David Reinfurt

David Reinfurt

Mark Hampton Rome Prize
January 9–July 10, 2017
Profession
Lecturer, Department of Visual Arts, Princeton University
Project title
Design as Art, Bruno Munari, and Adriano Olivetti
Project description

I would like to imagine, write, and record a conversation between Bruno Munari and Adriano Olivetti. Munari was an artist who made a concerted, ethical shift toward design, while Olivetti was a businessman who switched his focus away from financial gain to imagine a corporation whose cultural obligations were paramount. Both upended the expectations of their respective disciplines and, in the process, expanded what was possible and necessary within them. This dialogue would form the basis of a short video with a real-time shot of Tetracono (Munari, 1964). Tetracono is a product-sized artwork made of four cones, painted half-red and half-green, and attached to four motors. Each turns at a specific speed, and the resulting image is one composite color which moves slowly from green to red on an eighteen-minute cycle. This transition would be reflected in its accompanying conversation, as Munari and Olivetti develop how art might jigsaw with industry to produce a cultural dividend.