Zeroing colours and decor, returning to the essence of the material.
This is the idea by Paola Navone for telling the De Rosso story, the company of Italy’s Veneto region which is the creator of many of the Abet Laminati furnishings: ranging from the creations by Ettore Sottsass to the collections by Memphis and Alchimia; the sculpture-furniture following the projects by internationally famous architects carried out in Digital Print; and the creations in digital laminate created in 2003 by twenty-five young international architects which were presented at the Milan Triennial in the exhibition supervised by Paola Navone.
“Bianco 411″ – the title of the installation – is Abet white.
And this is what represents the essence of the project: a totally white and empty space. On the sides there are projecting consoles like a large extrusion to sit on in order to relish a moment of calm and formal cleanliness.
When every thing has been done, when the most beautiful ‘pages’ of decoration’s story and history have already been written, when we suffer or endure what is “too much” – nothing else is left than to start from the beginning: from white, from silence and from light so as to offer the traveller of design a moment of peace. A traveller bewildered and confused by those so many images of the Milanese week.
The only things present are a thousand Indian spoons, already used and therefore second-hand, collected by Paola Navone during her explorations of the world in search for a design without a name. They hang from the ceiling in their new silver-plating. On the white page of the space they write a message that it’s worth stopping to think about.
They talk about an anonymous design, often more beautiful and more meaningful than the one with a ‘name’ (and years before Bruno Munari had proposed awarding the Compasso d’Oro to the “Unknown Designer”). They talk about selection as the project gesture. It’s of no importance to create something new when there is already so much: sometimes just choosing is enough, remembering to look in places we’ve forgotten, places where it’s possible to find excellence. Places where it’s possible to find magic.
They talk about a possible ‘Renaissance’ of day-to-day objects. And silver-plated, the thousand spoons can present themselves again on the table. They can be used again, remembering that they have already been used and worn by so many hands. That they’ve lived other – and honourable – lives. That they can once again lay a table, imagining both other uses and other rites. In this way feeling themselves close. To by now far-off worlds. 

Venue : Triennale di Milano – Ground Floor – 16/21th of April 2008

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Tags: Bianco 411, De Rosso, Milan, Paola Navone, Salone del Mobile, Triennale di Milano

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 6th, 2008 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Agenda, Exhibitions, Italy, Print HPL, Products. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.