Metaphysical images capture the experimental spirit of JCP Universe, the most unconventional brand of Jumbo Group: Projections is the new photo shoot coordinated by Studio Milo with the photographer Beppe Brancato, a panoply of collaborations to aptly sum up the concept of art design.
Referencing the world of theater, for JCP Universe Studio Milo has imagined a set made of ‘projections’ where evanescent wings, formed by screenings of spaces inspired by the primary elements of nature, take on unusual hues to welcome furnishings – tables, lights, consoles, seating and accessories – that seem to have been thrust into a parallel universe.
A narrative of images to retrace the history of the brand, framing its most famous creations in an unconventional way, with settings between dreams and reality, telling the stories of objects of wonder, furnishings that go beyond a functional plane: “Piero Manzoni liked to say: either art is conceptual, or it isn’t art – Livio Ballabio, co-founder of the brand, explains. – Likewise, for me design has to be surrealistic, or it is not design.”
Starting in 2016, JCP Universe stands out for its unfettered research, leading to the creation of works on the borderline between art and design. Under the art direction of the studio CTRLZAK, founded by Katia Meneghini and Thanos Zakopoulos, over the years the brand has worked with creative talents like Nanda Vigo, Sam Baron, Matteo Cibic, Richard Hutten.
Thanks to the curious gaze of the photographer Beppe Brancato, the brand’s creations become totemic, disorienting presences, which like surrealist paintings narrate something other than themselves, ‘projections’ of an arcane meaning. The totally free photographic approach, without traditional lighting or precise rules, reveals “an irreverent and magical world, offspring of a consolidated, correct orthodoxy, disorienting the viewer in a spontaneous way,” Brancato explains. A surprising vision of enchantment.
