do ut do 2016

"Sogno" is a weekly Italian publication established in 1947 and along with "Grand Hotel" is part of the memories of our childhood. We remember in the late 60's entire afternoons dedicated to browse and to redesign the covers. This work is a tribute to a world which has disappeared in which the Italian dream turned to enthusiasm, optimism, the sweet life and well-being has been replaced with a drift and widespread pessimism.

As perhaps the most recognisable of all pieces of furniture, the chair is generally taken for granted and is perhaps the item that best represents our society’s increasing dependence on artificial constructions over the centuries. Ancient man sat on the ground, now we sit on chairs. But “This is not a chair” it is a contemplative piece created to reflect not only the optical surroundings of the piece itself but also our, and its, place in the environment – the home, the world, the cosmos. Sometimes what happens around an object is more interesting than the object itself.

With the “Radical Writings” series (from the early 1980s to the early 1990s), Blank makes her sign even more abstract, clarifying its relationship with time. The long inscribed marks of colour (first rose and rose-violet, then blue) made with a brush on canvas are more linear and uniform. Here Blank literally paints "in one breath", with absolute concentration and without hesitation. Here writing is breathing (Schriftung=Atemzug), painting is breathing, working is living. Each mark, in fact, has the length of one breath, from left to right, from beginning to end, from emptiness to fullness. At the start of the stroke the colour is more intense, and the combination of the two panels of the diptych generates a shadow zone that still references, though in a less imitative form, the space of the book. Writing and painting blend here in the continuity of a time-sign.

The chair “Regista”, (“Director”) in polyamide and fabric is a reinterpretation of the traditional director’s chair. “Regista” has been realised for Serralunga company by designer Michel Boucquillon and was awarded the honorable mention of Compasso d’Oro in 2011. The pattern of the chair seat has been designed by architect Donia Maaoui expressly for the project do ut do. The artist wanted to represent life, cells and propitious elements too. All is laid on a weft, because life is like a weaving and colors are a message of hope towards all the patients of Fondazione Hospice Seràgnoli.

Buffet in MDF covered with Sucupira wood veneer, with inlayed pieces of black marble. Doors with magnetic toush latches.

“Passo di danza” is a sculpture made of limestone, a new material in Chia's work. It represents a figure of a man moving forward posing as if he were dancing. The human body and the research of balance are recurring topics in both Sandro Chia's painting and sculptures. This little masterpiece represents an interesting synthesis emblematic of Chia's work, the unique and particular choice of material enhances the esthetic research and its power.

This is a miniaturised landscape, a small upland realised with two types of stone: one is the base with, in the middle, a sapling bearing an inlet where a small ladder is inserted, realised in a darker marble, ideally functioning as an access to the upper side.

Recline Personal, with the experience of Technogym and the design by Antonio Citterio, is more than a reclined bike. It is a real masterpiece that combines the best biomechanical criteria of professional gym equipment and a customised entertainment with console UNITY™: all presented with the exclusive and unique design by Antonio Citterio.

This work is inspired by a series of acquatic portraits in the “Apnea Humans Breathless” project. In this project water becomes our daily reality, the physic dimension we live in, and the element containing our age. Time defines the passing of events and the difference between past, present and future. Furthermore time, like other physic dimensions, can be measured. The measuring instrument for time is called “watch”. The watch photographed in “9 Frazioni” is a steel Rolex Perpetual.

The work goes well beyond the Liber monstrorum de diversis generibus: an unwillingness to moralizing bestiary that is in late-ancient or medieval, but it is a book of wonders, that knows how to scare, surprise, amaze, a book in the odor of magic that transcends reality prejudice always attentive witness.
The message is didactic, allegorical and religious at the same time, it is a grammar of nature that classifies and creates creatures. In Medieval times this book pursues the semantic polyvalence and multifunctionality, in spite of all the enlightenments; as in Isidore of Seville Etymologiae each page begins with "Bestiarum vocabulum proprie convenit ..." (the word animal, wild animal, suits ...).

The work is the first piece from a series called “Building Object” inspired by the architectures of Mario Cucinella.
This first Object represents a project for a spa and gym in Santarcangelo di Romagna. The work has been inspired by the presence of trees in this location. The building weaves itself with the void gaps creating a leaf shape (the white part). None of the trees are cut and the architecture shapes itself on this accidental relation therefore establishing a creative empathy with space.

Fabric surfaces produced in Senegal accomodate elements extrapolated from architectural plans of monumental buildings. Scores of signs laid out like maps.
Installation:
Laid out
hanging stretched
falling
flying
winding
not giving shapes but taking them.

Wooden sculpure, painted white like a window framing. The work is part of the studies on letters SUF, chosen to go back to wall painting in 2001. It is not anymore the symbol of the goose Pea Brain from the 80’s and the 90’s, but it’s like the name of a graffiti artist in order to learn the discipline, SUF stands for the will to become at least SUFficient at this demanding task. Having worked on composition and sculpture of works called “Mobili” - furniture yet ‘mobile’ - turning the study
of letters into sculptures has been an immediate step. The first piece is SUF mobile N.13, 2002, designed and produced in wood with a plotter. The peculiar style of SUF, from the severe FIAT lines to the convoluted natural world, can also be read as “Sono Un Folletto” (I am an elf), consequently assuming the shapes of "Suf Mago Fata" (Suf Wizard Fairy) related to the magic world of the spirits of nature. "Suf Mago Fata" is also be nicknamed “Il Cavallino” (The Foal).

“From drawing my sculptures were born, from writing my drawing was born from thinking my writing was born, from pain my thinking was born
from living my pain was born, from love and beauty the living was born
in love and in beauty all flows again.
And again, going downwards. From love and beauty, life from life pain
and thinking
writing
drawing
sculpting.
Hence in sculpture
glimpse love and beauty”. Riccardo Dalisi

Conceptual model. 180 million years ago the Earth was very different from today, there was one sigle large piece of land in the middle of a single large sea. There was a super-continent called Pangea and only one big ocean called Tethys. Men weren’t there yet and everything was also more peaceful.
Then the continental drift started and, right as a consequence, the drift of civilization. This process is still continuing and, through collisions of tectonic plates, inner tensions, volcanic eruptions and athmosferic events, it continues distancing single worlds separating them with oceans of different mentalities.
Nothing doing. It is a force, intrinsic to the planet which, even in a time where we can reach every place of the planet in a few hours, it acts deeply, dividing and discerning, distancing ad separating.

“Profondo viola” (Deep Purple) is a clipping of a big curtain that has been exposed to the sun for years, through a glass wall. The fabric was originally blue but after sun exposure, it turned into different colors and shades, from purple to pink. As in a photographic process, the hanging has been sensitized by sunlight which, for decades, has been creating shadows and folds amongst the textiles in an effect impossible to reproduce.

Higher-dimensional drop in methacrylate, hand-worked with a fishnet weave.

Ptero III (2467 AF Index) is the third sculpture of Ptero series started with Ptero in 1989. Ptero III is a wood red painted reproduction of a Pteranodon, inspired by the Museum of Natural History in Milan.

The “Rabbit Chair” is the last creation of Stefano Giovannoni, that becomes a family of products with a strong communicative media power.
The idea of the rabbit comes from the connection between its silhouette and the silhouette of a chair, where the rabbit’s ears become the setback of the chair. The rabbit is a gentle animal, lovable and tender. In Western and Eastern culture it symbolizes love and fertility, it is a sweet and auspicious object that brings good fortune and good wishes.

The elements of the candelabrum are inspired by the shapes which Guerriero has displayed in his experiences as radical designer during the Seventies and Eighties. The result is a magic object which emphasizes the natural materials, their colors and the effects produced by the shapes in their combination.
The candelabrum function is the excuse to create a fantastic sculpture, a machine longing for shapes, surfaces and colors which fills the space with a personal and free visual presence. A work with a clear mark from the artist, which represents "the drawing act modeling the reality" as he wrote in the Alchimia manifesto.

Luminous sculpture, in glazed ceramic and neon light. “Vaso Doppio”, (Double Vase) is formed by two pieces of turned and glazed ceramic, the base is cobalt blue and the vase is grass green and by two neon lights in blue Murano glass, whose transformer is placed in the base. It requires electrical power.

Luminous sculpture, in majolica and neon light. “Fuoco” (Fire) is formed by two pieces of turned and glazed ceramic, the base is chrome yellow and the vase is lemon yellow and by a neon light in red Murano glass, whose transformer is placed in the base. It requires electrical power.

"B_IG" is an Italian pool table with narrow pockets, designed by Massimo Iosa Ghini for MBM Biliardi, worldwide leader company in this sector.
B_IG’s strong aesthetic impact is defined by the design of the external frame: soft and sinuous curves infuse the object with a unique and contemporary language.
Surfaces become therefore elements of the project, whose exquisite details are the distinctive expression. A sophisticated detail is given by the handrail, completely covered with soft traditional fabric, as the whole playing area. The molded covers, produced in metal, become precious elements, characterized by the typical shell shape. Greenpeace woods have been selected for the external frame.

The two works are part of a cycle of studies belonging to a decade which could be named architectural. During those years, precisely in 1992, the creation of the “Città Meravigliosa degli Artisti Straordinari” (the amazing city of extraordinary artists) is started. It consists of cities composed by painted architectures which accommodate the corpses of precious artists selected from all over the world by Jori and painted from life since 1993.

Since the beginning of the 90s the research of Yumi Karasumaru has developed in parallel between pictorial image and performance, pursuing a strong cultural investigation on the relation between past and present of her native country, Japan. In this work she developed an in-depth research on the theme “Facing Histories”, on a folding screen which has become the support of an integration of medieval and contemporary Japanese art.

"Per Democrito, il mondo è costituito da aggregazioni di atomi che osservano, nel loro movimento, traiettorie costanti. Questa teoria della materia venne successivamente rivista da Epicuro il quale vi aggiunse l'ipotesi della parenklisis, ovvero della deviazione casuale, libera e imprevedibile, delle particelle elementari, per spiegare le mutazioni della natura e per introdurre quel principio di indeterminazione capace di spiegare il carattere incostante e mutevole di tutte le cose. Il poeta latino Lucrezio, nel “De Rerum Natura”, tradusse parenklisis con clinamen, termine che ha assunto nei secoli il significato di inclinazione della caduta libera degli atomi. In altre parole si potrebbe affermare che secondo Epicuro la realtà fisica, per quanto tenda a riprodursi attraverso categorie ricorrenti come sostiene Democrito, è tuttavia soggetta al caso, oltre che alla necessità. La libertà degli atomi determinava ipso facto la libertà dell'uomo, poiché egli, la sua coscienza, e per fino l'anima, non sono altro che aggregazioni casuali di atomi danzanti nel vuoto. Epicuro e i suoi adepti sembravano tuttavia interessati soprattutto alle conseguenze etiche di una rivelazione del Cosmo indeterminato, che trasformava il mondo in qualcosa di incerto, casuale e mutevole. L’opera donata al progetto do ut do fa parte del ciclo “CLINAMEN” e offre una visione della teoria della fisica epicurea. Un’altra di queste opere, di dimensioni 295 x 900 cm, è parte della collezione permanente dell’Università Bocconi di Milano".
(Massimo Kaufmann, novembre 2016)

Signifying strength in unity, the pillar-like sculpture is made out of stacked layers of different types of stone.
Just as a community is made of different individuals, the pillar stands proud and becomes iconic because it is fortified by its many parts. Using a computerized numerical controlled water-jet to slice the stone into thin layers, the design reinterprets the traditional African theme of community with modern fabrication technology.
The diverse stones reorganize and combine themselves in a new configuration to reveal both a sense of mass and fragility.

“Love art collectors”: the name, intentionally ironic, has been chosen because, through their love for art, the collectors support and help us to continue what is vital for us, the Art. An homage to the art and to those who love it.

"Tiway", molded chaise longue with a wooden frame which is entirely covered in leather. Leather quilted cushions and upholstered base with feet in turned metal, chromium nish.

The work was born out of a commission by art collector Maria Pia Incutti for Villaggio Verdalia, a reception space obtained from a former quarry in Lecce. In “Panca degli Sposi” (Bench of the Spouses) it is possible to see an anthropomorphic transposition of the object that turns into a space of reception and where are presented elements that are useful for the act of sharing – cups, bowls, saucers – yet precious for the moment of being sitting there. The works of Ugo Marano often translate the ideas of creating a community, of reception, of encounter and, in this light, the artist had previously realised works like “La Panca del Viaggiatore Urbano” (Bench of the Urban Traveller) , “La Panca per una Città in Espansione” (Bench for an expanding city), “Panca 108” (Bench 108).

Even though traditionally African culture has always relied on oral tradition and music, nowadays images have gradually become predominant. Indeed images have become more important than the traditional word-of-mouth. This concept combined with the images of Malick Sidibè inspired the recent drawings by Antonio Marras, representing dance, movement and a motion similar to heartbeats. Collage, owers, hands and paintings celebrate the notion of meeting. An act that can be generated only by dance.
The ideal space created by Marras describes Africa as a mosaic of languages and ethnic groups, of identities and origins and as an ideal place where every speci c characteristic can be a starting point to question our identity.

The piece of work consists in a pendant made of yellow, pink and white gold with various mounted diamonds. It has also parts made of mother-of-pearl and tiger’s-eye. This pendant is part of a jewelry collection designed and commissioned by the artist during the Seventies. In terms of volumes and shapes, this jewelry’s design evokes the sculptures Paola Martelli created back then using marble, bronze and lacquer wood. In 2012, the piece has been published on the catalogue “PAOLA MARTELLI, sculture gioielli anni ‘70” by L’Artiere publishing house. The book features an introduction by Beatrice Buscaroli.

A central pin connects three circular aluminum elements of different diameters with in white opal di user in methacrylate, painted with the Bauhaus colors: blue, red and yellow. The rings, able to rotate independently of each other, generate a spherical volume in which the light can be oriented as you prefer. A LED light source is inserted in each circular element and a dimmer makes possible to change the luminous intensity of the lamp.
“Three rings surround a bright space. The complicity and the dynamism of their circular movements remembers the rational harmony of the cosmos regulated by the gravitational force”.

In the work of Roberto Sebastian Matta there is an evident eclecticism of imageries that nourished his art. Primal and eternal figures where deities that seem to hail from Greece’s mythical past and from mediterranean ancient times, merge themselves with primordial totems from South America and blend themselves with animals, mythologic gures, mothers living in the depth of the earth, philosopher’s stones and warriors, in a synthesis of a whole eternal source of human archetypes.

Willa Cather wrote of fall afternoons in “My Ántonia”: “As far as we could see, the miles of copper-red grass were drenched in sunlight... the whole prairie was like the bush that burned with fire and was not consumed.” Native grasses that become particularly colorful include big bluestem which turns a reddish-purple (seen in the picture); indiangrass, which produces a golden plume; switchgrass, which becomes a reddish-purple; lovegrass, which turns into a soft mound of brilliant purple; and sand lovegrass, which turns gold (both lovegrasses are popular in dried arrangements).

During the 10th edition of the Triennale di Milano, artists and designers were asked to experiment with textile printing. Among these artists, Bruno Munari, sculptor, designer and graphic designer partecipated in the exhibition. Munari is known for mastering a multidisciplinary approach in his practice and, during the Triennale exhibition in 1953, when he designed this texture, he mixed different techniques and effects. The use of colours and the combination of abstractions and figures represents a brilliant example of Munari's distinctive style.

Lightning tear the sky apart, suddenly revealing shapes and volumes of the clouds. The work is composed by another element, a block of raw marble. The elements coincide again. The earth and the sky. Like in a rock engraving, “Here, the iconic myth was born and it began to emerge one first behavioural code establishing certainties and fears. The two elements clash with each other and fuse together generating another symbol: harmony.”

“Backflip” is an installation combining 4 overlapping timber easels. This acrobatic multiplication of an everyday object becomes a piece of minimal art, playful and ironic. Through a careful combination of negative spaces and timber elements, “Backflip” creates a remarkable dialogue between space and object.

Two separate, half circles are united by a strip of aluminium to create a singular, new shape, a circle with a shining rim around its perimeter to mark its united form.
The result of this combination is the symbolic representation of the potential for Complicity in relationships between two living beings, humans or not.

This enigmatic drawing (more precisely it is a photographic print of a digital drawing) which the Artist calls “grafica,” is part of a series that began in 2004, easily identifiable by the compulsive and playful regular repetition of circles, all 1 cm in diameter, either all black and white and technically immaculately precise (like in this case) or hand drawn with felt pens, with improbable approaching colors. The circular blacks signs, repeated side by side, highlight the sheer simplicity of this minimalistic artwork, and provoke an optical effect and difficult perception, contrasting with the standard precise conventional nature of the size of 1 cm in diameter of the circles. The artwork results enveloping nevertheless its apparent coldness, because of the childlike character of the simple and repetitive gesture of displaying touching circles on a sheet of white.

The Llaüt, traditional trawling boats from Balearic Islands compose, overturned, the installation Light Light, exhibited by Fabrizio Plessi at Tesa 94 at Venice Arsenale in 2015. The author gives life to llaüts that were abandoned by fishermen after EU’s intervention, which incentivized their disposal. Plessi elevates them to the condition of both content and container of a work that is not only a tribute to the Mediterranean Sea, but also an admonishment: this overturned boats are the houses of those who venture into our sea. The blue glare emanated bridges - as in a constant exchange - the ancient element of water and the shimmering fluidity of contemporary technology.
For do ut do the artist donates one of the drawings of this project.

Original prototype of TL35, table lamp with base and structure made from blackened plated steel and shade handcrafted in natural brushed brass, designed and manufactured by PSLab for Sergio Herman’s “The Jane” restaurant located in a former military chapel in Antwerp, Belgium. The Jane was awarded by “Restaurant & Bar Design Awards 2015” with first prize as best designed restaurant in the world in 2015.

The design idea of table takes inspiration from the concept of the movement, in line with the philosophy of Fondazione Hospice Seràgnoli, whose mission never stops. It’s a piece of art stands out for its strong personality and unique signature style. The top in solid wood unique piece, it’s been carved by a nut’s log characterized by the unusual asymmetric shape, enhanced by natural sides following the typical form of the tree. A big wheel and two iron legs with visible welding, simulating a footstep, sustaining the table. Quality of raw materials has played a key role: solid wood coming from controlled reforestation areas, where for each tree fallen seven new plants are planted and natural base oil and wax

The cube is made from natural stone, a timeless material, just like love. Each side is 42 cm, so the cube is the perfect size: neither too large and obtrusive, nor too small and weak. On two opposite sides there are two thin, deep slits, each 3 mm wide. At first glance, the slits are disconnected. They are designed to fit two sheets of paper (or leather or thin wood) for the lovers to write their love messages on. The internal design of the cube allows the two sheets to meet inside and thus become one with each other. Once the sheets are in, the cube is designed so that it is no longer possible to remove them.

Submerged landscape, representation of the subconscious, where instincts take the shape of bones and shipwrecked parts which rejoin and unveil themselves like when the sea opens on the shore.

This work represents a personal interpretation that the artist gave on both the Oyster Perpetual watch and Rolex as a brand. The image is built as a metaphysic scenography, in which the main shape is the cone and the main colors are green and purple. The first is the flag color of the Swiss company while the second is both the dial’s color and the first one’s complementary. The marble reconnects with the ideal of luxury that Rolex gives while the meter refers to the unit of measurement. The watch is suspended just as time is.

Copy of the special edition (50 pieces, red cover instead of black) of the monograph published in 2016 by Rizzoli International on all the body of work realised by Vezzoli to date. The copy will be made unique by a collage, signed and dated, realised by the artist on the first page. The book, designed by celebrated art director Patrick Li, edited by Cristiana Perrella, is a collection of texts by renowned curators, critics, museum directors, including Klaus Biesenbach, Francesco Bonami, Germano Celant, Hans Ulrich Obrist, but also personalities coming from disciplines different from art, which has often been crossed over by Vezzoli, as a testimony of the singularity of his artistic experience.

Single prototype from the house Driade for the 2016 production of the footstool seat, previously Driade 1970. The seat is upholstered in muppet fur whereas the pillow in leatherette with toy dogs is a tribute to Aldo Ballo.

These varied urban landscapes and natural scenarios are prolonged iron wire tangles, welded and placed onto images that have been drawn with ink, pencil, pen or watercolor. In "Tensioni #2" there is a particularly assertive interaction between line, geometry and camouflage: one urban vision that extends itself three-dimensionally by only employing form, technique, colour and space.

“Black Blue and White” is a polyptych consisting of four paintings.
The texture and darkness of the background is contrasted with the white highlights on the figures, a sequential movement of the dancer is contrasted with the static figure of an elephant, suggesting an elusive narrative line.

The portraits are very important for Zielony’s research, but his analysis of the human being would be incomplete without a look at the environment, the architectural and natural landscape where young people grow up and live. In fact, as he has been reported by Ulrich Domröse, Zielony has also reflected in the interior and social nature of his characters the study of the external aspects. The landscapes are very often nocturnal and peripheral. The cold neon lights and the artificial city lights attract the attention of the photographer and they intensify the atmosphere he captures.