baglioni hotels - luxury is not a waste
DESCRIPTION
Permanent exhibition of design objects on display in the Roman Penthouse and available for purchaseTRANSCRIPT
Luxury is not a waste.
The quality of work in the new Italian Contemporary Design.
Enzo MARI
DonataPARUCCINI
LorenzoDAMIANI
AlbertoNASON
MicheleDE LUCCHI
EttoreSOTTSASS
PaoloULIAN
Giorgio BONAGURO
Valentina CARRETTA
The project is in progress and open to other authors
The idea for the “LUXURY IS NOT A WASTE” site-specific project came about
following a meeting between Guido Polito, CEO of Baglioni Hotels, and Vin-
cenzo Basile, Design consultant Manager and Editor of research projects in
Contemporary Design.
The aim is to host Contemporary Design projects – all of them connected
with the “fare italiano”, do it in Italy – strictly “made in Italy”, and devel-
oped by the new generations of architects and Designers, and by the Mas-
ters of Contemporary Design and of the ‘900 as well.
The project follows the event “PAST/FUTURE” – Enzo Mari and the Italian
contemporary Design, realized in Milan at the Carlton Hotel Baglioni and in-
side Amaranto Boutique, during the Salone del Mobile in April 2013; it was
one of a number of events of Milanese Design Week’s Fuorisalone.
The outcome of the meeting between Mr. Polito and Mr. Basile has become
a challenge: presenting innovative or unpublished projects by Italian up-
and-coming Designers, especially the youngest generations, in a context
that is different from the usual venues where objects of design research
are placed and communicated. This, in order to find a contact with different
kinds of public, and to create new forms of communication and synergy in
a high-quality context.
The location that has been chosen is the exclusive “Roman Penthouse” Top
Suite of the Regina Hotel Baglioni in Rome. The Suite occupies the entire top
floor of the palace – once the residence of Queen Margherita di Savoia. The
space has been completely renovated, and it is now a prestigious window
from which you can admire the Eternal City, and enjoy the spectacular and
exclusive view as well.
A spacious apartment, very luxurious, but reserved at the same time, is in-
habited by a number of objects that are not only part of the furniture, but
symbols of memory and affection, to be used, and looked at, and admired.
Precious and stimulating presences, sometimes also critical of the contem-
porary consumer patterns.
The Italian high-quality Design has always told a story, always stimulated
reflections, always stirred emotions.
It intertwines the “intellectual work” and the communication of the qual-
ity and of the work, it transmits the knowledge and the skill, the ability to
realize objects that are useful, as well as beautiful: the “work of making”
– il “lavoro del fare”. The objects are witnesses of a projectual research:
sophisticated, stimulating, often critical and connected to a reality which is
continually evolving in taste and fashions. Also, and most interesting, these
objects are designed to meet the demands of cultural changes and new
experiences.
If one looks at the Italian Design as a union/alliance between intellectual
project and handicraft realization, luxury may well be interpreted not only
as a waste, or a mere display of wealth and ephemeral consumption, but as
the imprint of the intellectual and material work of the very many people
who take part in the projects: artisans, professionals, intellectuals, enter-
prises, common workers who, often behind the scene, realize the Quality.
These objects represent the Excellence of the italian making “il fare italiano”,
they communicate to the world our authenticity. Our history.
A site-specific project curated by Vincenzo BasileBASILE ARTECO
REGINA HOTEL BAGLIONITop Suite “ROMAN PENTHOUSE”
Via Veneto 72, Roma (ITALY)
May/November 2013
Just a little is quite enough “Poco poco quel poco che basta” is a creative method, starting
from everything that exists. With small deformations, small displacements and small vari-
ations, it makes everything look different, fresh and surprising. It is an invitation to work
very carefully in search of minimal rejections, that produce more revolutions than total
protest and give more thrust to innovation than a general requestioning of basic knowl-
edge. The glass effect is called “optical” due to the facets that give a particular brilliancy
and transparency. Dimensions are important.
LIMITED EDITION – 2008
Certificate of Authenticity
“Introverso” is a vase in Carrara white marble.
Hidden within it, another vase, of different shape, but from the same material. Two par-
allel stories, yet independent, where one excludes the other, and viceversa.
A hammer is attached to the vase: you are left with the hard decision wheter to choose
the visible vase,or the one that is waiting to be freed from the marble, personifiying it by
breaking the white marble flaps or leaving a few of them untouched.
LIMITED EDITION – 2011 numbered pieces
Certificate of Authenticity
LibeccioMichele De Lucchi
Introverso Paolo Ulian
Root Vases are ambivalent objects: the outer cylinder – sem-transparent – is connected
to the internal element in colour glass representing the roots of a flower.
Designed as top-down vases, they contain one only flower on one side, and a bunch of
flowers on the other. The SOFFIATURA A LUME – glass-bloing - is a handicraft technique
for working the glass. The starting point is a borosilicate glass tube that is heated a sec-
ond time on a horizontal flame from a mechanic nozzle. The “Maestro di lume” – the
glass Master, dilates the glass and moulds it with small tools.
LIMITED EDITION – 2012
Certificate of Authenticity
Each vase is a composition of two handblown glass volumes, one inside another. Silhou-
ettes and details of the pieces open individual interpretation. The title could represent a
suggestion. Also in this case the experimentation, the research, develop the theme of a
face, declining it in different shapes, connecting the form of the object to the presence of
a person in the panorama of household objects. The aesthetic research doesn’t exclude
the material use of these objects, actually, it gives them a formal touch that makes them
stylish, and unique.
LIMITED EDITION – 2010
Certificate of Authenticity
Roots-VasesGiorgio Bonaguro
Vaso VisoValentina Carretta
This is a vase with an indefi nite aspect, vague, apparently without internal logic. Its fi nal
form, instead, is the natural consequence of the working method that has been used to
obtain the pieces that compose it. Made of 24 superimposing concentric rings that have
been cut out of three slabs 60 X 60 cm. Carrara white marble.
The concentric layout of the rings on the slab makes it possible to waste as litt le material
as possible.
LIMITED EDITION – 2008 numbered editi on
Certi fi cate of Authenti city
Small vases made by fi tti ng discarded light bulbs, specially milled, with various material.
Each object is unique. The simple acknowledgement of the beauty of a form, that of the
incandescent light bulb, and the creati vity of a poeti c project.
The bulb is suspended, with a lightness that has Eastern overtones, on a sleder bamboo
and a wire frame. The fragility - merely apparent- of the device created by the Author
contains the secret of its beauty: unstable equilibrium, small knots.
A piece in which the dimension of design turns rapidly into art.
UNIQUE PIECES – 2002
Certi fi cate of Authenti city
Vaso VagoPaolo Ulian
Bulbi VasoDonata Paruccini
A beauti ful vase realized at Murano, in mouthblown glass.
Part of the permanent Collecti on of Beaubourg-Centre Pompidou in Paris.
The contrast between the round and soft glass form and the shape of the squared base,
essenti al, in row unprocessed metal and the materic and cromati c justapositi on of the
luminosity and brilliance of the glass and the opacity, almost cold, of a metallic support,
embedded in the base reminds the metallic tools of the glass-blowing Masters in the
incredible Furnaces in Murano at Veneti an dawns.
LIMITED EDITION – 1997
Certi fi cate of Authenti city
A beauti ful vase realized at Murano, in mouthblown glass.
Part of the permanent Collecti on of Beaubourg-Centre Pompidou in Paris.
The contrast between the round and soft glass form and the shape of the squared base,
essenti al, in row unprocessed metal and the materic and cromati c justapositi on of the
luminosity and brilliance of the glass and the opacity, almost cold, of a metallic support,
embedded in the base reminds the metallic tools of the glass-blowing Masters in the
incredible Furnaces in Murano at Veneti an dawns.
LIMITED EDITION – 1997
Certi fi cate of Authenti city
Basequadra NeroMichele de Lucchi
Basequadra VerdeMichele de Lucchi
Venetian born Alberto Nason’s Collection is the result of an interesting experiment that
combines two important traditions related to glass-blowing, the “Murano” and the “Ma-
rostica” school. Unruly Collection of vases and glasses is a modern reinterpretation of
the classic glass, the Venetian Tripeto. All items in the collection are hand-crafted in bo-
rosilicate glass by Masters with traditional tecniques. The designer plays with our sensory
experiences in two ways: we feel the solid and cylindrical forms of vases, while we see
the forms of classic Venetian glasses revealed by the fluid.
UNIQUE PIECES – 2008 prototype
Certificate of Authenticity
Unruly VaseAlberto Nason
In this simple but smart project Paolo Ulian develops the theme of the eggholder: he
comes out of the usual patterns referring to the bare design of the metallic component
and the intelligent use of ordinary dishes, that can be found in every kitchen, for collect-
ing the remains of the eggshell and as a kind of container of the bread that is usually
dunked in the yolk. That of the re-cycling, of the non-wasting, of the use of what is al-
ready available in the home, is a dear theme to Paolo Ulian, who aims at making objects
whose design is respectful of their use.
LIMITED EDITION – 2012
Certificate of Authenticity
CoquetierPaolo Ulian
Limited Edition version of the Collection, since colour black is the most difficult and ex-
pensive to be worked on. An object that is different from the “Root Vases” family because
of its colour, playing on e more essential image.
The SOFFIATURA A LUME – glass-blowing - is a handicraft technique for working the
glass. The starting point is a borosilicate glass tube that is heated a second time on a
horizontal flame from a mechanic nozzle.
The “Maestro di lume” – the glass Master, dilates the glass and moulds it with small tools.
LIMITED EDITION – 2013 numbered edition.
Certificate of Authenticity
Black Root VaseGiorgio Bonaguro
Essential object, simple, but not minimal, not banal, bearing with it the memory of the
work on the material, the choice of the material, the mastery and the skills in the manu-
facturing, and, at the same time, the preciousness of the Carrara white marble, its light,
the fascination of the history within this fantastic material, even on a piece apparently to
be thrown away, to be put apart, to be disposed of, that finds a new life thanks to intel-
ligent, projectual and executive interventions. Centrepiece and fruitholder realized by
working on fragments, reject from the working process.
UNIQUE PIECES – 1992 prototype
Certificate of Authenticity
CarraraPaolo Ulian
Each vase is a composition of two handblown glass volumes, one inside another. Silhou-
ettes and details of the pieces open individual interpretation.
The title could represent a suggestion.
Also in this case the experimentation, the research, develop the theme of a face, declin-
ing it in different shapes, connecting the form of the object to the presence of a person
in the panorama of household objects.
The aesthetic research doesn’t exclude the material use of these objects, actually, it gives
them a formal touch that makes them stylish, and unique.
LIMITED EDITION – 2010
Certificate of Authenticity
Vasi Viso Valentina Carretta
Table penholder in bronze, handpolished.
Apparently simple object, it is the product of a “controlled error”: the drilling, from part
to part, is made “fuori asse” – out of axis - creating a series of “decorative” loopholes on
the sides. From these, the body of the pencil will become visible.
The aspect of a block, proper of the object, is not changed, and gives it a pleasant sensa-
tion of “weight”.
LIMITED EDITION – 2011 special edition
Certificate of Authenticity
MonobloccoDonata Paruccini
A powerful and at the same time precious project by Enzo Mari, Master of the ‘900 and
contemporary Italian Design. Handcrefted Forged Iron, manufactured with the technique
that has been used since ancient times for making swords, and schytes as well, beautiful
and luminous mouthblown glass created in Furnaces in Murano by skilled Masters, they
are unique pieces made for this Edition, numbered and signed personally by the Author.
A precious Collection, the “Ferri Forgiati” enclose in the project the secret of what Design
should be today.
UNIQUE PIECES – 2008 numbered and signed by the Author Collection
Certificate of Authenticity
SboccioEnzo Mari
“Mazzucco” allegorically hints at archetypal forms linked to the history of Man: a flower-
shaped fruitholder from which fuits pour out. A powerful project by Enzo Mari, Master of
‘900 and contemporary Italian Design. Handcrafted Forged Iron, manufactured with the
technique that has been used since ancient times for making swords, and schytes as well.
Unique pieces for this Edition, numbered and signed personally by the Author.
A precious Collection, the “Ferri Forgiati” enclose in the project the secret of what Design
should be today.
UNIQUE PIECES – 2008 numbered and signed Collection
Certificate of Authenticity
MazzuccoEnzo Mari
A powerful and at the same time important and precious project by Enzo Mari, Master of
the ‘900 and contemporary Italian Design. Handcrefted Forged Iron, manufactured with
the technique that has been used since ancient times for making swords, and schytes as
well, beautiful and luminous mouthblown glass created in Furnaces in Murano by skilled
Masters, they are unique pieces made for this Edition, numbered and signed personally
by the Author.
A precious Collection, the “Ferri Forgiati” enclose in the project the secret of what Design
should be today.
UNIQUE PIECES – 2008 numbered and signed by the Author Collection
Certificate of Authenticity
ViticcioEnzo Mari
“Dronero” In Forged Iron, a bridge-shaped fruitstand of unusual weight, yet so visibly
light and full of magic, it creates a striking contrast between the dark of the forged iron
and the bright natural colours of the fruit.
A precious Collection, the “Ferri Forgiati” enclose in the project the secret of what Design
should be today.
UNIQUE PIECES – 2008 numbered and signed Collection
Certificate of Authenticity
DroneroEnzo Mari
Sottsass realized 14 objects in ceramic and Murano glass , designed between 2000 and
2002. They are called Upupa, Allodola, Cuculo: sculpture-vases, in some of them Sottsass
uses for the first time in ceramics the acrylic colour. He got the idea while reading a book
showing Atzech pottery:
“The colours were very light, opaque and dusty, as if the Atzech had used coloured pow-
ders instead of glass enamels. And this made the pottery extremely fragile, and precious”.
UNIQUE PIECES – 2003
Certificate of Authenticity
AllodolaEttore Sottsass
Paolo Ulian carries out an intelligent research on the shape of the centrepiece tray de-
veloping a working technique on a block of Carrara marble, slowly carving concentric
elliptical forms.
The use of the slightest possible material, the slightest waste, the respect of the material
and its reasonable use make up an object that shows an out-of-time elegance, almost
classic. minimo utilizzo di materia, il minimo scarto, il rispetto del materiale ed un suo
consumo ragionato portano alla realizzazione di un oggetto di una eleganza senza tempo,
quasi classico.
LIMITED EDITION – 2012
Certificate of Authenticity
LevelPaolo Ulian
Bowls of clear Murano glass, hand-blown in molds and then filled with fragments of glass
left over from previous manufacturing processes that have to be disposed of under Ital-
ian regulations as «special material».
Arriving on Murano to design a chandelier, Damiani was fascinated by the beauty and
quantity of rejects and broken pieces in extraordinary colors and patterns.
These become the core of the design, which is thereby transformed, taking on not just
the character of a decorative object but also that of a reflection on the problem of waste
disposal.
LIMITED EDITION – 2009
Certificate of Authenticity
D.L. 152 Lorenzo Damiani
Valentina has worked in FABRICA’s international creative team to develop the theme of
the relationship between the exhibition of flowers and their containers; she has created
an extraordinary support that, slightly poetically, shows flowers suspended on a branch-
shaped base.
This precious object in borosilicate glass is worked and handblown by Italian handicraft
Masters.
LIMITED EDITION – 2007
Certificate of Authenticity
Floating floraValentina Carretta + FABRICA
Table penholder in brass, handpolished.
Apparently simple object, it is the product of a “controlled error”: the drilling, from part
to part, is made “fuori asse” – out of axis - creating a series of “decorative” loopholes on
the sides. From these, the body of the pencil will become visible.
The aspect of a block, proper of the object, is not changed, and gives it a pleasant sensa-
tion of “weight”.
LIMITED EDITION – 2011 special edition
Certificate of Authenticity
MonobloccoDonata Paruccini
A modular bookcase made in white Carrara marble. Whichever material Paolo Ulian hap-
pens to be working with, he designs with waste, scrap, bits, optimisation, and re-usage in
mind. This was initially an ethical stance, but it gradually developed into a very definite
approach. Working with marble currently in production and generally used for covering
walls, four different modules were constructed based on compositional interplay, refer-
ring to the Roman numerals from I-IV.
The overlapping and juxtaposition of these modules simultaneously creates the structure
and symbolic form of each bookcase.
LIMITED EDITION – 2011 numbered edition
Certificate of Authenticity
NumericaPaolo Ulian
Should you desire to acquire “LUXURY IS NOT A WASTE” artworks, please write to [email protected]
or call Regina Hotel Baglioni at +39 06 421111.
LEA ANOUCHINSKY/FabricaMATTEO BALDINIANDREA BASILEMICHELE DE LUCCHIPOLIFEMO FOTOGRAFIAHANS LEO HOGERGUSTAVO MILTON/FabricaLILLIANA NOERO RERICCARDO BIANCHILUIGI DI PASQUALEITALO PERNAALESSANDRO RIZZI BENVENUTO SABALUCA TAMBURLINIPAOLO ULIAN
Photo credits:
The Roman Penthouse.
LIVING AREA
DINING ROOM LIVING ROOM OF THE MASTER BEDROOM
MASTER BEDROOM
LIVING ROOM OF THE MASTER BEDROOM
JACUZZI POOL ON TERRACE
MASTER BATHROOM
PRIVATE TERRACE
A site-specific project curated by Vincenzo BasileBASILE ARTECO
Graphic DesignPIERGIORGIO CAPOZZA
LayoutTIJANA MIJAILOVIC
TextsVINCENZO BASILE
www.basilearteco.it
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