Ettore Sottsass, art consultant for Redan

Abstract

Since the mid-fifties, Ettore Sottsass started a collaboration with Redan which soon became an example of the designer ability to find an application for his visual language in various fields, with a growing confidence and continuity. Redan was a factory based in Pinerolo and dedicated to the production of carpets: Sottsass was first of all entrusted with the project to create preparatory drawings for textiles, and soon appointed “artistic consultant”, with the responsibility of the graphic design, shops design, exhibitions design and even with the project for the interiors of the restaurant owned by Maria Tron, the founder of the company. This activity brought many important results, including products, articles in the journal “Domus”, awards and exhibitions at the Triennale and Galleria Totti, and can be considered an important case study for highlighting a unique design method, which includes pictorial and architecture references, and remains suspended between craftsmanship and industry. This article wants to reconstruct a significant story in its entirety, starting from the still largely unpublished materials preserved in the Sottsass archive, currently divided between the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice, CSAC University of Parma and the Bibliothèque Kandinsky of the Centre Pompidou, integrated with other archives of institutions and companies the architect has worked with, such as the Triennale di Milano and the Arazzeria Scassa di Asti. An important collaboration, both as regards the figure of Sottsass, both as regards a broader debate that wants to address the intersections between design practices and disciplines.