What happens if design emulates art? How does the contamination between the two genres resolve itself? Why are furnishings being asked to assume this new sense of being? It is the search for a new expressiveness that animates this play of thematic overlapping, where design borrows the artistic canons of creative freedom, of maximum experimentalism, of rendering the most abstract thought into something concrete.
Deriving from this process are polyglot furnishing elements, which approach, through their form and syntax, the world of interior design, but follow a more profoundly immaterial vocation: that of arousing emotions. The cardinal value of functionality is obscured by a new relationship with the furnishing object, which thus fulfils a different, more intimate and almost spiritual function in the living landscape. There are numerous ‘works of design’ that follow this trend.
The JCP universe is born with this same inspiration and confirms it with the Sun-Ra lamps, designed by the Milan-based master of light Nanda Vigo; the collection highlights the synthesis of her career, namely the interference between space and light.
From minimal-contemporary to poetic experimentation, Alias investigates matter in its changing expressions through Out of Scale: a collection of objects that comes from an extensive expressive investigation conducted by Mario Trimarchi on the confines between architecture, nature, sculpture and design. From materials such as cement, wood, aluminium and bronze, be they milled, moulded or cast, enigmatic architectures arise, which become dreamlike cliffs, petrified forests or shady pergolas.
Equally evocative is Roberto Mora’s project for Opinion Ciatti, which reconciles sculptural strength with naturalistic delicacy in the Foliae stools/tables. Made with hand-welded leaf-shaped decorations, they create a unique and unrepeatable piece each time.
Direct reflection of the pervasive appreciation of this design union, are the international showcases (Design Miami, Collectible in Brussels, Nomad in Munich, Miart in Milan, Lake Como Design Fair, just to name a few) that open up to this new expressiveness in design, up to its most complete ‘collectible’ form and in limited editions.