Design in your hands

Marcello Morandini was born in Mantua in 1940 and has lived in Varese since 1947. He is one of the major representatives of Concrete Art in Europe. He began his activity in 1964 with a personal exhibition curated by Germano Celant; in 1967 he was invited to the IX Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil and in 1968 with a personal exhibition room at the XXXIV Venice International Biennial. In 1972 he held a retrospective exhibition at the Kestnergesellschaft in Hannover. In 1977 he was invited to Documenta 6 in Kassel. In the 1980s collaborated with architectural firms in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. In 1984 designed the 220-meter façade of the Thomas porcelain factory in Speichersdorf in Germany. From 1984 to 1986 he held solo exhibitions in various museums: Tokyo, Bochum, Verona, Darmstadt, Mannheim, Helsinki. In 1988 designed a 40-meter sculpture as an external symbol of the Ingolstadt museum. In 1993 he held an anthological exhibition of art and design at the Museum Die Neue Sammlung in Munich and at the Palacio Galveias in Lisbon in 1994. From 1995 to 1997 he taught art and design at the Summer Academy in Salzburg; from 1997 to 2001 at the Ecal in Lausanne and in 2003 at the Brera Academy in Milan. In 2004 he was elected honorary member of the Royal Society of Arts in London. The Wilhelm-Hack-Museum in Ludwigshafen dedicates 3 important solo exhibitions to him and also commissions a 10-meter sculpture for the museum square. In 2005 he opened the new Ritter Museum in Waldenbuch with a solo exhibition. In 2007 designed the architecture of the cultural center “Das kleine Museum” in Weissenstadt, Germany. In 2008 the Ca’ Pesaro Museum in Venice organizes an important exhibition of his work, then moved the following year to the Neues Museum in Nürnberg. In 2010 inaugurates his 11-meter sculpture as a symbol of the Europäisches Industriemuseum in Plößberg and also organizes a retrospective at the Casa del Mantegna in Mantua. In 2014 presents a solo exhibition at the Kunstmuseum in Bayreuth and an important retrospective at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome. In the first half of 2017 he will hold a complete retrospective at the MA*GA Museum in Gallarate and in early 2018 an important exhibition at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia in Venice. In 2019 he publishes his important Catalogo Ragionato published by Skira and is currently working on the Marcello Morandini Foundation and the renovation of its headquarters in Varese, with the aim of creating a museum dedicated to himself and a center for International Concrete Art in Italy.