• Church of the Civic Library Agora
Saturday 16th November, 17.30-19.00
The Chair of the Chickpea.
Riccardo Dalisi and the roots of design
Presentation of the book with the curator Gabriele Neri, in conversation with Sara Catenacci
The Chair of the Chickpea is a tiny model made of wood and half a clothespin, on which rests a cece. Riccardo Dalisi told how it was created by a little girl during one of the many workshops that, in the seventies, the architect animated in the suburbs of Naples. Dalisi had taken the Chair and the fairy tale of his creation and asked well-known designers and artists – including Andy Warhol, Alessandro Mendini, Ettore Sottsass jr. , Enzo Mari – to respond to this spontaneous example of design. The fairy tale of the Neapolitan architect, the drawings of those who accepted his provocation and new reflections have been collected by Gabriele Neri in the book La sedia del cece (The Chair of the Chickpea, Corraini, 2023), published on the occasion of the retrospective dedicated to the architect by the MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Arts. This meeting offers the opportunity to deepen the fable of the Chair of the Chickpea and the participatory practice of Riccardo Dalisi, protagonist of the season of “radical architecture”, and update its themes. As the possibility of talking to each other craft traditions and design innovation, South and North of the world, children and professionals, social reality and imagination.
Gabriele Neri
Gabriele Neri, architect and curator, teaches at the Politecnico di Torino. He was a Weinberg Fellow of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America in New York and a Mâitre d’enseignement et de recherche at the Accademia di architettura in Mendrisio. He has published monographs and curated exhibitions on Pier Luigi Nervi, Louis Kahn, Umberto Riva, Vico Magistretti, Pietro Lingeri and Riccardo Dalisi. Since 2012 he writes about architecture for “Il Sole 24 ore”.
Sara Catenacci
Sara Catenacci, art historian and museum professional, is a researcher at the IMT Scuola Alti Studi Lucca. He has published articles and articles on the history of exhibitions in the 20th century, on examples of socially engaged art and on the border with architecture and design. He has held research and curatorship roles at the Istanbul Biennale, Rivoli Castle and MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in Rome.
Courtesy for all the images: Archivio Riccardo Dalisi, MiC – Direzione Generale Archivi, Soprintendenza archivistica e bibliografica della Campania
