00:00 [ Background noise ]
00:27 >> We decided to do this exhibition because Giacolombo died very young,
00:30 in the beginning of the 1970s.
00:33 And he was a little forgotten in the 1970s and '80s, although he was one
00:40 of the most important figures in design of the '60s.
00:43 So we thought it might be good to inform about his work, about his personality,
00:49 because he was very influential and he is today still being rediscovered as a designer
00:57 that has to offer a lot of inspiration for designers today.
01:00 So that's why we wanted to show Colombo's complete work.
01:06 He was a very interesting personality.
01:09 Not only his work was important, but also his personality was part of his image,
01:17 which today we think of when we talk about Giacolombo.
01:23 He was a big person, always well-dressed, with a pipe in his mouth.
01:29 He liked fast cars, skiing.
01:32 He played jazz music.
01:34 So he was a person that you might call a dandy of design,
01:38 or somebody who had a very sophisticated lifestyle.
01:42 And I think it's important to consider this personality of Giacolombo if you want
01:47 to understand also his work as a designer.
01:50 Colombo was born in a quite wealthy Milanese family.
01:54 His family had a production site for electric cables.
02:00 So I think a certain interest in technology was already in his family.
02:06 But Colombo turned towards painting as a young man.
02:14 He was about 20, he started to study painting.
02:17 He joined a group of painters that was called Nuclear Painting.
02:24 So these young guys were painting in a way with very eruptive pictures.
02:34 Maybe you would compare it to Jackson Pollock's painting, or to other artists
02:41 of the time who painted in an abstract way.
02:43 And so did these Milanese boys.
02:46 But Colombo turned away from painting in the middle of the 1950s.
02:51 He became more interested in architecture.
02:53 He tried to establish himself as an architect.
02:56 But this did not really work out.
02:59 He didn't have the success he wished to have as an architect.
03:02 He didn't succeed to realize his designs as an architect.
03:08 And then at the end of the 1950s he also had to take care of his father's company
03:16 because his father became sick and he died some years later.
03:20 So there was an excursion in economy in Joe Colombo's career.
03:26 But in the beginning of the 1960s he discovered that he's not the right person
03:31 to run his father's electric cable business.
03:34 So he turned away from that.
03:37 He found other people who took over the company.
03:39 And then he finally decided to work as a designer.
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