Food and plates have always gone hand in hand. Therefore it’s natural that the exhibition “Meditation on Plates”, previously installed at the “Casino at Marino” in Dublin, then exhibited at Expo Milano 2015 whose theme is food - Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life. 

“Meditation on Plates” is also a perfect example of the love that has for centuries characterized the mutual friendship between Italy and Ireland. The artists who decorated the dishes have perceived this aspect depicting neoclassicism, the “Casino at Marino”, the grand tour, and the love that Lord Charlemont had for Italy, which he defined as his “lover”, rather than his Irish “wife”. 

“Meditation on Plates” reflects this ancient bond in the best of ways, and the exhibition now finds an equally noble setting at Expo Milano 2015, a global event of great significance. 

“A perfect architecture in a perfect setting. The perfect opportunity to realize a series of perfect souvenirs. The collection of plates inspired by the Casino Marino is truly exemplary. Lord Charlemont’s Casino is an inexhaustible source of symbols, signs, decorations, proportions, shapes and environments full of meaning. And all the authors immersed themselves with excitement in this small magical architecture as a great neoclassical gem, and every interpretation turned into poetry. An extraordinary collection of round drawings, rich in memory and nostalgia.

And you can understand how aesthetic pleasure has played a part in all of these inventions, so different from one another but all developed under the hypnosis of the perfection of this architecture.
Each author found his personal charm, his joy, his meditation. No one could avoid the sense of strength and protection emanating from this small, perfect metaphysical colossus. So they have designed it and relived it with the intellectual and physical pleasure of making it their own, many indeed wished to draw the building itself.

A collective performance, an unexpected movement, choral and cathartic, such was the charisma of this secular temple.
So, not just a series of plates based on a single theme, but a rhythm, a summary of vibration, the perfect gift, indeed.”

Alessandro Mendini,

Milan, 2014