At the Museo Archeo Industriale di Terra d’Otranto, Maglie (LE) from 1 August to 31 October 2023, the exhibition Tobia Scarpa: design and taste for the Italian table, curated by Cintya Concari and Roberto Marcatti in collaboration with Evelina Bazzo, the Mercatino del Gusto Association and Archivio Studio Scarpa, will take place.
An important and symbolic space – 250 square metres indoors and about 300 outdoors – the current headquarters of the new Museo Archeo Industriale in Maglie will host an exhibition that aims to tell the story of one of the greatest Italian architects and designers of the 20th century and his passion for food, taste and the table.
Useful, beautiful and sometimes precious, the many everyday objects and accessories on display: plates, cutlery, glasses, carafes, trays, designed by Tobia Scarpa, initially with his wife Afra, to accompany mealtimes.
An extraordinary craftsmanship expressed through the numerous complements, designed to welcome and furnish domestic environments dedicated to conviviality with their dining tables, chairs, lamps.
Alongside the products on display, there are also original drawings and a bookcase offering visitors a selection of volumes, editions and catalogues, flanked by an area dedicated to the projection of the portrait-documentary “L’anima segreta delle cose” (The secret soul of things), filmed in 2014 to capture the human experience that Tobia Scarpa makes explicit in his designs.
Around the long table set up in the central space of the Museum take place numerous pieces and complements, now true icons, with the addition of curious objects placed in the external area of the Museum.
A rich domestic landscape, therefore, covering the 60 years of architect Scarpa’s design activity in synergy with the most important Made in Italy design companies, which have lent and re-edited the many objects on display to celebrate the exhibition.
Noble materials such as silver, wood, Murano glass, marble and brass tell the story of the craftsmanship of the Italian company, as well as the culture of the industry that has been able to recognise and value the contribution of designers, not only architects and designers, but also graphic artists and photographers, becoming a world reference for Italy.
Following the great success of the exhibition “A tavola con Gio Ponti – Gli Angeli apparecchiano” curated by Cintya Concari and Roberto Marcatti and inaugurated in summer 2022 in Maglie in the spaces of the Museum of Palaeontology and Palethnology, once again this year, the curators wanted to propose an exhibition dedicated to Tobia Scarpa in the new space of the Museo Archeo Industriale in Maglie to pay homage, once again, to another protagonist of Italian design ingenuity, starting with the design of the table and choosing, not by chance, the former furniture factory of the well-known cabinet-makers F. lli Piccinno in Maglie to celebrate, with greater emphasis, the importance of Italy’s industrial heritage.
Cintya Concari and Roberto Marcatti, the curating architects, thus recount the secret soul and dishevelled thoughts of Tobia Scarpa.
PHOTO:
Cover: Aluminium plates design Tobia Scarpa production San Lorenzo – 1992
Photo 4 – Pots in pure silver PAN 999 series design Tobia Scarpa production San Lorenzo – 2015
Photo 5 – Carafe design Tobia Scarpa production Terre di Atanor – 2014
Photo 6 – Original design Tobia Scarpa design cutlery production San Lorenzo – 1979
Photo 7 – Armchair mod Miss design Afra and Tobia Scarpa production Molteni&C – 1986
Photo 8 – Moretta jug design Tobia Scarpa production San Lorenzo – 1990
Photo 9 – Table Ciacola design Tobia Scarpa production Dèsirèe – 2023
Photo 10 – Pendant lamp Non Là particolare design Tobia Scarpa production Glip – 2018 – photo
Photo 11 – Portrait Tobia Scarpa
