Nathalie du Pasquier, building, 1982.

The Labyrinth
"... They decided to leave a common memorial of their reigns, and for this purpose
constructed a labyrinth a little above Lake Moeris, near the place called the City of
Crocodiles. I have seen this building, and it is beyond my power to describe; it must
have cost more in labour and money than all the walls and public works of the Greeks
put together - though no one would deny that the temples at Ephesus and Samos are
remarkable buildii^gs. T h e pyramids, too, are astonishing structures, each one of them
equal to many o f t h e most ambitious works of Greece; but the labyrinth surpasses
them. It has twelve covered courts - six in a row facing north, six south - the gates of
the one range exactly fronting the gates of the other, with a continuous wall round the
outside ot the whole. Inside, the building is of two storeys and contains three thousand
rooms, of which half are underground, and the other half directly above them. I was
taken through the rooms in the upper storey, so what I shall say of them is from my
own observation, but the underground ones I can speak of only from report, because
the Egyptians in charge refused to let me see them, as they contain the tombs of the
kings who built the labyrinth, and also the tombs of the sacred crocodiles..." Nathalie du Pasquier, city, 1983.
Herodotus, Tl)e Histories

178
Nathalie du Pasquier, detail of the city, 1983. Nathalie du Pasquier, detail of the city, 1983.

180 181
 MEMPHIS AND FASHION
Memphis was started w i t h the idea o f changing the
face o f international design, and it chose the most
effective, direct, and hazardous way to do so. I t
showed that the change not only was possible, but
had already taken place, that it mvolved worldwide
aspirations and personalities and that it was a radical
one. Born i n an anomalous way, outside o f academ-
ic culture, Memphis also made its d é b u t i n a flashy
way. I t came up w i t h a large number o f products pre-
sented to the beat o f good rock music and w i t h a
way-out type o f display and allure. The idea was to
attract attention, and the response was immediate.
The opening was followed by a tidal wave o f interest
among the public and the press. The resulting gossip
and arguments, the passionate or amused support,
the harsh, drastic criticism, tlie interviews, the pub-
licity - all this very quickly made Memphis n o t only
a successful cultural movement, but a m y t h , a sort o f
liberating symbol w i t h w h i c h many people wished
to identify. To put it i n the words o f a twelve-year-
old American girl who wrote to ask f o r a piece o f fur-
niture for her bedroom, Memphis was already "like a
rock star." This overnight stardom momentarily
embittered those who, i n spite o f themselves, had
been caught up i n the whys and wherefores o f that
success. Nevertheless i t ended up representing, f o r
those same people, the response to many embarrass-
Postcard of Memphis, Tcnne.ssec, reproduced
on the back of Memphis envelopes.
185
ing doubts and questions. I t showed, i n other words,
that Memphis was "a fad," "just" a fad. W i t h a httle
bitterness, then, one could catch one's breath.
Quite differently, w i t h a mixture o f joy and anxious
astonishment, the people o n the other side o f the
m o o n caught their breath too. Memphis architects
and designers and their friends and supporters saw
the fact o f being a fad, o f m o v i n g "a la mode" and
"comme la mode," as a sign o f great vitality.
Arata Isozald pointed out: "The important thing
about Memphis is also the way i t appeared to the
world. Normally a furniture manufacturer an-
nounces a product, prints a catalogue, and so o n and
so f o r t h . Memphis appeared suddenly, as fashion
does, and i t had a veiy strong impact all over the
world... things always change rapidly anyhow. A t
the Bauhaus, the tubular chairs were designed bet-
ween 1920 and 1925, n o earher and no later. The
designers o f those chairs changed style later, but the
objects lived o n . They arc stih produced even
today."
Memphis never feared fashion, being a fashion, or
going out o f fashion. O n the contrary i t foresaw and
adjusted f r o m the outset to this f l u i d state o f varia-
bility. I quote f r o m m y introduction to the cata-
logue, the statement that perhaps caused the great-
est uproar at the time o f the presentation i n 1981:
"We are all sure that Memphis furniture w i l l soon go
out o f style."
The whole Memphis idea is oriented toward a sen-
sory concentration based o n instability, on provi-
sional representation o f provisional states and o f
events and signs that fade, blur, fog up and are con-
sumed. " I t is no coincidence," says Sottsass, "that
the people who work f o r Memphis d o n ' t pursue a
metaphysical aesthetic idea or an absolute o f any
kind, much less eternity. Today everything one does
is consumed. I t is dedicated to life, n o t to eternity."
Memphis works f o r contemporary cukure, it designs
for consumption. W h e n Memphis designers say
they design "for communication" they cast o f f the
alibis o f useful, "clean," lasting design, design that
solves f u n c t i o n a l (or social...?) problems. Their
brand o f communication consists m presenting an
object that is attractive by virtue o f its elusive, eva-
nescent, consumable, perversely "useless" and conse-
quently i n f i n i t e l y desirable qualities. Communica-
t i o n - true communication - is n o t simply the trans-
mission of i n f o r m a t i o n (which i n the case o f a "pro-
duct" is always unilateral, f r o m the product to the
consumer). C o m m u n i c a t i o n always calls f o r an
exchange o f fluids and tensions, f o r a provocation,
and a challenge. Memphis does n o t claim to know
what people "need," but i t runs the risk o f guessing
what people "want." W i t h the same words Ruthie
(in the song, "Stuck Inside o f Mobile w i t h the M e m -
phis Blues Again," which gave Memphis its name)
answers Bob Dylan, who discourages her advances
under the Panama m o o n , protesting his fidelity to a
debutante. Ruthie says: " O h b u t y o u r debutante just
knows what you need, but I k n o w what y o u want."
The two things o f t e n don't coincide at all.
Memphis doesn't give away or solve anything.
Memphis, as I said before, seduces. I t seduces by vir-
tue of its enigmatic and contradictory qualities. I t
seduces because the void of values that i t has created
by refusing to solve problems, to be logical, defini-
tive, positive, stable, or lasting represents a chal-
lenge to common sense-good taste-respectability. I t
seduces because it is impassive in happily declaring
that it is meant to be consumed.
Naturally there's a trick, and the trick is part o f the
chahenge. Memphis has unabashedly, almost ob-
scenely stripped-off the aura o f usefulness and the-
more arcane aura o f art (which many o f its enemies
shrewdly continued to attribute to it). I t has gam-
bled all its charm o n this emptying o f meaning, and
w i t h this turn o f the screw has w o n the "fatal" pow-
ers o f the absolute object, o f w h i c h Baudrillard
speaks: " A n absolute object is an object whose value
is n u l l and whose quality is indifferent but which
escapes objective alienation because it becomes
more an object than the object, and this gives it a
fatal quality."'
The fatal quality mentioned by Baudrillard is the
quahty an object acquires w h e n it becomes a fetish,
and i t ceases to show its use-value, when it relin-
quishes the "risible claim of assigning to every event
a cause and a cause to every event," and declares that
only "effects" are absolutely necessaiy.
This is also the secret quality o f fashion. A quality
transgressive o f all value judgements and codes, f o r
it is tied to the arbitrary charm o f the ephemeral. A
quality that eludes, because it is ephemeral, the solid-
ity and viscosity o f feeling and o f history, that is, it
eludes duration (eternity) and pledges itself to
extinction (to life).
Memphis objects, like fashion, are purely tautologi-
cal, they are "immoral."
As I attended Memphis openings i n L o n d o n , Los
Angeles, M i l a n , Tokyo, San Francisco, and New
York, I o f t e n wondered about the strange power o f
these objects - a power extending over an extremely
heterogeneous pubhc, a power capable o f trans-
f o r m i n g a furniture show i n t o an ecstatic event, a
momentary collective trance, a sort o f esoteric i n i -
tiation that marks the passage i n t o a special cultural
caste.
Memphis, I told myself, is n o t just a cultural event,
it is an erotic event, an erotic-consumer rite that
absorbs anxieties and recycles energies; i t is a lubri-
cating essence, a fine tuning o f metabolism, a focus-
ing o f perspectives. A t least this is the k i n d o f effect
it has - even o n nonspecialists, even o n the skeptics
who reject i t but feel i t , and above all o n young
people.
Memphis, like the f r u i t o f the tree o f knowledge,
contains a promise and a challenge inextricably
bound up w i t h , and metamorphosed into one an-
other. The trick I mentioned earher is that Memphis
objects, by emptying themselves o f meaning and
charging themselves w i t h enigma, go back to being
ritual objects, propitiatory diagrams, ceremonial
formulas. They offer life, n o t an explanation but a
sense, arbitrary as i t may be; the sense o f life i n self-
contemplation.
Memphis, like fashion, works on the fabric o f con-
temporaneity, and contemporaneity means comput-
ers, electronics, videogames, science-fiction comics.
Blade Runner, Space Shuttle,. biogenetics, laser
bombs, a new awareness o f the body, exotic diets
and banquets, mass exercise and tourism. M o b i l i t y
is perhaps the most macroscopic novelty o f this cul-
ture. N o t only physical m o b i l i t y but also and above
ah m o b i l i t y o f hierarchies and values; and m o b i h t y
o f interpretations which has liquefied the contours
and solidity o f things, shrinking the long, lazy waves
o f our "Weltanshauung" to increasingly high fre-
quencies u n t i l they burst and evaporate i n a dust o f
hypotheses, i n a w h i r l o f events. W h a t matters to us
IS not their substance but their appearance, their vir-
tual image. I t is the world o f T V screens, the w o r l d o f
shadow, where, as i n Zen stories, it Is never clear
whether y o u dream y o u are a butterfly or the but-
terfly dreams it is y o u .
Memphis has plunged i n t o the f l o w o f this m o b i h t y
and acts as a reflector, as a radar, as a talisman capa-
ble o f harmonizing w i t h the subtle ripples o f this
perennial, accelerated metamorphosis. A t least i t
tries to.
A t Memphis they say that even a design must "hap-
pen" i n real time. I t must move, m other words, i n
the f l u i d logic of variability and produce objects des-
tined f o r total and immediate consumption, objects
as intense as apparitions, as magic as curses, concen-
trates o f existential lust. Objects whose charisma,
whose "secret name," should be outlined by the con-
centration, compactness and speed o f the energies
they are able to contain and unleash rather than
diluted i n the boredom o f an aphonic, and equally
arbitrary design, o f stability, so idity, and duration.
Memphis quality is o f no interest, nor can i t be
known how long i t w i l l "last." One m i g h t say that
it is a quality concerned w i t h the exact opposite
o f "duration," w i t h self-destruction, annihilation.
disappearance, which is also the magic f o r m u l a o f
our destiny, o f life w h i c h i n order to glitter must
fade and liberate, as radioactive fall out, the shivers
and omens of the end.
(1) Jean Baudrihard, Strategies Fatales (pub. by Bernard Grasset):
"This doubly revolutionary movement (doubly revolutionary
because it responds to alienation on its own terms, following the
inexorable paths of indifference) are prefigured In Baudelaire's
idea of absolute commodity... If the 'commodity' form destroys
the former ideal aura of the object (its beauty, its authenticity,
and even its functionality), then one must not attempt to revive
it by denying the formal essence of commodities. On the con-
trary - and herein lies all the strategy of modernity that repre-
sents for Baudelaire the perverse and adventurous seduction of
the modern world - one must push this division of value to its
absolute limit. There must be no dialectic between the two parts:
the synthesis is a weak solution, and the dialectic is a nostalgic
one. The only radical and modern solution is to strengthen what
is new, original, and unexpected, what is really special in the con-
cept of commodity, namely, the formal indifference to utility
and value, the preeminence given to circuiation without reserve.
Hence works of art must take on all the characteristic of shocic,
strangeness and surprise; of uneasiness, liquidity, self-destruc-
tion, instantaneity, and unreality that belong to commodities.
They must empliasizc the inhumanity of exchange value in a
kind of ecstatic enjoyment and irony of the indifferent ways of
alienation. Hence in the fabulous-ironic (and not dialectic) logic
of Baudelaire, works of art are totally identified with fashion,
advertising, and 'tht fabulous character of the code.' They are re-
splendent with venafity, mobihty, irreferential effects, rislïs, and
vertigo-pure objects of a wonderful comrautability, because
once the causes disappear, all effects are virtually equivalent.
They can also be null, we know well, but it is up to the work of art
to make a fetish of this nullity, this disappearance, and to obtain
extraordinary effects from it... Vulgar commodities generate
only the universe of production - and God knows if this universe
is melancholy. Raised to the power of absolute commodities,
they produce effects of seduction."

^ &4 ^

^ 1

Michele De Lucchi, drawings for "Hypotheses MicheIc De Lucchi, drawings for "Hypotheses
for an office space," Olivetti-Synthesis exhibidon for an office space," Olivetti-Synthesis exhibition
at the Triënnale di Milano, 1983. at the Triënnale di Milano, 1983.

186 187

A. É
Matteo Thun, building, 1983.

191
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Michele De Lucchi, slcyscraper, 1983. Michele Dc Lucchi, slcyscraper, 1983.

196 197
Ettore Sottsass, design for a sl<yseraper in Dallas, 1983.

201
 Memphis turned tliis situation upside down. I t took
plastic lammates and put them i n t o the l i v i n g r o o m ;
it studied and explored their potential; i t decorated
them and glued them on tables, consoles, chairs,
sofas, and couches, playing o n their harsh, noncul-
tural qualities, their acid-black corners, their ultima-
tely artificial look, and the dull uniformity o f their sur-
face, which is void o f texture, void o f depth, void o f
warmth. A n d yet, as Emiho Ambasz has pointed out,
these laminates are "forever young, eternally vibrant."
The greatest novelty o f Mempliis's plastic laminates
is their decoration and the most Important feature
o f this decoration is its anonymity, its absence o f
signs, o f quotations or metaphors associated w i t h
codified culture. The iconographic package o f
Memphis decorations comes, like the laminates,
f r o m unorganized cultural areas such as suburbs or
growing cultures. The patterns are graphic formula-
tions of brutally decorative geometric motifs, which
in some instances, like Michele De Lucchi's " M i c i -
dial" and "Fantastic" patterns, even have names that
recah the emphatic and paradoxical atmospliere o f
certain comic strips. Others evoke stereotypes o f
false Venetian blinds, false meshes, false serpents,
even false masterpieces o f painting. Or, as i n Ettore
Sottsass's now familiar "Bacterio" and "Spugnato"
patterns, the laminates evoke neutral and anesthe-
tizing organic forms. Patterned plastic laminates
have been so important In the d e f i n i t i o n o f New
Design that their b i r t h coincides w i t h the research
i n t o new types o f furniture undertaken by Sottsass
f o l l o w i n g the 1977 agreement w i t h C r o f f Casa. The
first drawings f o r the "Bacterio" and "Spugnato"
laminates date f r o m this period and were ater pro-
Michele De Lucchi, "Phoenix" bookcase, Memphis 1983.
HPL Print laminate, metal and glass.
36
duced by Abet Print and used f o r the first time on
the experimental furniture made f o r Abet Print and
shown at Studio Alchymia m 1979.
I t seems that the idea o f patterned plastic laminate
furniture came to Sottsass as he was drinking coffee
at ten o'clock one m o r n i n g at the pink-and-blue
veined counter o f a quasi-suburban m i l k bar near his
house - a place frequented at that time o f the m o r n -
ing by post-office employees and old ladies looking
for cats to feed. Equally fortuitous and slightly
decadent in a Klimt-like way, was the inspiration
that struck Michele De Lucchi f o r his first pieces i n
Memphis laminate: he was watching teen-aged
punks w i t h talc-white faces painted i n bright colors
on New Year's Eve 1980-81 i n Trafalgar Square.
B o t h were instances o f lightning inspiration, explo-
sions o f awareness only possible i n brain cells
already prepared f o r a certain chemical reaction,
already hyped f o r a solution that had been a long
time coming. A n d b o t h were cases o f socio-linguis-
tic inspiration, o f messages more anthropological
than decorative. This is probably w h y Memphis
decorations had such a forceful and immediate
impact i n so many different fields. Soon after their
d é b u t i n furniture design, they appeared o n T-shirts
and sweaters, as a graphic support in magazines, and
even printed on a famous new-wave brand o f shoes.
Given the demand. Abet Print has put three designs
in its general catalogue and is preparing a separate
Memphis catalogue w i t h patterns by Sottsass, De
Lucchi, and other designers chosen by Memphis i n a
workshop o n decoration set up by Sottsass at the
Kunstgewerbeschule i n Vienna.
Ettore Sottsass, "Casablanca," Memphis 1981.
HPL Print laminate.
The Past Is a Luxury
"The housemaid turns o n the lamps: it's o n l y 2 p . m . b u t the sky is c o m p l e t e l y black... people are at
h o m e , no d o u b t they too have t u r n e d o n the lights. T h e y read, they watch the sky f r o m the
w i n d o w . For t h e m things are d i f f e r e n t . T h e y have aged d i f f e r e n t l y . T h e y live among bequests and
gifts and their every piece o f f u r n i t u r e is a m e m o r y . They have closets f u l l o f bottles, fabrics, o l d
clothes, newspapers; they have kept everything. T h e past is a l u x u r y reserved f o r the r i c h . . . "
Jean-Paul Sartre, La Ncmsée
37
39
Michael Graves, studies of ashtrays, 1982.

51
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Michael Graves, studies of pepper shakers, glasses,

clocks, and ashtrays, 1982. Michael Graves, studies o f a lamp and table, 1982.

52 53
 Karl Lagcrfcld apartment, Montecarlo. Karl Lagerfeld apartment, Montecarlo. Bed by Michele De Lucchi. Bedspread by Nathalie du
In the foreground, Sottsass's "Beverly." On the left, Pasquier. On the right, "Kristall" table by De Lucchi and "Cavalieri" lamp by Sottsass. On the left,
Zanini's "Dublin" sofa, Memphis 1981. " f l i l t o n " serving cart by Mariscal and "Tahiti" lamp by Sottsass, Memphis 1981.

The House of the Citizen

"A man who is educated and who possesses a fortune should become the head o f a
household and live the life of a useful citizen. He should choose to live in a town or a large
village, or in an honest neighbourhood, or in some crowded locality. His house should be
situated near running water and should be divided into diverse sections for different uses.
The dweUing should be surrounded by a garden and should contain two apartments, an
exterior and an interior one. T h e inner apartment should be reseiwed for the women of the
house. T h e exterior one should be richly perfumed and should contain a huge soft bed
covered with a spotless white sheet, slightly raised towards the centre and surrounded by
garlands and bowls of flowers. T h e bed should be covered by a canopy overhead, and there
should be two pillows, one for the head and one for the foot. T h e room should also contain
a sofa, and above this there should be a small shelf to hold the perfumed ointments for the
night, flowers, pots of coUyre and other perfumes used to freshen the breath, as well as
several lemon peels. O n the floor near the sofa there should always be a brass spittoon, a
jewel box, a lute hung on an elephant tusk, a drawing table, perfumes, some books and
garlands of yellow amaranth. The room should also contain a round seat, a box of games and
a dice table. I n the outer apartment there should be a cage for birds, and a separate little
room should be kept for sculpturing and fashioning wood and other such diversions. In the
garden there shou d be a revolving swing as well as an ordinary one, also a summer house
and benches to sit on. I n the morning, the head of the house, after he has done his
indispensable duties, must wash his teeth, apply moderate quantities of perfumes and oils to
his body, put mascara on his lids and eyes, and colour his Hps with alacktaka, and then study
the whole effect carefully in the mirror. T h e n , having chewed some 'pan' and other such
things that freshen the breath and sweeten the taste in the mouth, he should go about his
daily duties. H e should take a bath every day. Every second day he should anoint his body
with oil; every third day he should rub a foamy substance on his body; every fourth day he Karl Lagerfeld in his Montecarlo apartment. "Pierre" table by Sowden, "Riviera" chairs by
should shave his face and head, and every fifth or tenth day the other parts of his body." De Lucchi, "Treetops" lamp and "Suvretta" bookcase by Sottsass, Memphis 1981.
Ceramics by Matteo Thun.
Vatsyayana, Kamasutra

72 73
I
Michele De Lucchi, "Atlantic" dresser, Memphis 1981.
HPL Print laminate, metal and glass.

The Radiator Room

"... I remember, for example, two small, black, cast-iron radiators, which stand
in two corresponding corners of a small room. The symmetry alone of the two
black objects in the light room gives a feeling of well-being! T h e radiators are
so flawless in their proportions and in their precise, smooth, slender form,
that it was not noticeable when Gretl used them after the cold season as a
base for one of her beautiful art objects. O n e day when I was admiring these
radiators, Ludwig told me their story and of his own difficulties, and how
painfully long it had taken until the precision which constitutes their beauty
had been reached. Each of these corner radiators consists of two parts, which
stand precisely at right angles to each other, and, between them, calculated
down to the millimeter, a small space has been left; they rest on legs upon
which they had to fit exactly. At first, models were cast, but it soon turned out
that the kind of thing Ludwig had in mind could not be cast in Austria.
Consequently, ready-made castings for individual parts were imported from
abroad, although at first it seemed impossible to achieve with these the kind
of precision which Ludwig demanded. Entire sets of pipe sections had to be
rejected as unusable, others had to be exactly ground to within half a
millimeter. The placing of the smooth plugs, too, which were produced in
accordance with Ludwig's drawings by a quite different process from the
conventional products, caused great difficulties. Under Ludwig's direction,
experiments often went on into the night until everything was exactly as it
should be. As a matter of fact, a whole year passed between the drafting of the
seemingly so simple radiators and their delivery. A n d yet, I consider the time
well spent when I think ot the perfect form which arose from it,"
Hermine Wittgenstein, Family Recollections

75
MicheIc De Lucchi, "Riviera" chairs, Memphis 198L
Metal, HPL Print laminate and chintz.

Ettore Sottsass, "Mandarin" table, Memphis 1981.

HPL Print laminate, lacquered wood, metal and plate glass.

However Much Taste May Change

"T was just thinking,' said Lord Merlin, 'that, however much taste may change, it
always follows a stereotyped plan. Frenchmen used to keep their mistresses in
appartements, each exactly like the other, in which the dominant note, you might
say, was lace and velvet. T h e walls, the bed, the dressing-table, the very bath itself
were hung with lace, and everything else was velvet. Nowadays for lace you
substitute glass, and everything else is satin. I bet you've got a glass bed, Linda?'
'Yes - but...'
'And a glass dressing-table, and bathroom, and I wouldn't be surprised i f your bath were made of glass,
with goldfish swimming about in the sides of it. Goldfish arc a prevailing motif all down the ages.'
George J. Sowden, "Oberoi" armchairs, Memphis 1981. 'You've looked' said Linda sulkily, 'very clever.'
Cotton print produced by Rainbow. Fabric design
' O h , what heaven' said Davey, 'So it's true!'..."
by Nathalie du Pasquier.
Nancy M i t f o r d , 77?f Purmit of Love

76 11
 Andrea Branzi, "Coppia Metropolitana," 1978.
Hand-embroidered tapestry.

The Tranquil Room

"There were two doors, an outer and an inner,
with clothes-hooks in the space between.
Joachim had turned on the ceiling light, and
in its vibrating brilliance the room looked
restful and serene, with practical white
furniture, white washab e walls, clean
linoleum, and white linen curtains gaily
embroidered in modern taste. T h e door stood
open; one saw the lights of the alley and
heard distant dance-music. T h e good Joachim /
had put a vase of flowers on the chest of
drawers - a few bluebells and some yarrow,
which he had found himself among the Andrea Branzi, "Libera" bookcase, Alchymia
1980. Lacquered wood, HPL Reli-tech Print
second crop of grass on the slopes."
laminate and plate glass.
Thomas M a n n , TJje Magic Mountain

16 17
 Ettore Sottsass, "Le Strutture Tremano,"
Ettore Sottsass, design for "Vetrinetta Alchymia 1979. HPL Print laminate, metal
di Famiglia," 1979. and plate glass.

15
14
 CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
by Ettore Sottsass
11
MEMPHIS
23
PLASTIC LAMINATE
35
MATERIALS
67
DECORATION
87
COLOR
121
THE MEMPHIS IDEA
141
THE DESIGN
173
MEMPHIS AND FASHION
185
INDICES
206

Martine Bcdm, Memphis poster 1981.

Santi Caleca, Roberto Carra Guido ^'§'"Xr o X i e Pino Puna, Pino Varchetta,
Jan Jacobi, Giorgio Molman, Occhio Magieo - Iv 1 no i ^ Invitation to the second Memphis'exhibition, 19 September 1982,
Pablo Zonta; the painter Luciano " ^ ^ ^ ^ tTAbet Pnnt and to Guido Jannon Milan, Arc '74 Showroom.

9
8
 MEMPHIS

Memphis was born i n the winter o f 1980-81 when a travel companions, pieces one could talk to, pieces i f
group o f Milanese architects and designers felt an y o u w i l l , closer to the "lost grace" (Branzi) o f certain
urgent need to reinvent an approach to design, to Biedermeier furniture o f the nineteenth-century
plan other spaces, to foresee other environments, to middle class than to the aggressive trend o f current
imagine other lives. design w i t h its special arrogance and presumption o f
This need d i d not happen at once. The designers representing and showing off an affluence immedia-
had been working on projects and ideas f o r two or te y and f o r ever attained.
three years. To succeed i n giving them a physical Then i n 1979-80 the j o i n t efforts o f Sottsass, Branzi,
f o r m , to see them realized, had become almost a De Lucchi, M e n d i n i , and Navone w i t h Studio
question o f life or death, an obsession that coincid- Alchymia kept hope and controversy alive. They
ed w i t h their own creative capacity. partially and temporarily f u l f i l l e d the desires o f
This need also Involved the contagious, almost those who had managed to make a few prototypes,
reckless desire to strike a blow against current cir- disillusioned others who were pushed aside or left
cumstances, as well as against the weary "good taste" out altogether, and stirred up w i t h i n Alchymia
and expressive poverty that continued to drag along itself, further discussions and other controversies.
i n houses furnished according to the canons o f
international "real design."
One began to wonder i f It was really necessary to
continue to sink i n t o beige leather sofas, surrounded
by fixture-walls w i t h sharp-cornered orthogonal
planes i n shiny polyester, or to march up and down
steps and floors covered by eternal monochromatic
carpets, a painting here, a sculpture there, lighted by
black, acid structures i n steel and sheet-metal, drinks
and hors d'oeuvres lined up on severe coffee-tables,
possibly i n chrome and glass.
A few Milanese architects and designers swore i t
wasn't, and w i t h regard to this matter, i n the winter
o f 1980, they were ready for a change —"revved up,"
as they put It.
Projects, attempts, and research, representing an
important evolution away f r o m the radical concep-
tuahsm o f the previous years, had been around f o r
some time. Even concrete experiments, physical
trials, and public sorties had been made. There were
all the ingredients f o r a good show, but the real show
was yet to begin.
1 1
I n 1977-78, Sottsass and Branzi had designed pre-
Memphis furniture and lamps f o r C r o f f Casa (a . 1
chain o f furniture stores) which turned out to be a
dismal failure. (Salesmen actually discouraged
clients f r o m buying the pieces). The C r o f f pieces
had already been studied not as part o f coordinated
systems, but as smah, independent expressive
mechanisms o n which special communicative care
was concentrated. They were already conceived as J ' u
Hanging lamp in metal by Andrea Branzi
and console table in HPL Print laminate
by Ettore Sottsass for Croff, 1979.

Alchymia started i n 1976 as a graphic design studio.

Ettore Sottsass, drawing for a chair, 1979.
A f t e r a fairly nebulous d é b u t as a sponsor o f radical
and sometimes shoddy projects, i t became, i n 1978,
the repository o f the most important experimental
developments o f the Milanese post-radical avant-
garde (a role i t was to retain f o r the next two years).
This avant-garde gravitated more or less around
M e n d i n i , Sottsass and to some extent Branzi. O l d
acquaintances, their friendship and professional
relationship dated f r o m the early seventies, when
M e n d i n i , then editor o f Casabella, began to publish
a debate o n the problems o f the radical avant-garde.

23
From that time o n they never lost sight o f one an-
other, and they continued to discuss w i t h more or
less intensity the destinies o f architecture and
design.
Sandro Guerriero, founder o f Studio Alchymia, met
the others i n 1978 through Alessandro M e n d i n i .
Guerriero had met M e n d i n i during an exhibition o f
"radical suitcases" at Studio Alchymia, and had later
helped h i m to make some f u r n i t u r e f o r an exhibi-
tion (in June 1978) at the Palazzo dei D i a m a n t i i n
Ferrara, where Sottsass and Branzi were also exhibit-
ing. The furniture, including the famous Proust arm-
chair and Kandinsky sofa, was the first important
result o f Mendini's research i n t o kitsch and the
"banal." I t was also his first attempt at "redesign."
Enthusiastic about his work w i t h M e n d i n i , and hav-
ing met Sottsass, Branzi, and friends i n the mean-
time, Guerriero again set out i n search o f new outlets
for his activity, declaring his readiness to carry out
the projects that had been waiting impatiently to get
o f f the drawing-board. This led to the 1979 and 1980
exhibitions at Studio Alchymia - the first public per-
formances, the first o p i n i o n polls, the first checks
and counter-checks. Notwithstanding the insults and
the shrugged shoulders which the shows ehcited f r o m
most o f their colleagues, the designers were increa-
singly convinced that they were moving In the right
direction. The difficulties, however, were enormous.
Alchymia had been an important step i n gathering
and exchanging ideas, the first toward the launching
o f New Design. But two short years after the first
meetings, some felt it was no longer working. The
designers needed a manufacturer who would make
not only experimental prototypes, b u t finished
pieces as alternatives to standard production.
Sandro Guerriero's interest lay mainly i n producing
exhibitions, p r o m o t i n g cultural activities. He failed
to see however that i n 1980, i f such cultural enter-
prises were to succeed, they could n o t remain isolat-
ed provincial exercises in avant-garde or countercul-
ture, refined as they might be. They had to have wid-
er, higher ambitions; they had to get o f f the pedes-
tal, throw o f f their artistic "aura" and to compete
directly w i t h industry in quality, quantity and
image.
Alchymia had neither concerned itself w i t h , nor
succeeded i n setting up even the shadow o f a sales
organization. The designers, on principle, did n o t
want to have anything to do w i t h original or n u m -
bered pieces and even less w i t h art objects - exhibi-
tion pieces which would Inevitably be read as aesthetic
exercises, conceptual declarations. What they wanted
to make was not collector's Items, but furniture, to be
sold i n stores, taken home and used every day.
Further contrasts arose over tlie increasingly open
ideological disagreement with Mendini, who contin-
ued to maintain a critical, pessimistic attitude to
design, an attitude that had been typical o f the radi-
cal controversy. His analysis o f the "banal" as a
method o f design and his exercises i n redesign, or
make-up, or styling o f more or less famous objects -
exercises that were intended to show that " f o r a
future o f at least ten years o f design one can do n o t h -
ing but redesign" - denied the immediate historical
possibility o f new outlets f o r research, o n b o t h the
theoretical and the practical level. Besides, M e n d i n i
did not have a private studio, and i n keeping w i t h his
theories o f progetti.'ita di frontiera, he understand-
ably tended to rely professionally o n Alchymia,
which identified increasingly w i t h the M e n d i n i line
until it became what it is today: workshop and part-
ner o f his ideas and projects.
Thus Alchymia, w h i c h some (mainly Sottsass and
De Lucchi) hoped f r o m the very beginning would
grow i n t o Memphis, continued to f o l l o w its Alchy-
mia fortune, and Memphis was born f r o m the seces-
sion o f those who were well determined to look f o r
different destinies.
The Memphis secession was not a f o r m a l act nor did
it f o l l o w a master plan. The break-up o f the original
Alchymia had been a slow process; the only person
who really dropped out o f Alchymia in the Fall o f
1980 was Sottsass, and his was a silent secession, a
shifting, a pause f o r reflection. A pause that was n o t
destined to last long.
I n October 1980 Sottsass was faced with two propos-
als. Renzo Brugola, an old friend and owner o f a car-
pentry shop, declared his willingness to "do some-
thing together just like old times" (the sixties at Pol-
tronova); and Mario and Brunella Godani, who had
a showroom downtown, asked h i m f o r some o f his
"new f u r n i t u r e " f o r their store.
The counter-proposals made by Sottsass, w h o
meanwhile had decided to leave A l c h y m i a f o r good,
laid the foundations o f the future Memphis. I n the
autumn o f 1981, Sottsass asked the Godanis to host
a show o f "very up-to-date" furniture designed by
h i m and by some "very clever friends." He also
asked his friend Brugola to produce the pieces, free
o f course. But even though Brugola and the Godanis
showed their immediate support, there was stih no
talk o f Memphis.
The name Memphis appears f o r the first time i n a
notebook belonging to Michele De Lucchi (the
second to leave Alchymia), scribbled at the top o f
the first page, near a date, 11 December 1980. The
second and t h i r d pages are dated "12 December at
the pizzeria" and "14 December i n V i a San Gal-
dmo," w h i c h is where Sottsass lives.
Memphis was born o n those three evenings. They
were cold, winter evenings that nobody remembers
very well. The suiv^iving notes include only lists o f
names and numbers, o f friends to invite, o f coun-
tries to represent, o f furniture to design, o f months
and days available f o r designing, producing, photo-
graphing and printing... no ideological notes, no
comments by anyone.
The memories, w h i c h now seem prehistoric, when
there are any, concern the hours passed i n the Pizze-
ria Positano neat Sottsass and De Lucchi's places,
and those passed i n the twenty square meters o f
Sottsass's living r o o m , white wine, music, excite-
ment, laughter, smoke, complicity.
N o one talked o n those evenings about " h o w " t o

^^^^^^^^^^

A.^^ y ^ ^ vVv^ r..^^. w , . ,

Alfessandro Mendini, "Kandissi" sofa, Alchymia 1979. Alessandro Mendini, redesigns of sideboards, Paola Navone, "Gadames" dresser, Alchymia 1979.
Lacquered wood, briar-wood and gobelin. Alchymia 1978. HPL Print laminate and mirror.

24 25
design. N o one mentioned forms, colors, styles,
decorations; as i f by telepathy or celestial illumina-
tion, everyone knew exactly what to do, everyone
knew that the others knew, or perhaps everyone pre-
tended they knew. Certainly, they d i d n ' t say any-
thing. Everyone kept his fears to himself
The name Memphis must have come up o n the
evening o f December 11 at Sottsass's house. There
was a Bob Dylan record on, "Stuck Inside o f Mobile
w i t h the Memphis Blues Again," and since nobody
bothered to change the record. Bob Dylan went on
howling "the Memphis Blues Again" u n t i l Sottsass
said, "ok, let's cal it Memphis," and everybody
thought i t was a great name: Blues, Tennessee, rock'
n ' roll, American suburbs, and then Egypt, the Pha-
raohs' capital, the h o l y city o f the god Ptah. Accord-
ing to Michele De Lucchi's notebook, Ettore (Sott-
sass), Barbara (Radice), Marco (Zanini), Aldo ( C i -
bic), Matteo (Thun), Michele (De Lucchi), and Mar-
tine (Bedin) were there that evening. Except f o r the
author they were all architects (Bedin about to get
her degree), and all but Sottsass were under thirty.
Except f o r De Lucchi no one had worked w i t h
Alchymia, but f o r years they had all done n o t h i n g
but talk about the same problems, and they were
ready to start drawing. That evening George Sowden
and Nathahe du Pasquier were missing.
The first drawings ot New Design furniture were
gone over o n M o n d a y , 9 February 1981, and that
evening George and Nathalie were also present.
There were more than a hundred drawings, and i n
Memphis opening, Milan, 18 September 1981.
Arc '74 Showroom.
26
the end everybody was drunk, but f o r the first time
sure that Memphis would exist.
The next seven months before the opening, set for
18 September, were hectic, but somehow (no one
knows how) long enough to do everything i n time.
Everything meant: to make the technical drawings
o f the furniture, produce the furniture, f i n d a lamp
manufacturer, produce the lamps, find a ceramics
manufacturer, produce the ceramics, convince Abet
Print to produce new plastic laminates, f i n d a fabric
manufacturer, produce the fabrics, communicate
w i t h foreign architects and designers behind sche-
dule w i t h their drawings, photograph the furniture,
invent the graphics because there was no money to
pay a studio, design two posters, an invitation, a
catalogue, a press package, letterhead paper and
envelopes, do a book, f m d the money and a publisher
for the book, design the display, and write to journa-
lists and the press. A l l this without funds and eve-
ryone with another full-time j o b . A t the opening on
September 18 there were thirty-one pieces o f f u r n i -
ture, three clocks, ten lamps, eleven ceramics, and
twenty-five hundred people.
W e had even succeeded, i n June, i n finding a busi-
ness man w i l l i n g to f o r m a company (together w i t h
Brugola, Godani and Fausto Celati, another inves-
tor) and to distribute Memphis on the international
market. Ernesto Gismondi, president o f Artemide,
w h o m Sottsass had asked to produce a few lamps f o r
Memphis, ended up as Memphis's president and
majority shareholder.
27