Nanda Vigo Biography
Nanda Vigo (Milan, 1936) is an Italian designer. Nanda Vigo was born in Milan in 1936. She lives and works between Milan and East Africa. He demonstrated an interest in art from an early age, when he had the opportunity to observe the architecture of Giuseppe Terragni from whom - one might dare to say - he learned attention to light. After graduating from the Institut Polytechnique of Lausanne and an important internship in San Francisco, in 1959 Vigo opened her own studio in Milan. From that moment the essential theme of his art becomes the conflict/harmony between light and space, which the artist uses in his work, also as an architect or designer. From 1959 he first attended Lucio Fontana's studio, and then became close to the artists who had founded the Azimut gallery in Milan, Piero Manzoni and Enrico Castellani. In that period, between various trips for exhibitions throughout Europe, Vigo got to know the artists and places of the ZERO movement in Germany, Holland and France. In 1959 he began designing the ZERO House in Milan, which was only completed in 1962. Between 1964 and 1966 he participated in many ZERO exhibitions in Europe, including NUL 65 at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and ZERO: An Exhibition of European Experimental Art at the Gallery of Modern Art in Washington DC He participated in the XIII Triennale of Milan in 1964 where he returned in 1973 at the XV edition. In 1965 the artist curated the legendary ZERO avantgarde exhibition in Lucio Fontana's studio in Milan, with the participation of 28 artists. Between 1965 and 1968 he collaborated and created the Casa sotto la Foglia with Gio' Ponti, in Malo (Vi). In 1971 Vigo was awarded the New York Award for Industrial Design for its development of lamps (Golden Gate Lamp) and in the same year he designed and created one of his most spectacular projects for the Remo Brindisi House-Museum in Lido di Spina (Fe ). In 1976 he won the 1st St. Gobain Prize for glass design. In 1982 the artist participated in the 40th Venice Biennale. In 1997 he oversaw the staging of the exhibition “Piero Manzoni - Milano et Mitologia” at Palazzo Reale in Milan. Vigo's works are permanently present at the Triennale Design Museum. In her activity Vigo works with an interdisciplinary relationship between art, design, architecture and environment, she is involved in multiple projects both in her role as an architect, designer and artist. What distinguishes her lively career is the attention and research of Art, which pushes her to open collaborations with the most significant figures of our time and to always undertake projects aimed at valorising Art such as the ITALIAN ZERO & avantgarde exhibition 60's at the MAMM Museum in Moscow. Since April 2013 some of Vigo's works have been present in the collection of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in 2014 he exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in the retrospective dedicated to ZERO.
