“There has to be irony, both in design and in the objects. I see around me a professional disease of taking everything too seriously. One of my secrets is to joke all the time.” Achille Castiglioni

This year’s Design Week, June 14-22, 2017, brought Casa Castiglioni to San Francisco, an exhibit that explores the work of one of the greatest industrial designers of the 20th century, Achille Castiglioni. The exhibit showcased nearly 60 years of the Italian designer’s historical objects. Conceived by the Castiglioni Foundation for the 2011 Abitami exhibition in Milan, the exhibit was restaged in Rome, Mantova and Palermo.

The San Francisco exhibit marks the show’s first U.S. appearance. It is one in a series of events as part of the initiative, “Vivere all’Italiana”, developed by the Italian Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Education, Economic Development, Heritage, Cultural Activities and Tourism. In San Francisco, Casa Castiglioni was presented by the Italian Consulate General and San Francisco’s Italian Cultural Institute.