For a Novel and Transversal Narration of Extemporaneous Places of Artistic and Design Thinking: The City’s Network of Crossroads Between Art and Design: The Milanese Case in the 20th Century

Abstract

Many public places in our cities, such as cafés, restaurants, dairies, theatre foyers, wine bars, brothels, bookshops, discos, art galleries, street corners and squares, have been historic and ritual points of reference for artists communities. Such environments whose particular “atmospheres” have created ideal places where these authors have met, known, admired, fought, and enjoyed themselves. Places in which they may also have shared fundamental moments as well as artistic and design intuitions. For different eras, yesterday as today, we pinpoint historical maps of the various cities with all the design studios together with the residences of the artists and architects themselves. If we draw the lines connecting these points, folding them along the different streets and squares these personalities might encountered, we then have created an intricate network of paths full of exciting twists and turns. It is easy to discover that some of these intersections correspond to public places where these personalities, more or less consciously, shared their lives, their passions and at the same time their projects and artistic researches.