This week I was not feeling very well and was very upset that I missed the Umberto Boccioni exhibition at Palazzo Reale and the Museo del Novecento. I decided that since I missed these two museums, I was going to independently research them on my own. I have never taken an art history class so I was not familiar with the artists from the museum visits. I researched Umberto Boccioni and found out that he was one of the firsts artists to help shape the futurism movement in Italy. Futurism was a movement in Italy during the twentieth century that emphasized technology and industrial cities. The futurists glorified the modernization of Italy and wanted Italy to change from its ways of the past. Many futurist artists worked in many mediums such as ceramics, graphic design, urban and interior design and even fashion. After researching Umberto Boccioni I have to go to the museum independently and see his incredible work such as Forme uniche della continuita nello spazio in wax, Three women and States of Mind II; The Farewells. (update: I still have not been able to go visit the Umberto Boccioni exhibition L)
Today we got to visit the Alessi factory and I must say that I have fallen in love. While most teens were spending countless hours at the mall roaming around shopping for “trendy” clothes, I was spending my free time roaming around the home goods sections of Macy’s and Dillard’s obsessing over plate settings, dinning and entertaining sets, teapots… (I can go on forever J). Although I had heard of Alessi before, I had no idea that after my visit to the Alessi factory/”museum” I would become so obsessed with their products. I think that the reason I had such a strong connection and fell in love with Alessi products was because of our amazing tour guide that managed to bring history to life. Not only did our tour guide tell us personal stories about Giovanni Alessi and his family, she showed us many different stages of prototypes that the designers developed to reach the finished products. Our tour guide explained to us that the Alessi factory was founded in the early twentieth century as household and kitchen supply company. During the 1920’s Alessi was not known as a design company, but after a couple of decades, under Alberto Alessi the company became known as an “Italian Design factory” collaborating with outside designers. Finally, in the 1990’s to the present Alessi became a “designer houseware” expanding its market outside of Italy and working with companies such as Target and J. C. Penney. Although a lot of Alessi peaces are on the pricy side, I appreciate that they have some products that are more affordable. One thing that surprised me about Alessi as a designer brand was that by adding plastic to their collection they did not de-value the brand, they just made it available for all markets. Another thing that surprised me about Alessi was how much they are willing to give young and unknown designers a chance to develop a product for them. Our tour guide told us that sometimes Alessi company will review a design sent to them by an unknown designer and they will actually back and produce the product. Although I was in love with all of the Alessi products, my two favorites that I hope to have in my home one day would have to be the Graces Kettle with the bird accent and the Starch juicer that is seen as more of a work of art then an actual juicer.
This weekend I took my second weekend trip and I went to Edinburgh Scotland! It is starting to get a little bit hot in Milan so it was such a pleasant change to be in cold weather for a weekend. It was around forty to fifty degrees and mostly rainy this weekend. Apparently just before the weekend, Scotland had warm sunny weather for a week or so which is rare. When I first arrived in Scotland I was so excited to finally be able to communicate with people in English again, and not feel horrible about not being able to speak Italian. However, I realized that communicating with people in Scotland was just as difficult as communicating with people in Italy. Most times, I was too distracted by peoples accents, anything the Scottish people said with their accents sounded a hundred times better so I would forget to pay attention to what people were telling me, other times I genuinely could not understand what people were telling me because they spoke too fast! Anissa and I booked an Airbnb in the Old Town and decided to skip the tours and just explore Edinburgh by ourselves. We walked by the ocean, explored Old Town, people watched at the park and got to experience the Scottish nightlife (amazing J).