Dettaglio costruttivo di modello, Michele De Lucchi /
LUOGO: Il Chioso, atelier privato
Model construction detail, Michele De Lucchi /
PLACE: Il Chioso, private atelier
Medoc /
Filo di Lama, Erice 1312 /
DESIGN: Michele De Lucchi + Philippe Nigro
Medoc — Michele De Lucchi + Philippe Nigro
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well “to them” - as you say - and to what can be done with them.”
Michele got up from the chair, it was quieter now - and began to
rummage in the bag, until he pulled out a little white book, with
a fluo yellow edge. He returned to the sofa and handed it to Ettore,
who began to leaf through it. There were sketches, straight off,
almost scribbles, but they illustrated the words well.
“It’s true, I also wrote this booklet, it’s called ‘They who are gold’
he explained. “Because trees are those taking care of the landscape,
making it beautiful, fresh and natural. They even don’t know what
ugliness means. Everything they do is beautiful, original, authentic.
But they also have a soul, they suffer: they don’t show it, they
keep their emotions hidden under what looks like a bark ... but it’s
a skin, like ours. They are always there, you find them calm and
peaceful, they look at us, benevolent, as if they supported our crazy
thoughts and our useless worries.”
“You love these beings very much...” Ettore said with a smile.
“yes, I really think so. When I’m at home, on the lake, or when I
visit some clients who love them like me, I think I hear them -
encourage me with their calm, the vision of life on times that we
struggle to imagine. There are forests in France, where a tree can
grow even for hundred years before being used: and for each one
that is used - therefore, necessarily, cut - ten more are planted.
It seems fair to treat them well and love them. They are in direct
contact with the earth, they feel and absorb its vibrations.”
“Then I ask questions, some questions that I have been asking
myself many times. In the end, we know so little of what’s on our
mind as we work... Does a woman’s hair style have anything to do
with the curvature of a vase? Does the memory of the light inside
Pagano’s staircase at the Triennale have anything to do with the
lighting of Sironi’s paintings in a museum to be built now? Does
the colour of the trees in the Colorado mountains guide you in
finding the colour for a table top?”
“Perhaps yes, Ettore. I think that natural and artificial things on
Earth are all linked together. Its vibrations make the distances
change continuously, even imperceptibly. Earth vibrations in the
objects reproduce themselves in sound, in touch, in perfumes, with
all the possible stimuli coming from the environment. So we feel
alive with them. The right objects allow us a richer internal life,
and when they are perfect they resonate inside those who look
at them, use them.”
Ettore looked at him with a big smile, then said to him:
“What you said is right, Michele, - perhaps better - and is what
I used to think, too,” then he sighed again.
“Do you want to stay here overnight?” Michele asked him “I can
sleep on the couch.”
“Thanks, I’ll stay a little, then I’ll go home. But remember this...”
He spoke for ten minutes more and Michele felt that he would
not forget what he was saying to him, while his eyes were getting
closed in exhaustion.
It seemed to him for a moment, but when he opened them again,
Ettore Sottsass jr was gone.
Then Michele remembered that he had to design the layout of his
exhibition at the Triennale for the centenary. He got up from the
chair and sat down at the small desk, took the sketchbook from his
bag, checked if the ideas were still good: he thought of what Ettore
had told him.
He thought it might be a signal to go on, he thought it had been
good for him to see Ettore: even if it wasn’t true, it did him good
anyway.
S.C.
18.12.2018
Natural Genius
A DESIGN STORY - Michele De Lucchi
