the mirror method

In 1991, Monguzzi designed a poster for an exhibition of the work of abstract painter Florence Henri. For the poster Monguzzi used actual mirrors. In a way, he was copying Henri’s own favourite method—the artist often created illusory spaces, based on the interplay of real objects and their reflections. Monguzzi arranged a pair of mirrors, Henri’s portrait and a photocopy of it on a table. He observed the installation from a distance through a cut-out frame, as if through a camera lens, until he found the right “shot.”

 

our work is rather like that of the translator. a good translator enjoys reading, loves writing and perhaps rewrites a single phrase by shakespeare fifty times till it finally sounds shakespearean. it is no longer monguzzi, but shakespeare in italian. it took all knowledge, understanding, sensibility and culture. it took all of monguzzi for that text to become shakespeare. —bruno monguzzi


An interior of a pavilion colored pink, with words Force and Power reflected in multiple mirrors

“Man the provider” theme pavilions, Expo ’67, Montreal. Exhibit design, 1967. Studio Gagno / Valkus.

spider’s web

In 1961, at the age of 20, Monguzzi started his career at the legendary Studio Boggeri in Milan, one of the leading design and advertising agencies in Italy at that time. Monguzzi recalls an early conversation with Antonio Boggeri, in which Boggeri compared Swiss graphic design with a spider’s web—a perfect geometric construction that was often completely useless. The web performs its function only when invaded by the entangled fly. “It was then,” Monguzzi said, “that my use of type and pictures began to grow towards more expressive solutions.”

 

Pirelli. Packaging for rubber gloves, 1961, Studio Boggeri, 10.6×33 cm. © Bruno Monguzzi.

A packaging for Pirelli rubber gloves. An image of a brown glove on a white background