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| Marcel Wanders is one of the most creative and prolific designers working today, creating new furniture, products and architectural designs for clients around the world. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders. |
Among the world’s top designers who gathered at this year’s
Milan Design Week, Dutch superstar Marcel Wanders’ work was the most ubiquitous
with new pieces at Moooi, Baccarat, Magis, Barovier&Toso and Very Wood,
Jeanne-Marie Cilento writes. Additional reporting by Antonio Visconti
RISING resplendent in a black suit above a small Italian
Vespa, Marcel Wanders tall frame could be seen zipping from one event to
another during the Salone del Mobile. Wanders needed a quick and easy way to
get around town as he had so many shows across the city.
The designer’s signature black and white look was completed by his
chunky necklace and new lime-green and orange suede Nike runners. The designer’s
work has a unique aesthetic that is full of fantasy and poetry and runs counter
to the prevalence of industrial minimalism. It has been a busy 12 months for
the Amsterdam-based Wanders. Apart from new designs for a range of companies
worldwide, his work is currently being celebrated at a big retrospective at the
Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Wanders designs are also held in collections at
MoMA in New York, and London’s V&A Museum.
The designer spoke to DAM in the chiaroscuro light of the
enormous Moooi Unexpected Welcome show held in a cavernous space in
Milan’s Zona Tortona design district. The vast exhibition was dominated by colossal architectural images by Italian photographer Massimo Listri. The new works for Moooi ~ (mooi meaning beautiful in Dutch) ~ were
presented in open rooms under the giant images of Italian Baroque interiors.
As art director and co-founder of Moooi, Wanders’ wants the
company’s designs to be treasured and to last: future antiques not disposable
pieces that are made to be discarded. “In a world which is dominated by the
new, we like to see our works in the context of eternity. Massimo Listri is
like an ambassador of this eternal heritage,” explains Wanders.
Listri’s extraordinarily rich and still interior images
create dramatic backdrops for Moooi’s new designs. The photographer is
passionate about atmosphere and perspective and is inspired by painters such as
Piero della Francesca and Vermeer. “My photography is an expression of
tranquillity in a chaotic world, bringing perspective and equilibrium to the
viewer’s soul,” says Listri.
Marcel Wanders most atmospheric installation during Milan
Design Week was the Delft Blue Tattooed Hands for the UNTOLD exhibition curated
by Rosanna Orlandi and commissioned by the fashion house Vionnet at the
historic Bagatti Valsechi Museum. Created from fine ceramic, the elegant white
and blue hands were hauntingly accompanied by Wanders’ film Fragile Fingers on
a Grand Piano played by renowned Dutch pianist Iris Hond.
Another evocative show created by Wanders was for the
Venetian glass design house Barovier & Toso from Murano. The exhibition was
located at Fuorisalone in the Brera, held in the spectacular courtyard of the
San Sempliciano cathedral. Called Light E-Motion, the artistic installation by
Wanders aimed to surprise the viewer and challenge the laws of physics through
the movement of glass chandeliers reconfigured to have a human aspect.
Again working in the field of glass, Wanders created
ninety-nine limited edition vases for the New Antique Collection for famous
French house Baccarat. The two new designs revisit the celebrated Médici vase,
combining a rather sumptuous classical form but with a contemporary, geometric
look in clear or dark crystal.
Wanders also designed a cartoony, Pop Art piece for Gufram,
an Italian furniture design house in Piedmont known for creating sculptural and
conceptual art pieces. Called Hortensia, the bright-blue flowered island
seat is surreal and designed as a “soft sculpture” in polyurethane foam with a
gooey, shiny finish. Gufram describes the piece not as a seat but as a
“territory of relaxation for one or more people”.
Marcel Wanders designed three new chairs for Italian design
company Magis, including two new versions of Cyborg, the masculine sci-fi Lord
Cyborg with a high back the so-called Lady Cyborg which is designed to be
lighter and more elegant. The Troy chair is also represented covered in a new
range of textiles, metal, leather and wood.
The designer also began a new collaboration with the Very Wood
company, creating two new chairs. The linear Century Chair with subtle
historical touches and a new innovation where you can change the back of the chair
using different material in wood, ceramic or bronze. The other Loop Chair is
more dynamic and resembles arches drawn through the air.
New pieces from Moooi’s collection launched this year in
Milan include many designs by Wanders plus pieces by Studio Job who have
offices in Antwerp and Amsterdam, Hong Kong-based Danny Fang, Swiss studio
ZMIK, Indonesian designer Alvin Tjitrowirjo based in Jakarta along with Dutch
designers Bertjan Pot, Joost van Bleiswijk & Kiki van Eijk and Scholten
& Baijings.
Wanders’ designs include the new Love collection with
oversized chairs that are round, soft and embracing ~ and big enough for two
people to curl up in together. Covered in a Wanders-designed white, fluffy
textile, the large-scale chairs and sofas look very tempting places to sink
into. The Nest chair is also plump and inviting with big, colourful
cushions that spill over a streamlined, steel frame. The brilliantly-coloured
fabrics for the overscale cushions were designed by Wanders to look like a
soaring blue sky.
Highlights from other designers for Moooi include the
ingenious Prop Light by Bertjan Pot plus the suspended Colour Globe lamps by
Scholten & Baijings in their first collaboration with the company. Studio
Job created a new printed carpet called L’Afrique full of brilliant colour
and cartoon-like figures of jungle and tribal masks. The studio also designed
the new Paper Desk made as a solid piece of furniture from layers of white
sheets of paper.
The quirky
furniture range by Joost van Bleiswijk and Kiki van Eijk is a series of
cupboards in solid ash and woven textiles that were inspired by the
construction of Tudor houses. Indonesian designer Alvin Tjitrowirjo’s relaxed Taffeta sofa and chair in
rattan evoke tropical weather and large verandas
Wanders says he wants Moooi’s range of lighting, furniture
and accessories to create inspiring interiors not banal spaces, designs that
are full of new ideas that brighten daily life with a touch of magic. “Our
interiors are places where visions converge and where everyone can stop and
feel comfortable within an eclectic mix of culture and experiences that makes the home more beautiful and unique,’’ he says.
Click on photographs for full-screen slide-show
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Marcel Wanders atmospheric Fragile Fingers on a Grand Piano, 2012. The installation was on show at the UNTOLD exhibition curated by Rosanna Orlandi at Milan's historic Bagatti Valsechi Museum during Milan Design Week. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders
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| Another evocative show created by Wanders was for Venetian glass design house Barovier & Toso held in the spectacular courtyard of the San Sempliciano cathedral. Called Light E-Motion, the artistic installation by Wanders aimed to surprise the viewer and challenge the laws of physics. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders |
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| Add Called Light E-Motion, the artistic installation by Wanders aimed to surprise the viewer and challenge the laws of physics through the movement of glass chandeliers reconfigured to have a human aspect. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders |
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| Wanders designed this cartoony, Pop Art piece for Gufram. Called Hortensia, the bright-blue flowered island seat is surreal and designed as a “soft sculpture” in polyurethane foam with a gooey, shiny finish. Gufram describes the piece not as a seat but as a “territory of relaxation for one or more people”. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders |
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| Love Chair designed by Marcel Wanders to be big enough for two people to cuddle up on. It is covered in Wanders' white, fluffy "Plush" textile. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro |
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| Designed by Marcel Wanders, the Nest Chair has a sleek galvanised steel frame and big, plump cushions. Wanders also designed the fabric called "One Minute" with swathes of blue sky. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro |
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| The hanging lamps are designed Scholten & Baijings and called Colour Globes. They are created with two layers of hand-blown glass encasing an opalescent LED light. Below are the Cocktail Chairs designed by Marcel Wanders with a specially-designed textile covered in historic Dutch motifs. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro |
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| New chair and footstool that are part of Marcel Wanders' Zio collection made from solid oak with a natural, light-stained finish. Photograph by Nicole Marnati |
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| The new Salago lamps are made of paper mache and designed by Danny Fang. They are suspended above theL'Afrique round rug designed by Studio Job with a jungle motif and tribal masks. The chairs are part of the Nut collection in oak designed by Marcel Wanders. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro |
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| The Cloud sofa and footstool with round, fluid shapes designed by Marcel Wanders. Photograph by Nicole Marnati |
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| The new Taffeta rattan chair and cushions were designed by Alvin Tjitrowirjo and inspired by traditional Indonesian materials and fruit and flower motifs. Above are the new Salago lamps made of paper mache and designed by Danny Fang. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro |
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| The Tudor cupboard by Joost van Bleiswijk & Kiki van Eijk is inspired by the construction of tudor houses and is made of an ash frame and woven textiles of foliage. Photograph by Nicole Marnati |
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| The Kroon lamp by ZMIK ~ Matthias Mohr & Rolf Indermühle ~ with a new light in champagne that diffuses a golden glow. The Tapered tables below are by Moooi in solid oak or birch. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro |
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| Massimo Listri's enormous photographs of interiors behind a dramatic mise-en-scene for Moooi's collection of furniture. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro |
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| Tudor buffet designed byKiki van Eijk & Joost van Bleiswijk and made from solid ash with woven textile depiciting autumnal foliage motif. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro |
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| At the left of the picture are the new collection of Prop lights by Bertjan Pot. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro |
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| The scenic backdrops for the new Moooi collection presented in Milan are all by Italian photographer Massimo Listri. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro |
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| Zio dining table and chairs designed by Marcel Wanders to be the centre piece and heart of the house around which families gather, entertain and relax. Photograph by Nicole Marnati |
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| The quirky, padded Love chair designed by Marcel Wanders for Moooi with the Colour Globe lamps above. Photograph by Nicole Marnati |
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| Add The high-back Love chair and sofa designed by Marcel Wanders at the entrance to the 1,700 square metre exhibition space for Moooi's show Via Savona 56 in Milan. Photograph by Nicole Marnati |
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| Barovier & Toso's Murano glass chandeliers exhibited in Milan at the San Sempliciano courtyard. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders |
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| The exhibition created by Wanders for the Venetian glass design house Barovier & Toso from Murano. The exhibition was located at Fuorisalone in the Brera. Wanders aimed to surprise the viewer and challenge the laws of physics through the movement of glass chandeliers reconfigured to have a human aspect. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders |
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| Another scene from the exhibition curated by Marcel Wanders for Barovier & Toso during Milan Design Week. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders |
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| Marcel Wanders "humanised" Murano glass chandeliers for the Barovier & Toso Lights E-Motion show. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders |
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| Wanders began a new collaboration with the Very Wood company, creating two new chairs including the linear Century Chair shown above. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders |
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| Marcel Wanders designed three new chairs for Italian design company Magis, including two new versions of Cyborg, Lord and Lady Cyborg. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders |
