Alessandro Guerriero
"In Praise of Fragility"
'Fragile' is a Latin-derived term (frangere) meaning “to break, to snap, to smash”. 'Fragile' as
something that can easily be damaged. However, Cicero taught us that frangere also means
“moving, touching and making up one's mind”: my story may break you, move you and, by
touching your heart, it may even make up your mind. From this point of view, fragility becomes the
door towards the world of emotions which drive our thoughts and actions. The awareness of being
fragile – taken as a positive value – belongs mostly to the woman. This comes from her story. In
archaic societies, as Salvatore Natoli says, the role of the man was to kill, while the woman's was to
generate and manage life, by giving birth and taking care of the naked and vulnerable baby she
generates.
Biography
Alessandro took his first steps in Alchimia, helping to make it one of the most important centres in the evolution of the Italian avant-garde design, with works in the permanent collections of the most prestigious museums in the world. In 1984, Guerriero won the Compasso d’ Oro award for design research, and he became a founding member of Domus Academy.