"Black2 (Black and Square)" is the exhibition conceived by German industrial designer Konstantin Grcic that analyzes the presence of the black square shape in the contemporary design. Through a selection of fifty products that are more or less well-known, Grcic combines non-homogeneous objects within a homogeneous formal and linguistic category. 
With its rectangular shape and classic black color, the Moleskine notebook becomes naturally part of the exhibition, alongside the Apple iPhone and iPad chip, the IBM ThinkPad, the Marshall amplifier, the letter "l" in the font Helvetica, and the BASF audio-cassette tape, the first object without precedents produced in plastic by modern industry. In other instances it is a matter of more complex design choices, applied to traditional objects such as a cooking pot (it is the case of La Cubica by Aldo Rossi from 1991), a storage cart (the Boby by Joe Colombo from 1970), a chair (the Vitra03 by Maarten Van Severen) or the TV Black ST 201 by Sapper and Zanuso (1969).
The exhibition neither establishes a method, nor exalts the artists, but takes cognizance of the "horizontal" diffusion of a formal element that belongs to very different contests.
Istituto Svizzero di Roma
December 12, 2010 - February 12, 2011
Sala Elvetica
Rome
