FRANCO RAGGI

 Franco Raggi is one of the leadingexponents of the Italian radical movement. He was born in Milan in 1945 and graduated in architecture from the Polytechnic in 1969. In 1971 he collaborated in the Nizzoli Associati studio and since 1972 he has been editor of the magazine Casabella directed by Alessandro Mendini. Since 1972 he has participated in the activities of the avant-garde of Radical Design on which in 1973 he ordered the first historical-critical exhibition for the IDZ (Internationale Design Zentrum) in Berlin. Also in 1973 he collaborated with Aldo Rossi on the organization of the International Architecture Exhibition of the 15th Milan Triennale. In 1977 he was editor-in-chief of the newly created MODO magazine which he would then direct from 1981 to 1983. From ’75 to ’76 he collaborated with the coordination of the Visual Arts-Architecture Section of the Venice Biennale directed by Vittorio Gregotti, where he ordered the “Europe-America” ​​exhibition in which he attempts a comparison between the suburban vocation of American architecture and the commitment to comparison with the historical context of the European one.In 1979/80 he was responsible for the organization of the “Design Collection” at the Milan Triennale. Again for the Milan Triennale in 1983 he designed the exhibition “The houses of the Triennale” and in 1988 for the XVIII Triennale he ordered the “Design” section of the thematic exhibition “The future of the metropolis”. From 1974 to today he carries out a personal research through articles, drawings, projects, installations, scenographies, objects, in which he seeks, between paradox and irony, formal and conceptual juxtapositions between the rhetoric of the past and the banality of the present. Since 1980 he has been working professionally in Milan in the field of architecture and industrial design, for various companies including: Fontana Arte, Cappellini International, Poltronova, Roset, Croff / Rinascente, Luceplan, Artemide, Danese and Zeus. His works are in the permanent design collection of the MoMA in New York, and in the collections of the Center Pompidou, the FRAC in Orleans, the Design Museum Foundation of the Milan Triennale and at the Savona Museum of Ceramics.In contrast to Post-Modern historicism, he proposed the Neomodern as an aptitude for the use of contemporary / banal / kitsch languages ​​and signs in design and architecture. On this theme he designed and set up the exhibition “The Banal Object” at the Venice Biennale in 1980 with Alessandro Mendini and in Rimini the exhibition “Summer architecture” in 1982.