THE LIVING ARCHIVE OF ANTONIO COLOMBO
Antonio Colombo’s Living Archive. Art, Cycling and Design
curated by Colombo’s Archive
Mercanteinfiera — Parma, 11–19 October 2025
Antonio Colombo’s Living Archive is a magnificent contradiction:
a collection of experiences, creations and worlds that refuse
to stand still, continually intersecting and influencing
one another. That is precisely what makes them alive:
undefined, and certainly never definitive.
Open to anyone willing to be inspired. Colombo’s Archive is, first and foremost, a physical place: the industrial buildings of the historic Columbus company on Via dei Pestagalli, on the outskirts of Milan. In 1977, Antonio moved here the headquarters of a spin-off from the family company founded by Angelo Luigi Colombo.
But Colombo’s Archive is also a “metaphysical” place, where objects transcend their physical presence. They become trajectories, ways of seeing and, ultimately, opportunities to create. It brings together the many worlds touched by this unconventional Italian captain of industry over the course of the past half-century: not only design furniture, works of art and racing bicycles, but also visions, impulses and ideas.
The exhibition takes visitors on a journey through this contradiction. There is the art gallery in the heart of Brera, on Via Solferino, where, since the late 1990s, Antonio has presented artists and outsiders from around the world: tattoo artist Mike Giant, the multifaceted Russ Pope, the eclectic Massimo Giacon and the explosive Zio Ziegler.
Then there is the Columbus Rationalist furniture of the 1930s: the flexible stool shown at the 5th Milan Triennale in 1933, the 14 C armchair and the steel umbrella stand with its wooden forming jig. Rational objects, but never cold — the result of a post-Futurist entrepreneurial alchemy. Form and function, after all, lie at the foundations of the Bauhaus. Marcel Breuer met Angelo Luigi Colombo and later entrusted him with the complete manufacture of his furniture, from the steel tubing to the upholstered seats, granting him a production licence. And then there are the bicycles designed by Antonio Colombo and his team: the Laser, the Rampichino, the Bootleg models, fixed-gear bikes and Artist Bicycles. Concepts before pedals. Much of the history of cycling over the past fifty years bears his signature: steel, sweat, elegance, speed and design.
Three souls, three directions, three passions held in a constantly shifting balance: 33% art, 33% Rationalist furniture, 33% bicycles. The missing 1% is the future — what cannot yet be seen, but can already be sensed. It is the space deliberately left open for the next idea.
Antonio Colombo’s insight was to understand that creativity is precious precisely because it cannot be “owned”. It can only be inhabited, shared and passed on to future generations.
Giacomo Pellizzari
