IL Triennale: Arte Italiana Contemporanea e Design

Today we are headed to walk through the Triennale di Milano contempary Italian design, urban planning, architecture, music, and media arts. It is located in the Palace of Arts building part of the Parco Sempione. We were getting the chance to see how art intermingles with industry and design. Before walking through this museum, I hated contempary art and design. I had a difficult time understanding how art can threaten its boundaries and still be art. This museum gave me the chance to understand the concept of play. Here is a link to the museum: http://www.triennale.org/it/ This is another website describing the museum: http://www.charmingitaly.com/article/triennale-of-milan By far one of the most interesting museums I have walked through. The sad thing about the museum is that we were not allowed to take any photos.
        Many of the exhibits were outrageous. It was like staring into the eyes of a horse only to realize that it was a statue. Lamps were made out of pens and the skeletons hanging in the closets had abnormally long legs. David even made an appearance not in Italian marble but in a miniature plasterer cast. One of the more interesting items on exhibit was a lion made out of wood. Now, that is rather ordinary. However, his hind legs were completely mechanized along with a beating heart and various other organs. There was one item that I could not grasp the concept of at all. It was a plaster oval with the center cut out. In the center hung a piece of medal. When I got closer to the piece, the medal was a punched piece of metal fashioned to look like the country of Italy but hung upside down. I wonder if there was some sort of message behind the piece or just left open for interpretation. One of my favorite rooms housed retro lamps made out of plastic. When we first entered the room the lamps were dimmed to create a certain environment. Half way round the room the lamps were light which created a whole new experience. The lamps were interesting when you first look at them. When they were lite, the appreciation of the lamps created something completely different. They created a different mood and lighting of the room. This is true design.

The Lamborghini models on the track 

   For lunch, we decided to have lunch in the very posh restaurant housed within the museum. I decided to have gnocci with lemon sauce. The restaurant had these cute little stools that you may only find in a high class  Asian restaurant. Piercing white walls decorated with white cutlery and dishes greeted us while we ate.
     After lunch we headed back to the hotel for a change because we were visiting the industrial design section of the Scuola Politecnica di Design http://www.scuoladesign.com/gallery/industrial-design-master/2010/?lang=it. The design school has designed for Lamborghini. The design school is located in one of the most up coming

neighborhoods of Milan. The walls of the design school are painted white so that the projects can stand out. The students have recently developed a project for 3M recycling their cleaning products to create new uses for the recycled remains. They have also developed a plastic couch out of old plastic. At first glance, it did not look like a couch. However, with a flick of a switch an outline of a Victorian couch appeared on the plastic. They showed us a design for a hotel that appears to be a tree overtaking the surrounding buildings. The idea of this project is to overtake run down buildings and re-develop these buildings into new and exciting sites. This way the buildings will not be torn down. The director of the school showed us his award that looked like a protractor. He had to cut his visit with us short. He had his assistant show us around the complex. We were taken to the rooftop terrace to have an espresso. He then pointed out buildings on the campus. One building housed Radio 101 Italy, another was where the most prominent design magazines in Italy and Europe was printed, another building was where the furniture designs were displayed. This area is so intriguing. I love the idea of design that these students are having the chance to tackle while they are pursuing their education at this school. They are involved in many of the most interesting and refreshing ideas. The threatening nature of these new designs to the solid boundaries of what we are comfortable with is what is so intriguing. These new projects create an unfamiliar environment that force our interactions with the project to be more complex.

Milan Trolley cars

    So we headed back to the hotel to have a period to ourselves before dinner. I headed downstairs to use the hotel wifi. I loaded a few picture online and reflected on the day. We leave tomorrow for Castel Gandolfo. I am happy to be returning home to a place that I loved so much but I am sad to leave Milan. I feel that this is the first time that I have been able to experience the region that my grandfather was from. I have this odd feeling that I am being torn away from him. I have never even met him. I bet he would have been a wonderful grandfather. If I am having this bold of emotion over a man I have never met, that backs up my claim.

Bri and I in the club

        For dinner, we settled on a restaurant around the corner of the hotel. The hotel recommended it. I ended up having Spaghetti al'vongule. Jenn and Sara decided to split a plate of octopus before they ordered their pizza. Jenn was funny about her octopus. She said it was too squishy but ate it anyways. By the time Jenn and Sara's pizza came, they were full. Dr. Fountain started telling stories of yester year and how he made his millions in finance. Behind us was this table of happy drunk Germans. We thought that we were loud in the restaurant. They were so much more. The "son" was rather on the drunk side and knocked over their bottle of wine. They laughed it off and continued on with their merriment. The waiter came back and asked us all if we would like a digestivo. I was all over that. One limoncello for me per favore. The girls were not taken by the limoncello and gave me theirs. After dinner we headed to the club/bar that we had a late dinner at. I love this little side street because people gather in the street with their glasses of wine and have the chat outside as well as inside. There is no dancing but the music still plays. The dance is through conversation. This is the root of Italian conversation. The entertainment came when someone got very heated and did the backward hand waving gesture that all Italians are all too familiar with. Capiroskas were ordered in the round and an exercise routine of conversation was laid out by Dr. Fountain. We then developed the conversation into memories. When we decided to go back to the hotel for the night a bill of 34 euros each came to our table. Hmmm, the conversation must have been too deep. But, I would pay it anytime to share memories with the people in my group. On the way back to the hotel, some lovely Italian men stopped me, Bri, Mer and Jenn. They started to speak Italian. I stopped to talk. They didn't want me but my blonde friend. What is with Italian men and American blondes? I asked them why not me? I am Italian? They said they see women like me everyday. Blondes are exotic. Blah!!!