FORMAFANTASMA
— THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
INTERVIEW
Milan-based duo Formafantasma are agents of change, investigating through exhibitions, research projects, symposia and teaching the ecological, historical, political and social forces shaping design today. In a wide-ranging interview, Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi reveal their constant questioning: Why be a designer now? What makes a difference? What is good design? What is bad design? And why you should focus on the past and the present.
But it’s not all academic research and curation – they also make things: refined, cleverly articulated lights, tiles glazed with volcanic ash, furniture from a spruce tree felled during a huge storm, each object seductive for aesthetics and storytelling.
“At the end of the day we have never been makers really, I mean, yes sure we make things, but our engagement with things and materiality is more cerebral,” says Farresin.
After working in Amsterdam for many years, they have moved to Milan, home of design and they talk about being labelled as Italian designers, their material research and methodology, and the reception of their work: “We are never commercial enough and we are never radical enough.”
Read more in Ark Journal VOLUME X.
WORDS JENI PORTER
PHOTOGRAPHY STEPHANO GALUZZI
ART DIRECTION SIGRID GRY LAURSEN
CASE STUDY
— DISSONANT BEAUTY
As in music, interior design calls on many elements – rhythm, contrast, repetition – to create that most subjective of visions: beauty.
CINCINATTI MODERN
High on a hillside in Cincinnati, sits a two-storey modernist wonder by two unsung heroes of American architecture, built for an art collector in the 1980s and that has been given a sensitive makeover to accommodate the collection of its second owner.
CREATIVE TRANSITIONS
Based on the loops and twists of the Möbius strip, an icon of mid-century Mexican design has become an integral part of the creative process for its custodian, designer and ceramicist Perla Valtierra.
FORMAFANTASMA
— THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
INTERVIEW
Milan-based duo Formafantasma are agents of change, investigating through exhibitions, research projects, symposia and teaching the ecological, historical, political and social forces shaping design today. In a wide-ranging interview, Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi reveal their constant questioning: Why be a designer now? What makes a difference? What is good design? What is bad design? And why you should focus on the past and the present.
But it’s not all academic research and curation – they also make things: refined, cleverly articulated lights, tiles glazed with volcanic ash, furniture from a spruce tree felled during a huge storm, each object seductive for aesthetics and storytelling.
“At the end of the day we have never been makers really, I mean, yes sure we make things, but our engagement with things and materiality is more cerebral,” says Farresin.
After working in Amsterdam for many years, they have moved to Milan, home of design and they talk about being labelled as Italian designers, their material research and methodology, and the reception of their work: “We are never commercial enough and we are never radical enough.”
Read more in Ark Journal VOLUME X.
WORDS JENI PORTER
PHOTOGRAPHY STEPHANO GALUZZI
ART DIRECTION SIGRID GRY LAURSEN