The "Memphis in Shanghai" design exhibition is the first forum on Italian design organized at Tongji University to showcase Italian design heritage. Exhibition curator Aldo Cibic, honorary professor at Shanghai University and one of the founding members of the Memphis group, said: "Memphis was something no one had seen before: at a time when functionalism was the dominant culture, it represented a turning point, encouraging a more sensory and iconic approach. My feeling is that the energy that you can feel in Shanghai today is somewhat the same energy that you could feel in Milan at that time; today, however, it is not a revolutionary upheaval in design, but a way of bringing technology, people and the earth together." Forty years later, this small but valuable exhibition reminds us that we must have the courage to believe in a vision not influenced by the market, but by the need to express the spirit of the times.
