kaufmann repetto is pleased to announce Macchine Inutili (Useless Machines) 1934-1987, a solo exhibition dedicated to Bruno Munari’s transdisciplinary and unconventional practice, with a focus on his iconic, self-propelled mobiles.

Bruno Munari (1907-1998) was a visionary pioneer who traversed freely art, design, graphic, education, always in tune with the major artistic movements of the 20th century. Since the outset he was interested in new processes of production and the exploration of innovative artistic media and languages. Stimulated by the experimentation of the avant-gardes — from Futurism to the Bauhaus and Neoplasticism — he started to challenge the static character of painting and sculpture. Since the early 1930s, he tackled the concept of abstractionism in space with his Useless Machines. Designed with minimal forms and a limited use of color, these devices employ light and shadow to produce abstract shapes on the walls of the environment. The dynamic encounter between space, movement and form is further explored in Concave-Convex, a series of topological and “planar” sculptures made from a sheet of wire mesh folded inwards at pre-established points that when suitably illuminated produce evanescent images in the space in which the viewer stands.