The Aldo Morelato Foundation at Villa Dionisi in Cerea has set up an interesting Museum of Applied Arts in the Contemporary Furniture sector (MAAM) under the direction of Architect Ugo La Pietra, and curated by the Architect Sophia Los.
Villa Dionisi is presented to the public as a "museum within a museum", in which the precious contemporary design furniture exhibited in the halls are like smaller artworks placed in the frame of a great work of art, the elegant eighteenth-centuryvilla.
A visit to the Villa Dionisi Museum allows the public to experience this double situation: you can make a historic tour through the villa, full of frescoes, which recall the past glories of the Dionisi family. At the same time, you can stroll through contemporary life, admiring a precious collection of top-quality art furniture, owned by the Fondazione Aldo Morelato. The exhibited pieces are experimental models and thus unique pieces of contemporary design in the furniture field. The prototypes in the museum represent over 20 years of research (since 1982) and technical experimentation in the use of materials. They resume the stylistic and the production techniques of the long-standing furniture tradition of the area as well as the historic furniture of the twentieth century with recoveries of and references to Art Deco, Rationalism and Liberty.
The pieces are exhibited with their project drawings, some of which signed by the most prominent designers on the art market: Colognese, Castellini, Cordero, De Lucchi, De Muro, Garofano, La Pietra, Porto, Mancini, Mollino, Pozzallo, Raggi, Riva, Rizzato, Salerno, Savior, Ulrich, Venosta and many more. The artworks are ideally arranged into 5 categories: Editions, Re-editions, Quotes, Allusions, and the Smallest Pieces. Each year the collection is extended with new pieces designed by the winners of the International Competition on the Applied Art in the Furniture Sector organized by the Foundation. All pieces exhibited at the MAAM can be produced and marketed by Morelato.
