DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
: This light sculpture named ‘Blue-green soul’ belongs to the series 'Luminaria', sculptures realized in resins of diverse chromatic hues and saturation that embody the human figure draped as anthropomorphic shapes in changing postures. These sculptures become lamps, a poetic object of art design brought into being from an original clay model. In particular ‘Blue-green soul’ (a floor lamp) evokes a figure absorbed in a regenerating meditation.
DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
: The prototype of 'Blue-green soul' was realized as part of the collection 'interioritratti' (www.interioritratti.com), the brand I created to start my projects artistically inspired. Unlike other items in the collection, entrusted to specific companies, I want to produce personally 'Blue-green soul' and in general the sculptures of the series 'Luminaria', in limited edition.
DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
: The series ‘Luminaria’ for me is extremely important because it allowed me finally to get close to one of my greatest passions, sculpture. I followed my inspiration , I wanted to see this cloth of resin shaped like as a female figure absorbed in meditation, able to convey a deep sense of serenity. The forms are primordial, almost archetypal, also because they represent before than a body, a soul, which vibrates at the frequency of the blue-green color, that expresses the infinite power, depth and serene wisdom.
DI: Who is the target customer for his design?
: The sculptures of the series 'Luminaria' are directed to a circuit of art galleries - and then to an audience of collectors - and are suitable for particular places, public and private. As I really like the cross-cutting approaches it’s really possible there will be interdisciplinary installations. In addition to 'Blue-green soul' and 'Isadora' is in the pipeline the project of a third sculpture (a suspension), choral and quite challenging.
DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
: This sculpture has a value very close to me, linked to the ability of a person I knew - authoritative and well-known, however - to see the human soul and the color of the aura ... blue-green is my theme and in the posture of this figure is summarized the way that, going through life and also through pain with a deep inner eye, allows to reach a great and bright serenity. An experience that I think has an universal value, because each one can recognize. My project is not called for nothing 'interioritratti' (a play on words between inner traits and inner portraits) and 'Blue-green soul' has for me a great symbolic value.
DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
: These works involve a return to the figurative: the latest full and characteristic expression has taken place in the Art Deco period, after which the figurative reference was banned by Rationalism. The biggest challenge in my opinion is interpreting these figures - which are presented as objects of art design and then with, in addition to artistic inspiration, an architectural function - without falling into kitsch.
For this I have chosen the way of the 'unfinished', so in my intention figure is mentioned and almost suggested by a cloth of resin, lightweight. The details are hazy, fleeting, unimportant ... important is the figure that is evoked, and the emotion associated with it… the rest can and should be completed by the imagination of everyone. The choice of resin as material, brings this interpretation of the sculpture in a contemporary dimension. But the resin, which usually in the design world is sanded and finished to perfection, in this case is deliberately processed in a crude, materic, artistic way.
DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?
: To achieve these objects of art design is necessary a long processing, for which I first charged a team of young sculptors coordinated by maestro Raffaele Mondazzi, which has a chair at the Accademia Albertina in Turin. In particular, ‘Blue-green soul’ was followed by Toni Lamia, who played with a particular talent my sketches and my intentions. We started by studying the sketches in clay, through the plaster model, until the resin matrix. The processings in resin were carried out by the Cesare Luparia, which in Italy performs various works by Gaetano Pesce. Each piece printed by the matrix is painted by hand, so it’s unique. I wished that these sculptures had a type of contemporaneous lighting, in this case some tapes LED on the steel corten base. For aspects of illumination of this as of other objects of the series 'interioritratti' I worked in partnership with the TGE (www.tge.it), company expert in electrical installations of large dimensions, which in this case is adept on prototypes.