Poltronova

Radical Iconic Italian Design

Cover of the number 486 of the magazine “Domus” from 1970. – Ultrafragola and the “Mobili Grigi” series, in “Ultrafragola:ettoreSottsass jr., “The monographs of Poltronova”, 2020, text by @francescabalenaarista. – The Ultrafragola mirror is the only piece in Ettore Sottsass’s Mobili Grigi series that was actually produced. All the others were made only in limited numbers. The words used by Sottsass to describe this series, with their «rounded and (permanently) swollen shapes of perhaps female or, if you like, religious origin (which is the same thing)», seem to reverberate, amplified, in its wavy frame lit up by pink neon. – Design break. We offer you a pleasant biweekly reading on the history of our iconic products. Just sign up here and you're done! >>> http://eepurl.com/gxXn_z . . . . . . #designbreak #poltronova #superstudio #ettoresottsass #sottsass #ultrafragola #mobiligrigi #domusweb @domusweb
Durga Temple [aka Monkey Temple] in Varanasi, Indi Durga Temple [aka Monkey Temple] in Varanasi, India. – Ultrafragola and the “Mobili Grigi” series, in “Ultrafragola:ettoreSottsass jr., “The monographs of Poltronova”, 2020, text by @francescabalenaarista. – It was in May 1970 at Eurodomus 3, the forerunner of what would become Milan’s Salone del Mobile, that Poltronova presented this series made from fiberglass, which was a material commonly used for boat hulls but unusual in the world of design. The series bore the brand of the Design Centre, the division created a few years previously in Poltronova to market advanced technology designs. The stand designed by Sottsass was a space in semi—darkness illuminated only by the neon lights that emerge from the furniture «like Japanese fireflies, which transform May nights into solid matter». The Mobili Grigi series of furnishings emerge from the darkness of this metaphysical space like alienating apparitions. Sottsass’s original idea was for three—dimensional contoured shapes fixed to the wall, but although the technology to make them this way didn’t exist at the time, it can clearly be seen in the Ultrafragola mirror. – Design break. We offer you a pleasant biweekly reading on the history of our iconic products. Just sign up here and you're done! >>> http://eepurl.com/gxXn_z . . . . . . #designbreak #poltronova #superstudio #ettoresottsass #sottsass #ultrafragola #mobiligrigi
Mobili Grigi. Photo by Ettore Sottsass jr. and Alb Mobili Grigi. Photo by Ettore Sottsass jr. and Alberto Fioravanti, 1970. – Ultrafragola and the “Mobili Grigi” series, in “Ultrafragola:ettoreSottsass jr., “The monographs of Poltronova”, 2020, text by @francescabalenaarista. – The third edition of Eurodomus, organised by “Domus” magazine and Torino Esposizioni, was held for the first time in Palazzo dell’Arte in Milan, after the two previous events in Genoa and Turin, and offered huge potential for international visibility. The reactions of the public and business insiders to Sottsass’s project were very strong. The position of “Abitare” magazine was emblematic of the general tone, criticising the Mobili Grigi series along the lines of “No, no, not this” and judging it to be in bad taste. – Design break. We offer you a pleasant biweekly reading on the history of our iconic products. Just sign up here and you're done! >>> http://eepurl.com/gxXn_z . . . . . . ⁣ #designbreak #poltronova #superstudio #ettoresottsass #sottsass #ultrafragola #mobiligrigi
Mobili Grigi. Photo by Ettore Sottsass jr. and Alb Mobili Grigi. Photo by Ettore Sottsass jr. and Alberto Fioravanti, 1970. – Ultrafragola and the “Mobili Grigi” series, in “Ultrafragola:ettoreSottsass jr., “The monographs of Poltronova”, 2020, text by @francescabalenaarista. – It wasn’t the unusual technology, or perhaps even the dark grey colour —chosen intentionally for its lack of commercial appeal— that disturbed the public so much as the fact that Sottsass used design, like art, as a tool for reflection, criticism and provocation. In Could anything be more ridiculous, in which he compares the Mobili Grigi and the Ceramiche Yantra (another design for Poltronova), Sottsass writes: «You need to put as many Mobili Grigi in a room as possible [...]. At this point you feel almost suffocated by a brilliant grey geological sloughing of plastic [...], you feel completely isolated from everything outside the room, as if you were in the burning red Monkey Temple in Benares, or in Captain Nemo’s submarine, or in the dusty grey Royal Tomb [...] or on a silent journey through the solid black sky between Mars (the planet) and Orion (the star). It is a journey that is also a death, as is always the case if you are deeply immersed in reality. What more do you want?». – Design break. We offer you a pleasant biweekly reading on the history of our iconic products. Just sign up here and you're done! >>> http://eepurl.com/gxXn_z . . . . . . #designbreak #poltronova #superstudio #ettoresottsass #sottsass #ultrafragola #mobiligrigi
Mobili Grigi. Photo by Ettore Sottsass jr. and Alb Mobili Grigi. Photo by Ettore Sottsass jr. and Alberto Fioravanti, 1970. – Ultrafragola and the “Mobili Grigi” series, in “Ultrafragola:ettoreSottsass jr., “The monographs of Poltronova”, 2020, text by @francescabalenaarista. – The photographs taken with Alberto Fioravanti, in which human presence is reduced to a fragment —a hand appearing from behind the bedhead, a leg poking out of a wardrobe, a woman with her head resting on the table— amplify this sense of searching for existential awareness. The series includes the Elledue bed with its illuminated pink bedhead —later produced in sky blue too, and separately as the floor—standing lamp Elle— the Bicinque wardrobe capped by an illuminated yellow lampshade, the Unisex corner cabinet with two orange neon lights on either side of the vacuum—moulded doors, the three—shelf Essetre bookcase, the round Aromatico table, the Malatesta chair, the Ultrafragola mirror and the Piquattro record/magazine rack. The Bruco and Cometa lamps also form part of the same experiment. – Design break. We offer you a pleasant biweekly reading on the history of our iconic products. Just sign up here and you're done! >>> http://eepurl.com/gxXn_z . . . . . . #designbreak #poltronova #ettoresottsass #sottsass #ultrafragola #design #interiordesign #furniture #madeinitaly
Mobili Grigi, original drawings by Ettore Sottsass Mobili Grigi, original drawings by Ettore Sottsass jr., 1970. – Ultrafragola and the “Mobili Grigi” series, in “Ultrafragola:ettoreSottsass jr., “The monographs of Poltronova”, 2020, text by @francescabalenaarista. – Intentionally destabilising, there was no way the Mobili Grigi series could have been a market success, not even in the subsequent, mitigated, white version. This caused cracks to appear in the designer’s already delicate relationship with Poltronova. «The internal commission —writes Sottsass— told Cammilli that he had better stop spending money to produce more or less useless furniture like the designs I was proposing». So, in about 1973, Sottsass left the company because his work was too far ahead of the times to be accepted. The Ultrafragola mirror is the only remaining witness to the bold experimentation of the Mobili Grigi series, with the exception of a few rare and highly sought—after prototypes made of the other pieces. – Design break. We offer you a pleasant biweekly reading on the history of our iconic products. Just sign up here and you're done! >>> http://eepurl.com/gxXn_z . . . . . . #designbreak #poltronova #superstudio #ettoresottsass #sottsass #ultrafragola #mobiligrigi #popdesign #radicaldesign #design #interiordesign #furniture #furnituredesign #italiandesign #madeinitaly
Collage by Ettore Sottsass jr. for a never printed Collage by Ettore Sottsass jr. for a never printed Poltronova catalog. – Ettore Sottsass jr. interviewed by Francesca Balena Arista. From Ettore Sottsass. A private scrapbook. 1957—2007. – Francesca Balena Arista: This collage with the Ultrafragola mirror from the Poltronova Archives, is it yours? The figure of the woman in the mirror seems like a dancer from one of Toulouse—Lautrec’s paintings. Ettore Sottsass: Yes. This collage was for a Poltronova catalog that was never produced. But the image is from a book by an Austrian nobleman who had fun drawing deeply erotic scenes at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Mirrors are used mainly by women, and women have a natural flair for seduction. What wasn’t a success, let’s say, and didn’t sell was my constant striving to give a meaning to design, to give it a sense. ⁣ Francesca Balena Arista: And do you think this sells today? Have people finally understood you? Ettore Sottsass: No, they don’t understand me today. They use me and sell me. And when you sell something, you don’t necessarily understand what it is that you’re selling: you just sell it, because you’ve realised there’s a market for it. [Contents by The monographs of Poltronova: Ultrafragola. Ettore Sottsass jr, edited by Francesca Balena Arista, Donatello D’Angelo and Elisabetta Trincherini, Centro Studi Poltronova per il Design, Florence 2020] – We offer you a pleasant biweekly reading on the history of our iconic products. Just sign up here and you’re done! >>> http://eepurl.com/gxXn_z . . . . . . #designbreak #istayhomefor #iorestoacasa #poltronova #ettoresottsass #sottsass #collage # toulouselautrec #radicaldesign #popdesign #design #architecture #furniture #furnituredesign #italiandesign #madeinitaly #themonographsofpoltronova #privatescrapbook
Ettore Sottsass jr. during interview in his studio Ettore Sottsass jr. during interview in his studio in Milan. – Ettore Sottsass jr. interviewed by Francesca Balena Arista. From Ettore Sottsass. A private scrapbook. 1957—2007. – Francesca Balena Arista: How did your relationship with Poltronova begin? Ettore Sottsass: As I think I’ve written somewhere, my story with Poltronova began in 1956—57. In 1956 I was in the United States and more or less unemployed both when I went there and when I came back. When I returned, the artist Agenore Fabbri called me and said, “Listen, there’s a company here in Tuscany called Poltronova that wants someone to design furniture for them.” I was, of course, excited at the prospect because I didn’t have any work, so I said, OK, let’s do something!. [Contents by The monographs of Poltronova: Ultrafragola. Ettore Sottsass jr, edited by Francesca Balena Arista, Donatello D’Angelo and Elisabetta Trincherini, Centro Studi Poltronova per il Design, Florence 2020] – We offer you a pleasant biweekly reading on the history of our iconic products. Just sign up here and you’re done! >>> http://eepurl.com/gxXn_z . . . . . . #designbreak #istayhomefor #iorestoacasa #poltronova #ettoresottsass #sottsass #radicaldesign #popdesign #design #architecture #furniture #furnituredesign #italiandesign #madeinitaly #themonographsofpoltronova #privatescrapbook
Mobili Grigi, P4 album storage, 1970. – Ettore S Mobili Grigi, P4 album storage, 1970. – Ettore Sottsass jr. interviewed by Francesca Balena Arista. From Ettore Sottsass. A private scrapbook. 1957—2007. – Francesca Balena Arista: The photographic images you used to tell the story of this furniture are very unusual, can you explain them to us? Ettore Sottsass: In the photographs for Poltronova there’s the idea that furniture isn’t a catalogue of individual objects placed in a home, but the design of a place or what we might call an existential state. In the photographs of the Mobili Grigi series there’s a woman with her hair on the table, for example, and one where you can only see her leg… the fact that I put these legs in them, these items… in a certain sense was an announcement that the furniture is designed for an existence that is aware of existential disaster. They aren’t designed for a middle—class family, all happy and contented and so on. They create a strange, almost metaphysical setting, which meant they worked even less well on the market, there was just no way around it. ⁣ Francesca Balena Arista: These images also contain references to the sensual or even sexual dimension of existence. Ettore Sottsass: Absolutely. What you call sensual I call sensory: life is perceived first sensorily and then intellectually. And sexuality forms part of this sensory vocabulary. [Contents by The monographs of Poltronova: Ultrafragola. Ettore Sottsass jr, edited by Francesca Balena Arista, Donatello D’Angelo and Elisabetta Trincherini, Centro Studi Poltronova per il Design, Florence 2020] – We offer you a pleasant biweekly reading on the history of our iconic products. Just sign up here and you’re done! >>> http://eepurl.com/gxXn_z . . . . . . #designbreak #istayhomefor #iorestoacasa #poltronova #ettoresottsass #sottsass #mobiligrigi #radicaldesign #popdesign #design #architecture #furniture #furnituredesign #italiandesign #madeinitaly #themonographsofpoltronova #privatescrapbook
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Luisaviaroma: Home for the Holidays

07.11.2018
By ceciona
0
All News, Exhibitions, Home Decor, Interior Design, Poltronova

LuisaViaRoma turns the store in Florence into a house to celebrate the holidays with a project that pays homage to the Italian excellence of design and clothing.

The exhibition is inspired by the themes of dream and surrealism and the renowned Italian architect, designer and photographer Carlo Mollino, reinterpreting the most intimate spaces of the house, in a path of rooms including the boudoir, where you can find two Sanremo lamps among the other objects, the bedroom and the studio of an eclectic collector. The result is an environment with a domestic flavor, rich in symbolic and cultural references, with a Christmas atmosphere.

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Luisaviaroma – Via Roma 19/21r Firenze
Ph. Francesco Bolis
An Interior Project: designed by Cristina Celestino
Direction Annagreta Panconesi
Concept Silvano Vangi
Curated by Valentina Guidi Ottobri
#lvrhomefortheholidays

Archizoom Associati Centro Studi Poltronova Sanremo

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