Mario Bellini
Brionvega Art Products Stories
Mario Bellini, born in Milan in 1935, is a prominent architect, critic, and designer.
From 1959 to 1962, he worked as an architect with the Rinascente group, while simultaneously teaching at the Istituto Superiore di Design in Venice. Starting in 1963, he held the position of head of typewriters and calculators at Olivetti. As a designer, he has collaborated with renowned industries such as Brionvega, B&B, Cassina, Yamaha, Artemide, Flos, and Vitra.
Bellini has also been active in the automotive sector, working with companies such as Fiat, Lancia, and Renault. He served as President of ADI from 1969 to 1971 and directed the magazine Domus from 1986 to 1991. Throughout his career, he has received several Compasso d’Oro awards in 1962, 1964, 1970, and 1986. The MoMA in New York features a remarkable 25 of his projects. As an architect, he has completed significant projects in Tokyo and Milan, including the new trade fair district.
Mario Bellini precisely defined his role as a designer in the design of televisions for Brionvega starting in 1968. The main goal was to give an acceptable shape to the unavoidable bulkiness of the television. The totem created for Brionvega appears as an object with unparalleled contemporaneity and versatility. The geometric perfection of the cube, minimalist and discreet, allows for easy integration into any stylistic context.
The opening of the cube, transforming into a totem, reveals a universe to explore, offering an intense emotion and creating a welcoming space to share special moments with family and friends. Admiring this iconic object becomes a unique and fulfilling experience.
These are the words of Mario Bellini that reaffirm his constant design intent:
“Music is an immaterial message and has no visible form. Totem conceals and encapsulates its ‘musical vocation’ within the ideal purity of a cube, which unfolds and spreads with the touch of our hands, unlocking all its potential for sound reproduction. The rebirth of Totem – which I had the pleasure and intuition to create many years ago – now coincides with the advent of new technologies, which protect all of us, producers, designers, inhabitants, lovers of music and heirs of Italian Design, from the risk of purely nostalgic reincarnation.”
