Literature:

Kries, Atlas of Furniture Design, Vitra Design Museum, Weil / Rhine 2021, p. 834. Alchimia The Alchimia design movement was founded in Milan in 1976 as a reaction against functionalist modernism in Italy by Alessandro Guerriero and his sister Adriana. It viewed design as an artistic process beyond industrial constraints and also drew on ideas from the Arts and Crafts movement. Alessandro Mendini, an official member of Alchimia since 1979, emphasized the connection between art and design as well as the personal signature of the designer in his theories and works. The core team usually consisted of five to seven members; depending on the project, additional external artists and designers were brought in by Guerriero and Mendini. From 1970 to 1976, Mendini was also editor of Casabella, an architecture and design magazine that had been in existence since 1928. His designs for the Spaziale table and chair are already visible on the cover of issue 299, published in March 1975. The two objects offered here were shown in 1982 in the exhibition La stanza da manuale at the Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna in Bologna and sold shortly afterwards to a gallery in Düsseldorf. Both an invitation to the exhibition and an invoice issued by Alchimia for the sale have been preserved. The chair and table have been in the possession and use of the consignors from western Germany since 1992. From November 11 this year until January 22, 2026, the ADI Museum in Milan will be showing the exhibition ‘Alchimia. La Rivoluzione Del Design Italiano’.