Peter Shire’s Grand Tour is a deeply personal photo diary chronicling the decade of Memphis, ‘the last design revolution’, headed by maestro Ettore Sottsass, the leaning tower of Italian design. It's also a treat for Italophiles.
Peter Shire didn’t know it at the time, but his snapshots of Italy in the ‘80s were the serendipitous beginning, middle and end of something big. Peter Shire’s Grand Tour pairs candid pictures with personal interludes to trace the heady, unpolished brilliance of a movement before it knew what it was. With the unwitting eye of a tourist-turned-historian, Peter Shire’s camera captured it all, from Caravaggio at the Uffizi to storefronts of women’s lingerie shops and beautiful sunsets, alongside rogue selfies and a cast of Memphis Group legends including Ettore Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini and Matteo Thun.
This book, edited by art director and graphic designer Christoph Radl, expands on Apartamento’s long-standing exploration of Memphis, Italian Radical Design, and their peripheries. It follows early features on Nathalie Du Pasquier, Alessandro Mendini, Andrea Branzi, Santi Caleca, Peter Shire himself, as well as conversations with Gianni Pettena, Ugo La Pietra, Lapo Binazzi and more.
Peter Shire’s Grand Tour offers an unfiltered snapshot into design history, seen through the eyes of a young artist who was simply living it an outsider, in a way, on the inside.
Apartamento Publishing, 420pp, 22cm x 15cm, illustrated paperback, 2025
