Grazia Toderi, Pulse 60xZ, 2009, video projection, loop, dvd

All the works in the exhibition have the same title: Orbite Rosse. Back in 1998, the artist already showed a double video projection called Orbite in the gallery. In Toderiʼs work references to orbits have been constant ever since the beginning of her career: be it the moon that moves around the Earth, the planets that move around the sun, satellites or spaceships that move around planets, or even a football inside a stadium, or the movements of a spinning top on a pavement.
The meaning of the word orbit expands as also the two cavities in our head, with which we construct our image of the world are considered to be orbits. Even traditional representations of the world in cartographies are depicted by two flattened globes, hence orbits. The other constant element in Grazia Toderi’s work is light: the reason why the artist has chosen to make videos and project them is because videos are made out of light, light that becomes apparent when it hits a surface. The video is also a medium that can potentially be broadcasted, through the light itself, simultaneously all over the world.

Grazia Toderi, Orbite Rosse (Red Orbits), 2009, graphite, metals and melted tin on paper

Last but not least, Orbite Rosse is also a reference to the colour of citylights seen by night and from above, and a reference to the undefinable reddish colour that appears when we have our eyelids closed while facing the light – an outside world and an inside world.

Christian Haas, Knit

Rezodesign is a network founded by Romain Bourgeais and Francesco Pirrello in 2009. Rezodesign is a radar, a container, a virtual home hosting the best of international design. It is not only a showcase, but a true platform allowing the selected designers to make their own portfolio, to be updated and extended whenever necessary.

Marie Thurnauer, Suspension 28-11-2005, Petites Productions

Rezodesign is a privileged window; it is a tool designed to facilitate contacts.

As the theory goes, everyone is six degrees of separation away from any other person on Earth. Rezodesign is there to shorten the distance.

Kristian Aus, Split Lantern, Autumn Products

Rezodesign brings people together, connects them, broadens and establishes relationships, fosters debates and entwines fancy or real dreams. Whether you are looking for producers or distributors, or you want to explore new markets, Rezodesign stands as the one and only reference point for designers and producers aiming at breaking down borders and shortening distances.

Jan Habraken (with Sergio Mannino), Lamp 000

There are a lot of lighting experiences…

In the opening picture, French cancan by Jean-Marc Gady

And I like the Wired lamp very much. Its base is constructed in a simple but classical form made from 10mm light steel wire. The shade is slightly larger than life giving the lamp its unique character and a sense of scale. Inspiration for the ‘wired’ lamp came from the process of model making, using wire to ‘draw’ in 3D, as opposed to paper and pencil. Playing with scale and size has created a fun lamp, an inspiring product with a uniqueness all of its own. It’s playful proportions lend itself to many situations.
Low level lighting, an oversized table lamp or a child’s standard lamp.

his is what happened at the quarries of ‘bacino di gioia’ from June 10-13 2009 which hosted the event Welcome Angels. It developed from the desire to carry the values of excellent and quality into the quarry, ideas that were expressed through Natural Stone Vision, a project invented and promoted by Carrara Fiere which commenced during CarraraMarmotec 2008.

When the peace of the night falls, and the quarry has stopped operations, when everything is quiet, when material is once again material, the project becomes the simple formal expression when compared with the material. Only in the evening, amid the silence, when everything has been recomposed, the mountains, man, everything returns to its exact proportions. Only at night do the quarrymen make their peace with the mountain, and only then do the mountains embrace them and the project designed to exalt the beauty of marble. Only in the evening do the angels return to the mountains and the story of these returns is told by Welcome Angels.

Uovoquadrato was the narrator: through images and sounds, lights, voices, dancing bodies and mechanical  devices.

The protagonists of this story are some of the leading companies in stone such as Bundles, Franchi Umberto Marmi, Furrer, GE.M.E.G., Il Casone, Il Fiorino, Italmarble Pocai, Marmi Carrara, MT & S, Piba Marmi, R.E.D. Graniti, Savema Spa and some of the top Italian design companies such as Antonio Lupi, Bravo Cucine, My Core, l’Abbate, Davide Groppi, Disano, Fosnova, and Edra.

Welcome Angels was designed by Silvia Nerbi and Paolo Armenise, the artistic performance was invented and directed by Uovoquadrato in collaboration with Michela Lucenti and with Balletto Civile, Stefano Tedesco e Pinuccio Sciola, Fabio Bianchi, Cristina Alioto, Tiziano Scali.

The basic structure of the Starbrick is a cube on whose six surfaces additional cubes have been placed at a 45° angle. The semi-transparent, yellow, reflective surfaces at its core are backlit by LEDs. The light from the outward-facing LED Boards is concentrated and evenly distributed via polycarbonate refractors.

These are Eliasson’ words:

The Starbrick is an experiment with light modulation and space. In my studio, we initially focused on the spatial challenges involved in the shaping of a complex geometric brick. This led to the development of the star-shaped modules, based on a stackable principle, which produce three types of space: the solid structure of the module itself, the negative space at its core in the shape of a ‘cubeoctahedron’, and the polyhedric spheres that appear between the modules when stacked. During recent years, my studio has conducted a number of light experiments in collaboration with Zumtobel. In one such experiment, we decided to test different qualities and hues of LED light, placed within the individual modules, which eventually resulted in the current Starbrick.

The Starbrick’s LEDs are organised to emit white light while also creating a luminous, yellow and kaleidoscopic core in the shape of the cubeoctahe- dron. The body of the module consists of two kinds of polycarbonate: a translucent type optimises the quality of the light from the LEDs; an opaque and durable type makes up the body of the module, its matte black surface counterbalancing the light volumes. When you stack the Starbricks, the opaque surfaces are reduced, to the point where the white light generates the polyhedric spheres between the bricks. Since the LEDs are dimmable, the module has various light settings, offering both functional and ambient light.

I have attempted to develop a module that, while functioning as an object in itself, can also be assembled to form multiple basic architectural elements such as walls, whether freestanding or integrated into an overall structure, suspended ceilings, columns of all shapes, sizes and volumes – theoretically, you could build an entire luminous house out of Starbricks! The expandable principle is a generous one that makes it possible for people to buy a lamp system that can be related to its surroundings. Depending on the context, you can change and rebuild the system; whether in a small study or a concert hall, the module can be used as an architectural building unit, merging light and volume.

By further developing the current prototype with Zumtobel, I hope to be able to offer this light module for everyday use and living. It poses questions that are central to both contemporary art and society: how does light define space? What politics of light infuse our immediate surroundings?

Available from autumn 2009.

L.1-L.7, Design Dragana and Zoran Minic

Featuring a design that is clean but not banal, essential but not meager, the objects show how a good project can result in highlevel design, even with the use of readily available materials and utensils.

L.6, Design Zoran Jedrejcic

With a little bit of irony.

Opening picture, L.3-L.5, Design Dragana and Zoran Minic.

Concept: Pop Solid
Pictures: Max Rommel
Visual Identity: Petralito Rotiroti Associati

L.4, Design Michelangelo Petralito, Iolanda Rotiroti, Serena Tonus

This effect is a nod at the silk pleating technique which was invented by Mariano Fortuny in 1909, one hundred years ago.

Day Night

Between these projects, we flag lamps like Day Night, that materialise the possibility of using endless solar energy and forming an independent source of light. Minimalist design of the lamp, reduced to a symbol or a sign, emphasise its basic function.

Hanger lamp

Hanger lamp is a prototype exhibited at Salone Satellite 2008;  it’s available in Victor Hunt gallery in Brussels. Here, it’s the personal inspiration to decide how manage the light.

The project aims to destruct, to reduce aggregated forms to elementary geometry. A free territory, mindful of history and, at the same time, a peace and listening place, invites one to live the present, and take the mind back to ancestral forms.

Nothing less. Nothing more.

Chiara Dynys, 'Nul', TWISTER, FAI Villa e Collezione Panza, Varese, 2009

These museums have joined forces to create Twister, an operative network of meetings and mutual collaboration to exalt the region’s heritage, support the young artists and encourage better understanding of contemporary art among the general public. It often happens that current artistic expressions produce something incomprehensible and unapproachable. The basic idea behind Twister was to acquire works of contemporary art and include them in the permanent collections of the different museums; these are therefore projected to the future and the contemporary works are somehow placed in context and connected (also physically) with something that can be easier to understand. The pieces were selected by an international jury, through an invitation-only competition; of the sixty artists contacted, twenty projects were short-listed and this list produced the ten prize-winners. The artists were asked to design a piece ad hoc for one of the museums, a creation that was neither invasive nor monumental. It could be included in the exhibition halls or in the area around the museum, in the city or possibly in the courtyard of the institution. The creations can therefore be described as site-specific or site-related, designed by Carlo Bernardini, Chiara Dynys, Loris Cecchini and Lara Favaretto among others.

Carlo Bernardini, 'Codice Spaziale', TWISTER, MAM Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Gazoldo degli Ippoliti (MN), 2009

Twister also includes a piece of web art, an on-line creation supervised by Ofri Cnaani, which highlights the Internet collaboration between the ten museums. All the works involved in Twister will be inaugurated simultaneously on October 2009. In the meantime, we can sit back and appreciate the benefits of this form of collaboration devised to further culture.

Opening picture, Moccellin-Pellegrini, ‘Forse possiamo anche fare una mappa per perdersi’, TWISTER, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Lissone (MI), 2009

Madame Duplok, 'Per grazia ricevuta', TWISTER, Museo Civico Floriano Bodini, Gemonio (VA), 2009