Foscarini
— Artbook series #1.
Andrea
Anastasio
010
011
When I talk about Foscarini, I like
to say that we create problems and then
we solve them. Our way of doing design
always starts with a challenging thought.
It then continues with the search for
the right partner with which to face
that challenge (we have created a book,
Maestrie, about our exploration of the
world of materials and technologies),
after which comes the production of an
object, a lamp, which marks an advance
along the infinite pathway of knowledge
of light. To be very brief, we know what
to do but not how to do it, so we look
for those who know how to do almost
everything, but have no idea what to make.
The work we are now presenting with
Andrea Anastasio and Davide Servadei
of the Gatti workshop also helps us to
understand something more about light.
But it is a fundamental departure from
our usual approach.
The project “Battiti” is in fact the
result of an activity of pure research,
driven only by the desire to explore new
expressive languages, new meanings and
ways of experiencing light. In this sense, it
is almost a gift we have given to ourselves.
A moment of active reflection, to get
away from the territory we inhabit as a
company, a place in which light, though
interpreted and enhanced by the creativity
and sensibilities of designers, is always
and in any case also a matter of function.
In “Battiti” light is used not to
illuminate but to construct.
As if it were a material: it generates
effects, underlines forms and invents
shadows. Because this is what Andrea
Anastasio does when he gets his hands
on the archives of the Gatti workshop,
taking things apart and putting them
back together, following the primordial
instinct of someone who creates by desire,
passion and necessity. He overturns
traditional logic and reaches a new logic,
interpreting history to give it a different
direction and a different meaning. In this
action of creation and discovery at the
same time, Anastasio uses light, which
also becomes a tool of dialogue with
the observer. When art is worthy of its
name, in fact, it presents itself as an open
scenario, an innovation to intervene on
what has been done, with reflections that
shift from a universal plane to a personal,
intimate realm. The openings of light,
active and “live” elements in the bas reliefs
and sculptures by Anastasio, are thus the
beginning of a new relationship between
the objects that contain them and those
who observe them.
What is the benefit of all this for a
company like Foscarini? Nothing, if we
think of this operation from a commercial
standpoint. But also everything, if we see
ourselves as producers of meaningful
projects, which is what we are and what
we want to continue to be.
BATTITI. A STUDY ON CERAMICS
AND LIGHT.
Serie “Intervalli”
Cristo bianco opaco - Christ matt white
43,5 x 57 cm
Terracotta maiolicata doppio fuoco - LED
Double fire majolica terracotta - LED
Ceramica Gatti 1928, Faenza
2022
