From 7 March to 26 July 2026, Palazzo Buontalenti in Pistoia welcomes "I am an architect. Ettore Sottsass", the major exhibition featuring Ettore Sottsass (1917–2007), painter, graphic designer, photographer and pivotal figure in 20th century Italian design and architecture, who navigated the whole century with a consistently critical, seemingly disenchanted yet engaged and sensitive eye towards the changes taking place in society.
Curated by Enrico Morteo, the exhibition is organised by Fondazione Pistoia Musei and Electa, in collaboration with archives and research centres such as CSAC Parma, the Bitossi Museum Archive and Centro Studi Poltronova. The exhibition, which is based on the rich collection entrusted by the architect to CSAC Parma (the University of Parma Communication Archives), critically reinterprets three decades of his work, from the immediate post-war period to the early 1970s.
Particular attention will be paid to the link with Tuscany and the artisan and industrial enterprises that developed and flourished there, from the ceramics created with Aldo Londi in Montelupo Fiorentino to his experiences with Sergio Cammilli and Poltronova in Agliana.
Using drawings, photographs, ceramics, objects and archival documents – many of which exhibited for the first time – “I Am an Architect” traces the evolution of a thought process which, characterised by disillusionment with the society of progress, seeks the possibility of a new humanism in design in form, colour and light.
