Far from the US state of Tennessee, the Memphis movement emerged in Milan in the 1980s and revolutionized design. Its gaudy colors, exaggerated patterns and conflicting prints were intended to overturn the minimalism status quo of the time, also contradicting the functionalist design postulated by the Bauhaus with its purely aesthetic and ornamental forms.
_2880.jpg?1657132541 "Esquire Office / Studio Bipolar. © Suryan//Dang")
Led by Italian designer Ettore Sottsass, the collective called itself Grupo Memphis in honor of Bob Dylan's song Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again, which was played repeatedly at early meetings. However, it is in the ambiguous meaning of the word that the group's real intention lies: Memphis can mean both the North American city and the capital of Egypt. An ambivalence that is later seen in the group's controversial works of philosophy.
_2880.jpg?1657132534 "Libertarian and Anti-functionalist: What Is the Memphis Design Movement?")
