARCELLO MORANDINI was born in Mantua on May 15, 1940. He moved to Varese in 1947. He attended the Brera School of Art in Milan, where he also worked as assistant designer for an industry and as graphic designer for a professional studio. The first drawings related to his artistic research were made in 1962. In 1964 he began his first three-dimensional works, exhibited in his first solo exhibition in Genoa in 1965, curated by Germano Celant. In 1967 he began the first more demanding exhibitions in Milan, Frankfurt and Cologne. In the same year he was invited to the "IX Biennale" in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 1968 he was invited with a personal room in the Italian pavilion, to the "XXXIV International Art Biennale" in Venice. In 1969 he was invited to represent Italian art in Brussels, as part of the events of "Europalia". In 1970 he began a collaboration with the gallery owner Carl Laszlo of Basel; with him was born the important exhibition of 1972 at the Kestnergesellschaft in Hanover. In 1974 he realized the project of a square with a diameter of 30 meters, for the INA shopping center in Varese. In 1977 he was invited to "documenta 6" in Kassel. He organized at the Civic Museums of Varese the second "International Symposium of Constructive Art Studies" with H. Heinz Holz. In 1978 he held six more of his personal exhibitions in museums in Italy, Austria, Sweden and Germany. In 1979 he had the first of three solo exhibitions dedicated to him by the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum of Ludwigshafen, the other two will follow in 1994 and 2005. In the early eighties he began a long collaboration with the architectural studios Mario Miraglia in Varese and Ong & Ong in Singapore, where he remained for long periods, for some important architectural projects, such as the Goldhill Center of 38 floors. In 1982 he was invited with Attilio Marcolli to "documenta urbana" in Kassel and in the same year he received a scholarship from the DAAD, for a three-month stay in Berlin. In 1984 he held his first exhibition of art and design at the Ceramics Museum in Cerro di Laveno, Varese. In the same year he was invited to Japan; during this period he began personal contacts with architectural studios, visits to some universities and exhibitions in various museums, curated by the publisher and gallery owner Masaomi Unagami in Tokyo. Also in 1984 he designed the 220-meter facade of the Thomas porcelain factory in Speichersdorf, Germany. In 1985 he organized three important exhibitions, the first at the Axis Gallery in Tokyo, then a retrospective at the Museum of Bochum and one in Verona, at the Museum of Castelvecchio. In 1986-1987 he continued his exhibition activity in the museums of Darmstadt, Düsseldorf, Mannheim, Helsinki. 1987 was also a period of great collaboration with the Rosenthal company in Selb for which he studied the 64-meter façade of the new administrative building. In 1988 Peter Volkwein, director of the Ingolstadt Museum, commissioned him to design a 40-meter sculpture as an external symbol of the museum. In 1991 he spent a long period in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to design the architecture of a 34-storey commercial building. In 1993 he had his first major combined anthological exhibition of art and design at the Die Neue Sammlung Museum in Munich, which he exhibited the following year in Lisbon at the Palacio Galveias for "Lisbon European Capital of Culture". Since 1994 he has been a member of the jury of the Design Center of Essen. In the same year he became president of the International Museum of Ceramic Design in Cerro di Laveno, Varese, Italy, a position he will hold for three years. From 1995 to 1997 he taught art and design at the Summer Academy in Salzburg. From 1997 to 2001 he was visiting professor at the Écal in Lausanne. In 1998 his daughter Maria Enza was born, and since then he has concentrated his work in Varese, a city that in 2000 dedicated an important retrospective exhibition in his museum and a catalog published by Charta, Milan. In 2000 he began a collaboration with "Abitare Baleri" of Bergamo, studying a collection of home furniture. In 2003 he teaches at the Brera Academy of Milan. In Switzerland he lectures at the HEAA watchmaking high school in La Chaux-De-Fonds. He directs the Sommerakademie in Plauen for the rehabilitation of the Martin Luther park. Since the same year he is president of the Association of Free Artists of the Province of Varese. In 2004 he is coordinator of the project "Vivere Venezia 3" at the IUAV University of Venice. On commission of the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, he designs a large sculpture of 10 meters for the square adjacent to the museum. He is elected honorary member of the Royal Designer for Industry in London. In 2005 he organized a major anthological exhibition of art and design in Germany, at the Europäisches Industriemuseum Plößberg and the Fürstenberg Museum. He inaugurated the new Ritter Museum in Waldenbuch with a solo exhibition. In the same period he inaugurated his project for the Montegrappa square in Varese. In 2007 he designed the architecture of the cultural center "Das kleine Museum" in Weissenstadt, Germany. In 2008, concomitant to the Architecture Biennale, the Ca' Pesaro Museum in Venice set up an important exhibition, which will be integrated and exhibited the following year at the Neues Museum in Nürnberg. In 2010 he inaugurated his 11-meter sculpture as a symbol of the Europäisches Industriemuseum in Plößberg, as a tribute to Philip Rosenthal. He founded "Artparty" in Varese for local culture. He inaugurates a retrospective of his work at the Casa del Mantegna in Mantua. In 2013 he participates in the International Biennial of Sculpture of Racconigi. In 2014 he dedicates himself to the design of two important solo exhibitions, at the National Museum of Bayreuth, Germany and at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome.