Martino Gamper: welcome to Disco Carbonara

The designer amuses the English audience with an installation that is a reminder of discos, a mega-facade in recycled wood scrap from the company ALPI, with lots of music

Let’s dance! Martino Gamper, the designer from Merano based in London, amuses the local and international audience with the installation Disco Carbonara, from 14 to 22 September, in the new shopping district of Coal Drops Yard, at vibrant King’s Cross, a new Design District of the Festival.

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Disco Carbonara by Martino Gamper

At the center of the square a playful temporary entrance invites visitors into a small wooden room where they can listen to dance music, forgetting everything else. Like a real disco, at the entrance there is a security guy who selects those who can enter and applies a Disco Carbonara rubber stamp on their hand.

Disco Carbonara by Martino Gamper
Disco Carbonara by Martino Gamper

“I wanted to do a fun installation that would remind people of the club scene, in a zone that used to contain many clubs,” says Gamper. “Today there are fewer and fewer discos, maybe because nobody wants the noise near their home. The name Carbonara alludes to the typical Italian pasta dish; I wanted something playful, a bit Italian, but also a reminder of coal and the work in the mines.” The facade, 10 meters long and 8 meters high, features dynamic geometric patterns and varied textures: “I did not create a motif a priori at the computer; this movement of colors and designs on the facade came from the random overlaying of scrap materials from the production of wood products by the company Alpi, mixing all the different colors together.” Gamper has worked with this company specialized in wood surfaces for some time now: “We were introduced by Patrizia Moroso; Alpi is an amazing company, with many types of wood and workmanship.

Disco Carbonara by Martino Gamper
Disco Carbonara by Martino Gamper

Together, two years ago, we made a series of furnishings with the Sottsass veneer from the 1980s, while for the latest Salone in Milan we developed Gamperana, a type of wood that did not exist before, from an idea of mine that brings a particular color and grain. Along the lines of Disco Carbonara, we are now making a very sustainable surface based on wood scrap that is not otherwise utilized by Alpi.” So stay tuned.

Disco Carbonara
14 – 22 September
Coal Drops Yard
King’s Cross, N1C