Matteo Thun: Memphis to South Tyrol Hotels, 1981-2026
Matteo Thun has spent forty-five years drawing the same line, from the Memphis showroom on Via Solari in Milan in September 1981 to a 24-suite addition to Hotel Bella Vista Trafoi opening in May 2026 at the foot of the Ortler in South Tyrol. Born 17 June 1952 in Bolzano, Thun is one of the very few figures who co-authored the most cited Italian postmodern moment of the 1980s, ran a Vienna ceramics professorship through the 1990s, art-directed Swatch for three years, and then quietly converted the whole CV into a hospitality practice that now operates 70-strong across Matteo Thun & Partners in Milan and Munich. The Trafoi opening, in his birth province, is the closing argument. ...