Mondo Reale is presented by The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, as part of the 23rd International Exhibition Unknown Unknowns. An introduction to Mysteries. Invited by Stefano Boeri, President of Triennale Milano, to join the Advisory Board of the 23rd International Exhibition, Hervé Chandès, Directeur général artistique of the Fondation Cartier, conceived the show in collaboration with Italian designers Formafantasma and seventeen international contemporary artists, many of whose works have been especially commissioned for Mondo Reale.

Formafantasma is invited by the Fondation Cartier to design the settings of Mondo Reale. Departing from the show’s evocative title, Formafantasma’s exhibition design aims to respond to an apparently simple question: what is reality in the context of a fabricated exhibition? Formafantasma developed this exhibition as an exercise in balancing the needs of contemporary art to exist in the spatial abstraction of museums’ ‘white cube’ while considering the ecological implications of designing a temporary space.

Lina is a re-edition of one of the earliest projects designed by Gianfranco Frattini, one of the great masters of Italian design. Nominated in 1955 for the Compasso d’oro, the armchair features an unusual wood frame that lends it a solid, yet lightweight, appearance. Its singularity lies in the slender legs and bent plywood element that supports the side of the seat back and curves up to become the ‘wing’ upon which the armrests sit. A very innovative workmanship technique for its time, carried out today with historical accuracy. An armchair that makes a bold statement, thanks to its timeless style, Lina can be paired with unaffected ease with all the sofas in the Tacchini collection, in residential and contract settings.