An upside-down reality, where objects float above clouds and streets hang in the air, comes across at the first major retrospective of the late Neapolitan architect, designer and artist, Riccardo Dalisi (1931-2022). Hosted at the MAXXI in Rome, the exhibition titled Riccardo Dalisi Radicalmente “tells the fairy tale of Dalisi in all its complexity”, as per curator Gabriele Neri. From an army of animated coffee makers, glimpses of Dalisi's creative workshops with children of Naples in the ‘70, to drawings his contemporaries made that were inspired by a chair a young girl made under his supervision, the showcase invites a closer gaze into his multi-dimensional practice. A utopian city-like setup for the exhibition to present the diverse works is conceived by Italian architect Fabio Novembre. Hanging white sheets nod to Neapolitan alleys; the crisp silhouettes reveal cut-out geometries that mimic ‘fantastic architecture and poetic orographies.’ “We must think of Riccardo inserted into his natural context: Naples. […] His objects can only be suspended on the clouds. Thus, the floor becomes the sky, the clouds become supports for his wonderful objects, and this utopian ideal city hanging from above,” Novembre says in an exhibition video released by MAXXI.

Born on May 01, 1931, in Potenza, Italy, Dalisi was one of the most multifaceted designers of recent decades. A two-time Compasso D’Oro winner, his revolutionary yet often hard-to-classify practice straddled architecture, furniture design, objects, books, sculptures, paintings, photographs and films. A contrarian designer and architect, a doting educator, and a rebel artist, Dalisi believed in the power of spontaneity, and in protecting that gush of energy one feels at the beginning of every project. While the breadth of his works is quite expansive, he is particularly remembered for his creative workshops with the underprivileged children of Naples and his whimsical interpretation of the Neapolitan coffee maker. Photographs from his social contribution to Rione Traiano (one of the poorest and most violent underclass neighbourhoods in Naples), documented by Italian photographer Mimmo Jodice, are displayed at the exhibition. “It was a problematic district, in which he brought the idea of participatory design, the idea of the project as inclusion, as a tool for social emancipation,” says Neri. Dalisi took workshops to encourage children to design furniture and everyday objects using easily available materials like metal wires, string, and wood. One of the key works emerging from these workshops was a chair, designed by a little girl named Rosa, that had a chickpea on the top. The work became a starting point for a riveting collective exploration that is on view at the museum. “At the Venice Biennale in 1978, Dalisi met a lot of colleagues, the radical architects of those years, and also artists and designers. He showed them this chair, asking for a dedicated drawing inspired by it. Thus, he assembled a very rare collection that is shown here for the first time, with drawings not only by Aldo Rossi but also by artists like Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol, who spent a lot of time in Naples between the ‘70s and ‘80s,” shares Neri.

A dedicated design section for the exhibition includes Dalisi’s eccentric exploration of the native Neapolitan coffee pot. The product – that became for Dalisi not only a functional object for making coffee but also an anthropological ritual - paved the way for the creation of over a thousand animated coffee makers, many of which have come out of the Dalisi archives for public viewing. The army of coffee makers, as per Neri, alludes to marionettes or “Totocchi” (a fusion of Toto and Pinocchio), or like soccer players, saints, or a nativity scene.”

Lorenza Baroncelli, Director, MAXXI Architecture deems it a duty of an institution like MAXXI to give the right recognition to people like Dalisi. The retrospective, she adds, also ushers “a new line of research that looks towards the South, that looks towards the Mediterranean with a different perspective”.

The ‘Dalisi method’ also comes across in the form of sculptures, lamps, and tin objects that exemplify the idea of ‘ultra-poor design’ where poor techniques and recycled materials take centre stage. Glimpses of his built architecture which includes works like the Borsa Merci in Naples (1964, created with Michele Capobianco and Massimo Pica Ciamarra), or the restoration interventions in the Irpinia villages struck by the 1980 earthquake to ironic yet provocative vignettes of his unbuilt designs craft a ‘surreal, poetic, and critical world’ at the MAXXI museum. The fascinating unpacking of popular culture and tradition in the form of large-format paintings and sculptures is also part of the showcase.

“His work hovers between utopia and reality and transforms what we thought were marginal themes and territories into pivotal points of discussion and engagement, especially in times of crisis that force us to rethink our relationship with the project and the world,” concludes Neri.

'Riccardo Dalisi Radicalmente' is on view at the MAXXI till March 03, 2024.