DESIGN ANCORA: GUCCI PRESENTS FIVE DESIGN ICONS AT ITS FLAGSHIP STORE ON VIA MONTE NAPOLEONE
Milan, April 15, 2024 - From an idea of Creative Director Sabato De Sarno, Gucci Design Ancora is a special project co-curated by Michela Pelizzari. From April 15th 2024, five icons of Italian design, reedited and customized, are showcased in an immersive exhibition conceived by Spanish architect Guillermo Santomà at Gucci’s flagship store in via Monte Napoleone, 7.
From April 21st 2024, a special edition of the objects will be available online on gucci.com.
“Through Design Ancora, Gucci doesn’t simply celebrate old icons, it creates new ones,” explains Michela Pelizzari, founder of Milan-based creative agency P:S, which co-curated the project, “The aura emanating from the brand spotlights five pieces by Italian masters that are perfect from a design standpoint but less known to the general public.
The chosen objects represent the golden age of Italian design, while also reminding us of the important relationship between designers and brands, craftsmanship and industrial production. All objects are re-edited in Rosso Ancora, the red hue chosen by De Sarno to mark the beginning of Gucci’s new creative chapter.
Gucci Design Ancora comes to life at the Gucci flagship store in Via Monte Napoleone, 7. In every room, the curved walls in green – a color chosen by Sabato De Sarno - contribute to blurring boundaries and creating a metaphysical space in which each object appears on its own, displayed as an idea rather than as a mere product.
“If we had put the objects all together, we would have created a living room. Instead, we decided to remove the boundaries given by how we use these objects and create a sort of limbo,” explains Guillermo Santomà, who is known for a multidisciplinary approach merging design, architecture, sculpture and scenography, “Floating objects don’t have meaning or a function. They are just shape, materiality, color.”
The same visual approach is applied to the windows on Via Monte Napoleone, 7. In one of them, a pair of Gucci Cub3d — a limited-edition sneaker created combining 3D-printed elements and the House’s own Demetra material — float in the middle of the air and rotate on their own in a magnetic installation. In another one, a 3D printer is displayed as a unique object customized by Santomà himself.
About Michela Pelizzari
Michela Pelizzari was born in Milan and has been involved in strategic communication and business development for the design and architecture world for more than twenty years. After working for a public relations agency and for Politecnico di Milano’s Design Faculty, in 2009 she founded P:S, a Milan-based strategic consultancy that conceives and develops creative communication projects focused on design. Her work stands out for an integrated approach that considers communication as an integral part of the design process.
About Guillermo Santomà
Guillermo Santomà (b.1984) is a designer living and working in Barcelona. Since graduating with an MA in design, Santomà has worked in different formats, moving between design, architecture, sculpture and scenography. Santomà uses simple and primitive methods to alter familiar objects in a constant process of deformation, creating complete environments. His work promotes the systematic transformation of the ways of objectifying, organizing, analyzing and transmitting. As a multi-faceted architect and designer, Santomà could be described as being interested in how a space is affected by the production of elements vaguely similar to furniture.
NOTES TO THE EDITOR
Le Mura by Mario Bellini for Tacchini (1972, reedition 2022)
Le Mura, whose initial sketch dates back to 1972, stands as one of Mario Bellini’s earliest designs. Resembling imposing, freshly carved boulders reminiscent of Roman walls, this sofa system draws an “interior landscape” that responds to the continual need for life adaptation. Thanks to its modularity, the sofa is conceived as an active space, promising a vision of dynamism in the family, alongside the changing forms of living. Remarkable is the detail of the belt, which, borrowed from the world of clothing, expresses the possibility of “lacing” a physical and lasting connection between the modules and between those who “inhabit” them.
Tacchini
Tacchini has been creating furniture and furnishing accessories with a strong brand identity and high quality in materials and finishes since 1967. Founded by Antonio Tacchini, the company is still family-owned: CEO and Art Director Giusi Tacchini and Head of Production Maurizio Tacchini oversee the business with flawless synergy, while upholding the brand’s core values. The company is a reference in the Made in Italy furniture industry and stands out for the collaborations with creative studios, craftsmen’s workshops and manufacturing facilities to showcase the excellence of Italian craftsmanship made in Brianza. The bond with contemporaneity is enhanced by the combination of high-quality materials and constantly updated production technologies. Tacchini creates unique and timeless products contributing to a distinctive style, thanks to constant stylistic and functional research, product design and project culture, care for people and the environment. Tradition, dedication, collaborations, research and distinctive style make every Tacchini object unique and unmistakable. Tacchini imagines living spaces with a warm and welcoming atmosphere, where reading, conversation, listening and conviviality are stimulated by furniture of great comfort and high aesthetic impact.
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Clessidra rug, Portaluppi Pattern Project by Nicolò Castellini Baldissera (great grandson of Piero Portaluppi), from an iconic design of Piero Portaluppi, edited by cc-tapis (2024)
cc-tapis celebrates the growing interest in the legacy of Italian architect, urban planner and architectural historian Piero Portaluppi. An iconic design drawn by the renowned Milanese artist in 1926 as part of an architectural study, now translated into a handwoven rug. Transcending any temporal classification, Piero Portaluppi’s ornamental motifs are classic by vocation, yet still capable of interpreting the contemporary.
cc-tapis
cc-tapis is an Italian rug maker which produces contemporary hand-made rugs. The company was founded in France by Nelcya Chamszadeh and Fabrizio Cantoni, who have been producing hand-knotted rugs in Nepal for over 20 years. In 2011 cc-tapis moved to Milan, where the company is now based and a team of designers led by Daniele Lora, art-director and partner, innovate through a new approach to traditional methods. A strong respect for the materials and for the culture of this ancient craft is reflected in the company’s eco-friendly approach to every step of production, ranging from the hand spinning of the softest materials to the use of purified rainwater for the washing of the final products, making each one of cc-tapis rugs unique. Far from mass production, cc-tapis aims to offer a tailored service to those who understand and enjoy a high-end product which contains the story of an ageless culture.
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Storet by Nanda Vigo for Acerbis (1994, reediton 2020)
Nanda Vigo, who more than anyone else in Italy has celebrated the encounter between art and design, designed Storet in 1994. The set of drawers is the product of the designer's successful collaboration with Acerbis, a Bergamo-based company whose craftsmanship and woodworking traditions have made it a benchmark for design in Italy and beyond. Storet breaks the monotony of interiors with a transgressive touch made up of formal and material contrasts. A simple vertical structure in natural wood is enriched by the rounded and sensual shapes of the drawers finished with a matte lacquer in bright and original colors. Storet was reissued in 2020 by renewing the production cycle and updating the proportions and finishes, while respecting the original design.
Acerbis
One of the most enduring furniture companies in Italy, Acerbis stands as a connoisseur’s benchmark of Italian design — a pioneer with 150 years of expertise, whose continual search for modernity has produced creations of stunning innovation. Today that mission continues with fresh vigor. With industry leader MDF Italia acquiring Acerbis to elevate its presence in the international market, and creative directors Francesco Meda and David Lopez Quincoces helming a dynamic path forward, Acerbis affirms its family-led lineage of cutting-edge vision, and its universe of designs that unite function and the avant-garde.
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Opachi by Tobia Scarpa for Venini (1960, reedition 2021)
In the creative ardor of the 1940s, Carlo Scarpa shaped a number of artifacts capable of evoking the elegance of oriental porcelain. His artistic vision was passed down through the decades, profoundly influencing his son Tobia Scarpa who, in the 1960s, carried on his father's legacy through a fresh and minimalist reinterpretation of these formal themes. His monochrome designs, which would come to be known as Opachi, embody the essence of sobriety and classical elegance. The vases collection, a jewel of the Venini portfolio, is executed with the masterful craftsmanship that distinguishes the Venetian brand. Opachi is a striking visual experience where each vase is distinguished by its purity of form and vibrant use of color. Indeed, this refined minimalism composed of sinuous silhouettes and elegant lines highlights the intrinsic beauty of Murano glass, allowing the colors to shine through.
Venini
Founded in 1921 by Paolo Venini, a Milanese lawyer, and Giacomo Cappellin, a Venetian antiques dealer, Venini S.p.A. gained the most extraordinary achievements in the world of handmade blown glass. For more than a century, the best master glassmakers and artists have met at the Furnace, giving life to a story of excellence and innovation that started in Italy but later spread all over the world. With its iconic projects and new creations, Venini presents its works in two collections: Art Glass brings together a series of extraordinary sculptural vases and objects for interior decoration; Art Light features chandeliers and important lighting installations for large public or private spaces. Venini artworks are on display in art galleries and museums around the world as testimonials to the company’s standing in the art community.
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Parola by Gae Aulenti and Piero Castiglioni for FontanaArte (1980)
The Parola table lamp was designed in 1980 by Gae Aulenti and Piero Castiglioni. It is the perfect example of the virtuous integration of craftsmanship, industry and design. Within this exquisitely balanced and light object, like a technical inventory, three different types and processes of glass working coexist. The diffuser is a perfect, colored opal sphere perforated at the top, a clear homage to the Murano glass tradition. Its support is a transparent concave stem that embraces the tiger fabric power cord. The whole rests on a circular base of ground natural crystal, at once sturdy and ethereal. Parola is capable of providing direct and controlled light as well as a soft glow to its surroundings. The authors, with the typical irony of assemblage, look through the lens of Art Deco and Rationalism, succeeding in reinventing them with elegance and fusing aesthetics and functionality flawlessly.
FontanaArte
Established by Gio Ponti and Pietro Chiesa, FontanaArte stands as a leading figure in decorative lighting worldwide. Its inception in 1932 stemmed from the aspiration to harness the imaginative potential of a new generation of architects, artists, and decorators, in leveraging the unique properties of glass—a vision particularly resonant in Milan, where industrial production was heralded among the manifold avenues of artistic expression.
The company's forward-looking strategy endeavors to redefine FontanaArte’s allure through a symbiotic exchange with both esteemed craftsmen and the rich heritage of Italian design, thereby pioneering novel aesthetic paradigms. Even amidst the 21st century, the ethos of Art, symbolically imbued by Ponti into the company’s name, remains pivotal in crafting an identity transcendent of any single mass-produced item. This timeless ethos, straddling the realms of artistry and industrial ingenuity, continues to inspire FontanaArte’s contemporary output, characterized by a delicate equilibrium between lucidity and enduring sophistication.
All high res images can be found here.
Theo Bakana
