Ultrafragola and the Mobili Grigi by Ettore Sottsass, the Joe chair created by De Pas, D’Urbino, Lomazzi, the Superonda sofa, the Saremo lamp and the Mies chair, by Archizoom, or the Passiflora lamp with the Sofo sofa by Superstudio. All pieces that have written the history of Italian design, memorable creations still coveted today, because they are not just innovative but outright radical, experimental, driven by critical thinking. All these products have formed the identity of Poltronova, the historic Florentine brand associated with the personalities Sergio Cammilli and Ettore Sottsass, who was its artistic director. Today as in the past, Centro Studi Poltronova (the name of the brand with Roberta Meloni at the helm since 2005) conserves its great vitality: “Here we conduct research, we produce and create editions.” Giving rise to new products that revive an extraordinarily timely heritage, doing so through novel expressions. As in the case of this new collection of carpets made in collaboration with cc-tapis, directly influenced by the company’s most famous icons, in terms of patterns, styles and colors.
The first step of the concept is the Autostrada carpet designed by Lapo Binazzi, a member of the historic radical design group UFO from the 1960s. Autostrada – a highway with straightaways and curves, in three color combinations – as produced as a one-off by Poltronova in 1990, for the exhibition “Il Dolce Stil Novo (della casa)” curated by Andrea Branzi at Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, now reissued based on a drawing from the archives of Centro Studi Poltronova. After this beginning, the next step was the creation of three new series of rugs (in wool tufted by hand).
Based on the Farfalla pattern designed by the Archizoom group in 1967, the Farfalla, Prato and Cielo carpets, halfway between Liberty style and Pop Art, are reinterpretations in three different forms of the main parts of the original pattern, in an explosion of primary colors and simple geometric shapes.
The Stella and Stellina rugs, on the other hand, make reference to the world of sport, which also was the inspiration for the Joe chair designed by De Pas, D’Urbino, Lomazzi as a tribute to Joe DiMaggio. A symbol in extra-large format thus becomes a decorative object, in the colors gray and navy, echoing the historic uniforms of the New York Yankees.
Finally, Sofo makes direct reference to the hyper-pop modular system by Superstudio, in two variations that reprise the typical chromatic compositions of the sofa, Verosa and Rosancio. Based on research in the archives of Centro Studi Poltronova, the images is simply the logo created in the 1960s by Superstudio for the shipping crates of the product.
