Casa Baglioni, the new hotel in the Baglioni Collection set to open in Milan’s Brera district this year to a design by architects Spagnulo & Partners, offers a look behind the scenes during Milan Design Week, as it becomes the stage for an exclusive art exhibition: In-Between. Where Art meets Design.
Spagnulo & Partners have created a show to explore the subtle relationship between art and design that underpins the concept for the new Casa Baglioni. It features works by four great international artists – Agostino Bonalumi, Anne Imhof, Enrico Castellani and Giulio Paolini – from the Stefano Cecchi Trust Collection, created by entrepreneur Stefano Cecchi and curated by Iole Pellion di Persano.
The exhibition endorses the idea of a dialogue between interior design and works of art: with this event, Baglioni Hotels & Resorts and Spagnulo & Partners are championing this creative approach, as a conceptual overture to the future Casa Baglioni’s defining themes, inspired by the great artistic flowering of the 1960s Milan avant-garde.
The exhibition features four spaces on the ground floor, each with a dedicated theme.
It opens with a display of fine metal lines and neon lightsthat, like a pencil, trace out a lightweight structure that interacts with its surroundings, evoking an openness to present and future possibilities. Then three white monochrome works by Castellani and Bonalumi exemplify an avant-garde language developed from the ’60s abstract period.
The second room explores the theme of reflections and mirrored surfaces – that ambiguous dimension that muses on a work’s role, whether starring or bit-part, and that of the spectator in becoming part of it. The floor, a pool of water, accentuates that sense of disorientation and indeterminacy pondered by the two Untitled (2018, 2019) works by Anne Imhof.
The third installation plays with the permeability of the gaze, using light and surfaces to create moods and sight lines, where the work isrevealed in a syncopated rhythm. The textile walls conjure with a juxtaposition of weaves and transparencies to accompany Giulio Paolini’s Comédie Italienne (1984), a piece abounding in artistic and literary echoes with intimate links to theatrical themes.
The final room is a look to the future, a window on the passage of time through videographer Fabrizio Roscini’s eyes, contemplating the construction process as it unfolds. Federico Spagnulo, Founder and Senior Partner at Spagnulo & Partners, adds:
“A dialogue with art is a unique experience, prompting us to radically rethink how we conceive of space and design. It is a journey that endows designs with meaning, enabling them interact with the world.”
The exhibition has been created with top partners from the Made in Italy arena, with Panzeri Illuminazione, Zucchetti.Kos, Dedar and the kind cooperation of Guisa Costruzioni, Gabana Arredamenti and Chef Claudio Sadler, auteur of the Casa Baglioni cuisine.
Where: Via Dei Giardini 21, Milan
Open to the public:
7, 8, 11 June, 10 am – 4 pm 9,
10 June, 11 am – 8 pm
12 June, 10 am – 1 pm
