UniFor supports the exhibition “BAJ. Baj chez Baj,” at Palazzo Reale from October 8, 2024, to February 9, 2025.

UniFor partners with Electa and Palazzo Reale by producing the installation, designed by architect Umberto Zanetti – ZDA Zanetti Design Architettura, for the exhibition “BAJ. Baj chez Baj.”On the occasion of the centenary of Enrico Baj's birth, Milan celebrates one of the masters of the Italian and international neo-avant-garde with a comprehensive retrospective curated by Chiara Gatti and Roberta Cerini Baj.

Sponsored by Comune di Milano-Cultura and produced by Palazzo Reale with Electa, the exhibition begins with Baj’s early gestural abstraction, moves through the emergence of his larval anthropomorphic figures, and explores the eruption of liquefied mountains in the magmatic body of the Generals, to the parody of extraterrestrial invasions, ultimately leading to the Meccano army and the animated world of chests of drawers and trumeau.

The installation, designed by architect Umberto Zanetti and made by UniFor, tangibly translates the curatorial requirements while interacting with the rich context that hosts it. The layout consists of three sections spread across different spaces: the entrance Apse, the central Plaza, and the Lake of Sculptures. The selfsupporting exhibition structure, created by UniFor, features a metal frame supporting a series of panels of varying heights, both vertical and inclined, made of poplar plywood left in its “natural state”. This neutral backdrop contrasts with and highlights the richness of materials and colours typical of Baj’s works.

“The vertical elements of the ground-level plinth and the ends between the pairs of panels are mirrored, thus making the walls suspended on the seminato floor design, and separated, as if they were floating objects in a dance, in the environment of the Hall of Caryatids.” (Umberto Zanetti, ZDA Zanetti Design Architettura)

The staggered arrangement of the structures helps to define the various thematic areas of the exhibition. The three-dimensional narrative, developed through the artworks, curatorship, and set design, is enhanced by the graphic elements created by Studio Sonnoli.