Page 43 - Studio International - October 1970

Statements by
Attracts the passer-by through his order,
efficiency and pedantry; manipulates mater-
ialist hedonism
DE VECCHI : the effect is increased by the defini- Munari
tion 'electronic'. These models are no use any
more, we must construct some new ones! Introductory notes by
COLOMBO: Experience leaves us one way only:
method. Caroline Tisdall
COLOMBO: The statistic method to individual-
ize the character of the aesthetic operator of
the moment.
DE VECCHI: Let's be the first to undergo this
experiment and carry out some tests. Each of
us will choose evidence rapidly and at random
by rummaging in his own aesthetic deposit.
COLOMBO: Thus we will confront Munari has come to be regarded as one of the
DE VECCHI: re-arrange grand old masters of kinetics, the creator of
COLOMBO: measuring up the two loads some of the major stepping stones of its
simultaneously. We will give a characteristic development. In fact kinetics as such have
panorama of our repertory avoiding all self- never been his main concern, though he has
portraits often used movement to achieve the effects
DE VECCHI : anachronistic except in the case of he wanted.
De Chirico Born in 1907, his earliest work was done in
COLOMBO: avoiding our subjective vision Milan in 1930, where he started by drawing
DE VECCHI: avoiding literature on us and our animated cartoons and exhibiting futurist
work. paintings with the second-stage Futurists,
The messenger on horseback, slightly perturbed, Depero, Prampolini, Dottori, etc. All these
interrupts with a sneeze. He is already sitting on a works have gone astray. When making these
Wassily. animated films he tried, inspired as always by
MESSENGER: Then you have no respect for the experimental curiosity and laziness, to obtain
ancient laws of criticism ? ! the maximum effect with a minimum of
BOTH: Get this straight! We all stick to those effort, in this case using pliable lead wire to
laws ! get as many animated sequences out of a
COLOMBO : Those laws were created exclusively single drawing as possible, just by bending the
for the exploitation of those who don't under- wire-supported drawing. Only recently did he
stand them, or of those who are prevented realize that it was this experimentation born of
from exploiting them by brute necessity. laziness that led him in 1963 to the realization
DE VECCHI : And he who wants to get his crumb of his films with polarized light, in which
of profit has to stick closely to the laws. In effects of pure colour in movement were
effect the critic's presentation guarantees the obtained with remarkable ease (as also in
spectator an enjoyment that is really beyond `The Yellow Submarine') .
doubt, even in situations that don't hold The evolution of Munari's work from abstract
water painting to the appearance of the Useless
COLOMBO : and is for that reason the foundation Machines can be traced through the jottings of
sine qua non of an aesthetic whose foundation contemporary critics :
sine qua non is to leave no trace of itself. 1931 `Munari's paintings are abstract inter-
Final chorus. Everyone sings to an organ accom- pretations revealing plastic equilibrium.'
paniment as they leave the studio. 1931 `Munari's works quit reality to liberate
Don't vent your fury on the artist: in a short themselves in space. The material is annulled:
time and at his own hand he will become ex- only an ideal evanescent atmosphere exists,
tinct in his own ice.' in which float abstract forms, rendering pure
[Milan, June 1970.] emotions with pure elements.'

3 8
Gabriele de Vecchi Bruno Munari
4 views of Environment—Structuralisation Arythmic Proof 1952
of Virtual Parameters 1968-9
9
4 Bruno Munari
Gianni Colombo Polariscope .No. 3 1965
Pulsating Structuralisation 1959
10
5 Bruno Munari
Gianni Colombo and Vincenzo Agnetti Fountain for the Venice Biennale 1954
Vobulations and Negative Bieloquences 1970
11
6 Bruno Munari
Bruno Munari Fountain for the Milan Fair 1961
Useless Machine 1934
12
7 Bruno Munari
Bruno Munari The fountain of Five Drops Tokyo 1965
Concave-Convex 1947 Photo: Kazumi Kurikami, Tokyo