The Project as Gesture
Gio Ponti. Furniture and Objects from the 1930s to the 1950s
On the occasion of its participation in Der Pavilion in St. Moritz, Volumnia presents an exhibition project dedicated to Gio Ponti, a central figure in the definition of Italian twentieth-century design and architecture.
The exhibition focuses on a selection of furniture and objects created between the 1930s and 1950s, a time span that reveals the continuity and evolution of Ponti’s research, in which the dialogue between tradition and modernity is translated into formal solutions of great balance and precision.
The aim is not to offer a chronological reconstruction, but rather to propose an essential and coherent reading of Ponti’s thought, highlighting his ability to combine rigor, invention, and a profound attention to the dimension of living.
At the heart of the exhibition are two wooden cabinets dating to Gio Ponti’s early mature period, in which several key themes of his language in the early 1930s emerge with particular clarity. The shaped legs, enriched with brass inserts, refer to formal solutions developed for the IV Triennale di Monza and later adopted in various design contexts of the same period, while the treatment of the wooden surfaces recalls decorative experiments employed by Ponti in important contemporary architectural commissions. These pieces embody a measured synthesis of references to classicism, reworked through abstraction and control, and a modern sensitivity to structure and detail, placing them within a broad and articulated design vision.
Surrounding these core works is a selection of furnishings, vases, lighting elements, and objects that convey the complexity and diversity of Ponti’s production, emphasizing his ability to conceive the object as part of a system of relationships rather than as an isolated element.
The exhibition path is enriched by a dialogue with works by Max Ingrand and Giovanni Gariboldi, conceived as a silent and measured confrontation. Ingrand’s presence introduces a reflection on light as an essential component of the architecture of the object, while Gariboldi’s work engages with material and artisanal gesture, in continuity with and reinterpretation of the shared experience with Ponti at Richard Ginori. These juxtapositions accompany the reading of Ponti’s works, suggesting affinities and divergences while never detracting from the centrality of his vision.
Volumnia / Stradone Farnese 33, Piacenza, Italy/
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