From 27 November to 31 January Porro celebrates Kasia Gatkowska – the photographer who for more than seven years has been shooting its advertising campaigns and catalogue images – with the exhibition “Visual Thoughts” hosted in Porro’s showroom in Via Durini 15, Milan.
The exhibition slowly unfolds across the two floors of the showroom amid cliffs, clouds, flowerpots, close-ups, art objects and industrial interiors, captured at different moments in time: a composite mix of images gathered together in a series of mood boards that tell about her fascination with landscapes, portraits, still life and architecture and her dedication to capturing their unique character every time. A thought that grows and evolves encompassing the new pictures of Porro’s products that were taken ad hoc in an old warehouse in Leiden, 30 minutes from Amsterdam, near the home base of the Polish photographer: here are the sketched lines of the Neve chair by Piero Lissoni in red stained ash wood in-between arches and pillars, along with the minimalist shape and thin thickness of the Metallico table by Piero Lissoni in a vibrant rosso antico metal finish, and the Voyage chairs by Gamfratesi with their sloping maple frame, covered with a sinuous black leather dress.
Sophisticated chiaroscuro pictures, capable of leaving an indelible mark on the visual memory of the viewers, just like the Porro design that surrounds them: lightweight presences, that behind the architectural purity and the apparent simplicity reveal, by a closer look, an impassioned research on materials and proportions and the utmost care for every smallest detail.
Porro takes the opportunity of the photo exhibition to launch Garisenda, a clip frame that combines the natural beauty of brushed hemlock – untreated or black stained – with a nicely sloping slender shape, like the tower in Bologna that inspired its name, which is also that of a traditional medicinal plant. With a continuous transparent surface designed to enhance the picture it contains, Garisenda will be on sale in the showroom throughout the Christmas period.
