Born in New York as a traveling gallery and store, VERSO – led by Amauri Aguiar – pays tribute to its city by showcasing design culture during design week with five exhibitions and three different locations: Tribeca, Chelsea and Red Hook. “With VERSO we have cultivated a strong community of creatives from all over the world, and all the exhibitions we curated during NYDW mainly unite our values: to present sensational designers in a variety of excellent locations,” says Aguiar.
An itinerary that begins at VERSO’s headquarters in Tribeca (51 Hudson St.), with Arflex‘s first flagship shop-in-shop in the States in which the icons of Mario Marenco and Cini Boeri stand out in dialogue with the contemporary creations of Neri & Hu and Claesson Koivisto Rune. An emblematic sign of the brand’s strong connection to its history and its forward-looking gaze. Here we also find, protagonists of a special setting, two timeless Brionvega masterpieces: the Radiofonografo designed in 1965 by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni and the Totem by Mario Bellini, from 1971, with its minimalist elegance.
Here we also find Gregory Beson‘s Dark Beach capsule collection featuring seating, tables, mirrors and lighting design that transcend mere functionality, leading guests to contemplate and reflect on the meanings that lie beneath the surface. In an exquisite narrative of the art of living.
Moving to the heart of Chelsea‘s promenade of art and design galleries, inside L’Space Gallery-open in the ShigeruBan-designed Metal Shutter House-the exhibition Biotope by Japanese artist Yukari Hotta, at home in Copenhagen, emphasizes the connection of all living things through pieces made of clay and shaped by hand: humans, animals, insects, plants and plankton are revealed through biomorphic forms that capture Hotta’s essence linked to a deep respect for life.
Instead, the second exhibition, in collaboration with São Paulo’s Diletante42 Gallery, presents Icons of Brazil Design: Mid-Century Furniture Masters, a journey through the iconic works of Brazilian Modernism: a tribute to a distinguished group of designers and architects from Brazil including Oscar Niemeyer, Joaquim Tenreiro, Sergio Rodrigues, Lina Bo Bardi, José Zanine Caldas, Jorge Zalszupin, Martin Eisler and CarloHauner.
But the journey into creativity is also revealed at 96 King in Red Hook, Brooklyn (for VERSO it is the first foray into the borough divebntate one of the epicenters of New York creativity): 23 brands and designers were invited to install their works inside a new residential building. A space transformed for NYCxDesign into a creative, dynamic and inspirational hub in which the works of artists and designers such as Alex Proba (Portland), Humberto da Mata (Brazil), Zaven (Italy), Pablo Bolumar (Spain), Dokter and Misses (South Africa), Gestu and Objects of Common Interest (New York), Clara Jorisch (Canada)… stand out. Immersed in a vibrant synergy of talents who narrate, through their aesthetics, a new idea of contemporary living.
