Entrez Lentement: the collateral exhibition of i Saloni 2005
Milan

The exhibition takes an intimate look at eight icons of twentieth century domestic architecture as seen through the eyes of eight internationally renowned contemporary architects.

Each contributing architect was asked to make a homage installation to one of the eight houses. Tony Fretton Architects were invited to respond to the Smithson’s ‘Lawn Pavilion’, the family weekend retreat in Fonthill, built 1958-52.

The objective of our installation was to celebrate a trajectory particular to the Smithsons, whereby the things that they owned and the way they lived their lives became an integral part of the creative process of their architecture. This was never more apparent than in the Upper Lawn, a holiday home in the country where they and their children lived primitively according to a sophisticated sensibility.
The design we have made for the exhibition is a display of objects from everyday life laid out in front of original photographs of the house when the family occupied it in the 60s. They are not real objects but photographs, and not the possessions of the Smithsons but of someone else from the present time, who selected them with a similar care and passion. This, I think, shows the nature of things made by creative people for the public world. They begin as intimate personal creations and end as anonymous objects open to interpretation and possessed by everyone.


Venue: Spazio Stendhal, Via Enrico Stendhal 36, Milan
Curator: Pierluigi Nicolin
Organiser: Lotus Eventi and Cosmit
Dates: 19 April – 7 May 2005
Photographs: Luciano Pascali and Nina Lundvall