Here are a few photos of the inaugural exhibition at the new Triennale Design Museum in Milan - the first design museum in Italy, which opened last month.

The show, called The Obsessions of Italian Design, is created by film maker Peter Greenaway and architect Italo Rota.

Photos are by Fabrizio Marchese.

Below is info about the show and the new museum:

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FIRST MUSEUM DEVOTED TO DESIGN IN ITALY TO OPEN INSIDE THE RENOWNED TRIENNALE DI MILANO

“The Obsessions of Italian Design” created by British Filmmaker Peter Greenaway and Italian Architect Italo Rota to Include Films by Greenaway and 6 Prominent Italian Filmmakers

Milan, Italy December 2007 – The Triennale Design Museum, the first museum dedicated to design in Italy, will open inside La Triennale di Milano in the Parco Sempione in Milan on December 6, 2007. The new Museum establishes a permanent exhibition space for design in the heart of a city synonymous with design, in an area of the country marked by a rich design heritage. The Museum will open with “The Obsessions of Italian Design”—100 Italian design objects set against films by British artist and filmmaker Peter Greenaway and 6 Italian filmmakers—conceived and designed by Greenaway and Italian architect Italo Rota.

The Foundation of the Museum

The Museum is the fruit of a framework agreement requested by Triennale di Milano and promoted by the Ministry of the Cultural Heritage, the Region of Lombardy, the Province of Milan, the Municipality of Milan and the Chamber of Commerce of Milan, joined by Assolombarda, Fondazione Fiera Milano, Politecnico di Milano, Fondazione ADI, Università IULM, Anfia, and COSMIT. The Triennale Design Museum has been sponsored by Arcus and Fondazione Cariplo.

The Museum Design

The architectural design for the restoration of the building and the conversion of the Museum is by Michele De Lucchi. Work for the Design Museum began in 2004 with the building of the Design Library, the Historical Archives and the Documentation Centre and continued with the construction of the new Museum and restoration of the existing museum site through December 2007.

The innovative architectural feature of the Triennale Design Museum is the creation of its own entrance, via a bridge over the grand staircase, so that the Museum exists both inside the Triennale and as an independent body, visible as such.

The Museum includes a conference hall capable of offering a wider range of meetings, presentations and events open to all the leading figures of Italian design, where different aspects of design will be discussed.

The Curatorial Vision

The Museum will be directed by Silvana Annicchiarico, who has been the been the Curator of the Permanent Collection of Italian Design of La Triennale di Milano for nine years, and has been in charge of the Design Department at La Triennale for the last six years.

The scientific director of the Design Museum is Andrea Branzi.

The Museum of La Triennale aims at being deeply innovative. Usually one goes to a museum just once or twice. The purpose, the challenge presented by La Triennale is to have visitors come back twice a year. Hence the idea of a Museum that should not be crystallised or static, but a dynamic Museum, able to renew itself and offer itself with renewed visions time and again. A scientific as well as emotional Museum, that should offer visitors an intriguing experience such as to make them want to repeat it again.

On one side, it develops through a wide scientific research that tells and portrays the history of Italian design from different perspectives, through different stories, interpretations, approaches, and which tackles, in its first year, the subject of “What is Italian design?”. The next steps will be a new subject, “The relation between Art and Design”, a new scientific system and a new layout for the 2009 Furniture Show and, from then on, every year.

On the other side, the Museum will host an area in which some aspects of the subject will be explored through different curators. The planned focuses are: from 6 December 2007 L’Editoria del design; La legione straniera; I Materiali autarchici; Le gallerie d’arte e di design.

Italo Rota and Peter Greenaway have been called to give their view of the first subject, an emotional take on Italian design. “The Obsessions of Italian Design” includes films by Greenaway, Italian directors Antonio Capuano, Pappi Corsicato, Davide Ferrario, Daniele Luchetti, Mario Martone, and renowned filmmaker Ermanno Olmi.

The Design Museum at the Center of Italian Design Culture

The Triennale Design Museum is at the centre of the network of the ‘veins’ of design in which Italy, especially the area of Lombardy, is rich; and it is a truly widespread beauty, which however is often unknown as it happens to private museums or public and private collections. Therefore the Museum is also an opportunity to form a network of such vast heritage and make it visible in its contents.

The Museum Catalogue

L’Europeo, the renowned Italian historical magazine in production since the 1930s, will produce the catalogue, a special monographic issue developed with La Triennale di Milano to celebrate the birth of Triennale Design Museum. The process of development of Italian design will be told by the big names of L’Europeo, historians and designers, from the perspective of the twentieth-century history of Italy.

Triennale Design Museum

Silvana Annicchiarico, Director
Michele De Lucchi, Designer of the Restoration of Palazzo della Triennale
Andrea Branzi, Scientific Director
Peter Greenaway and Italo Rota, Exhibition Design

Official opening, December 6, 2007
Triennale di Milano
Admission ticket: museum + catalogue, 11 euros

The new logo of Triennale Design Museum has been designed by Pierluigi Cerri.

The involvement of artistic personalities in the fitting out of the Museum was made possible by MINI. This cooperation will continue for the next two years.

The technical sponsors of Triennale Design Museum are:
ArchLegno, Basf, bticino, iGuzzini, Orsogril, Viabizzuno.