spirituality - lesson 25: ettore sottsass

ettore sottsass ettore sottsass' career as a designer, architect, interior designer, curator and writer has spanned over 60 years and put him in the history books as one of the greatest designers in the 20th century. sottsass describes himself not as an industrial designer but as a theoretical designer. he believes that design can provide more - a discussion on life, politics, food, sex and society and a way to construct a metaphor for life. but sottsass insists that his work is about the senses, not intellectual constructs. design as a description or perception of existence is a central theme in his work. his attitude has continually been to try and find out his place in society.

ettore sottsass 'perumes, climates, colors, tastes, sounds. that was my life as a child; only sensory. I wasnt thinking - I had nothing to think. I was just feeling myself part of the universe, part of natural destiny. I kept this attitude of childhood, even now.' the memphis movement was a part of this exploration, testing the necessity of himself and of design. it was born on december 11, 1980 at sottsass's home in milan, where the designer - together with matteo thun, marco zanini, michele de lucchi and others - happened to be listening to bob dylan's stuck inside of mobile with the memphis blues again. dylan provided the name, with its hints of elvis

and pop-rock culture, but the influences on the movement were far more eclectic, drawing on indian and egyptian references, and a passion for colour and materials such as plastics and glass. the avant-garde group aimed to bring back emphasis on appearance rather than on function in a product, reminiscent to the arts and crafts movement. sottsass' approach was to find a non-rational solution to the machine-like industrial society that was prevalent at the time and a way to live in this systematic world. sottsass, born in insbruck, austria in 1917, moved to italy as a child. trained as architect, after the II world war, he travelled to america to work for george nelson (who was design director of the herman miller furniture company for nearly 25 years). america gave sottsass a fresh perspective, which he applied to his work when he returned to milan. in the 1960s he took on a dual role, heading his own studio but also working as a design consultant for the italian company olivetti. his time at olivetti allowed him to explore some of the mystery behind electronics and the reflection in their aesthetics. in 1961 sottsass travelled to india, an experience which was to have a definitive affect on his work thereafter. I like india, because there, sometimes, life is in my hands. I can see the dead being brought to the banks of the river to be burned. I also can see peasants with all their goods just exposed on the ground: mountains of red pepper, mountains of orange flowers and mountains of very long zucchini etc. I can see old men dying slowly on the steps of the temples and children sitting nearby and waiting for the sun to disappear. during this time he was struck by the ritualistic approach to everyday objects. these objects, such as bowls or cups, become sacred with layers upon layers of meanings placed upon them. laws of commodification were less important than the emotions and beauty. it became clear that the decorations place upon an object were not simply a shallow attempt at prettification but a deeper tribute to the object itself. 'in India I found very strongly a sort of dimension of sacrality. every object could become something sorelated to your life that it becomes part of your vision of la sacralit (the sacred)...' sottsass proposes that the rituals we have, such as drinking tea, could be considered as contemplative experiences and therefore that experience is part of our ancestral instincts to find GOD. the utilitarian object, whether it is a teapot or a pen, can be the facilitator of this experience and should be celebrated.

indian memory series, 1972

lapislazzuli teapot from the indian memory series, 1972

teapot, 1978

prototype brionvega TV, by ettore sottsass and matteo thun, 1979/80

tigris porcelain vase, 1983

fuphrates porcelain vase, 1983

cabinet no. 54, evolution of memphis furniture, designed for art basel miami, 2003

of his work since, ettore sottsass says personally I am less interested in rituality than awareness of daily life. there are moments in which one senses ones own existence more intensely than usual either because one finds oneself in a particular environment or because a particular cultural event is involved, or even because one meets a particular person. these are moments in which life seems compressed and time to stand still. at moments like this one is very precisely aware that one is really alive thoughts like this have pursued me since the beginning of my work, and so I have always tried to give the things I make a certain constancy, a weight of their own, their own persistence, in such a way as if one could transfer the weight the objects possess to the existence of human beings through a remarkable magic spell. (...) I try to make objects that have a certain strength of communication, objects that vibrate objects for me are both spiritual and emotional experiences to reach the mountain of illumination, you have to be willing to climb.' drawing from the new found knowledge of eastern philosophy and his own observations of life in india, sottsass began designing ceramics that provided a spiritual reference within the chaos of everyday life. his pieces such as those in the 'ceramiche delle tenebre (ceramics of darkness)' series (1963) or his 'indian memory' series (1965) asked the audience to contemplate the cultural and spiritual powers of an object. if I design ... a big vase, for example... it would be arrogant, you have to kill lots of flowers to fill it up.one flower is enough to witness the miracle and the drama of life and death. the theories of carl jung also had a significant influence on sottsass's own beliefs and in turn his output as a designer. the concept of the collective unconscious that all humans share experiences allowing them to recognise universal symbols and understand their meanings was of implicit interest to him. forms such as circles can be seen throughout his back catalogue of work, along with other shapes that can communicate of a primal level. 'for such ideas to work, however, we must be able to envisage a soceity, or groups of people, not inclined to barricade themselves within great walled fortresses; people who dont whish to hide, people who dont feel the need, or perhaps even the unavoidable necessity, to demonstrate continually their imagined status, nor to live in houses that are nothing other than cemeteries containing the tombs of their memories. for sottsass design is the creation of things for the people he knows - for a girlfriend, wife or friend. he says that he designs things for the people in his life but that most industrial designers just create things for people who buy. to design something that will sell, there needs to be the ability to seduce people, something sottsass says he doesn't have. I design because I feel the need to make a special gift to someone, hoping that the thingsproduced will make them smile. I dont want to work for industrie anymore, where I no longer find an ethical behavior, I only design for galleries. actually Im not interested in producing an object at the moment. what is function? to suggest the possibility of an ethical attitude, and to disprove the idea that

reason can solve anything, when it actually resolves nothing. who is ettore sottsass? see a short biography and our interview with ettore sottsass here more sottsass designs can be found here