Zanellato Bortotto

Again this year a precise sense of place and durability emerge from Zanellato and Bortotto’s proposals at the Salone. Such as the rug Arengario for Cappellini and furniture made for Nilufar. #MDW2016

Giorgia Zanellato and Daniele Bortotto are proof that the only valid distinction in design is that of the idea and not the boundary between disciplines or the imposition of a productive condition.

Zanellato & Bortotto, schizzo, work in progress — Zanellato & Bortotto, sketch, work in progress. Top image Gabriele Zanon

One can quite easily make a product, created in collaboration with an artisan or with industry, in unlimited numbers or one-off pieces, conceived as a special project or for the mass market. The important thing though, is that there is an idea. Everything then becomes easier if the artisans and technicians working on it are Italian, as they are accustomed to being open-minded and collaborating with others. Giorgia and Daniele have always been “spoilt” with plenty of ideas: many of their pieces initially attract on the aesthetic level with a rigour of function that is not only considered but also exalted by the formal aspect; then in a second moment, a consideration comes in as to what that pleasing form may signify.This is what happened with Acqua Alta and their collection of drapes and rugs for Rubellini in which behind the pleasing nature of a decorative pattern that felt both antique and contemporary at the same time, two issues central to their work were operating: the relationship with place and with time.

Zanellato & Bortotto, veduta dell'installazione — Zanellato & Bortotto, the installation Exquisite Jungle for Novamobili

Again this year a precise sense of place and durability emerge from their proposals at the Salone and the Fuorisalone 2016. For example the rug design Arengario for Cappellini was based on a previous work presented in 2015 to Operae, when Angela Rui invited them to collaborate with a great Turin mosaicist, Andrea Besana. The dialogue with the artisan gave rise to the idea of working on macro-tiles for a mosaic that reflected on the rules of composition of the city’s architecture. The primary geometric forms that the structural nature of Turin’s monuments were based on became the occasion for a new, flat composition, that of mosaics.

Today this idea lives on in a series designed specially for Milan: “A new interpretation, where the construction technology has been refined as has the use of materials and the protagonists have become the most symbolic places of Milan. A homage to Milan and to the Arengario of Portaluppi, Muzio, Magistretti and Griffini”, explain the designers. The collaboration with Besana and fascination with his mosaic technique has also generated a collection of outdoor furniture made for Nilufar: here more than place it is time that has been considered, in the sense of tradition, able to create a connecting bridge between past and present. Muzauwaq, in fact, is a contemporary reworking of the traditional language of mosaic and its millenary history through a linear structure in burnished brass that creates a base to accentuate pieces that are ideally suited to contact with air, light and landscape. To ensure it stands up to outdoor conditions a coloured resin substitutes the traditional mortar as an adhesive for the glass and marble tiles. As such the effect is made even more unique and brought out by the variation of light and shade in the sun. Also characterised by openness towards the outdoors is the living room design presented with Novamobili. Exquisite Jungle recreates a world of plants in a domestic interior, where the greenery becomes the leitmotif in an operation of domestic zoning. Zones for concentration, relaxation or being together are thus organised by a “classic storage-system that becomes important thanks to the use of different and refined materials such as copper and glass, transformed into a precious screen”.

Zanellato & Bortotto, the installation Exquisite Jungle for Novamobili

Time intended as sedimentation and slow transition that affects the ageing of things lies behind their work for Cedit Ceramiche d’italia, perhaps the most intense in this series of new products. In a world that bases its marketing strategies on programmed obsolescence, Giorgia and Daniele go in the opposite direction and take inspiration from the marks that time leaves on surfaces. Patinas, cracks and layers are the “wrinkles” on the face of architectural walls: they are not to treat or negate but rather to rediscover with a new ideal of beauty to the eyes, that of duration. Against the fiction of eternal youth, the system of ceramic cladding Storie is able to reveal a decorative pattern that has in itself considerable abstract and chromatic strength. Closing the circle is the reedition of the Giudecca rug for CC Tapis that also came out of the research for Acqua Alta. “A picture of some steps in Venice - recount the designers - gave rise to the idea of depicting the steps wet by the water from the lagoon with the colours and materials of an iconic rug design. The different tones of grey of the wools design the stone steps, marked by the effects of time and salt. The sea and the vibrations of the waves are transformed into a surface of iridescent silk that combines different shades of blue and green. The unique place that is Venice and its rarefied atmosphere are portrayed in a contemporary way with an exquisite rug that is knotted completely by hand”.

Zanellato e Bortotto per Novamobili, schizzo — Zanellato & Bortotto for Novamobili, sketch for Exquisite Jungle

To conclude the proposals a small but ingenious object, presented inside the exhibition Microfacts, launched as every year by Subalterno 1 and curated by Stefano Maffei. This year the theme is that of the object of small dimensions, almost a way of reiterating that great design doesn’t depend on size or the muscularity of the resources used but once again on the idea that generates it. Here the Venetian designers present Elucefu, a bottle top for which they have drawn on memories of adolescence when they went camping and to amplify the beam of an electric torch it was placed behind a bottle of water. Here then that simple notion, the result of an almost “improper” use of objects has given rise to a top with an LED light that turns the bottle into a surprising luminous object. A small object that transforms a larger one, close to what Naoto Fukasawa wisely defined “design without thoughts” in which it is the spontaneous functions combined with intelligence of the designer that generates new solutions.

Zanellato Bortotto, Muzauwaq, detail. Photo Gabriele Zanon

Zanellato Bortotto, Muzauwaq, detail. Photo Gabriele Zanon

Zanellato Bortotto, Muzauwaq, detail. Photo Gabriele Zanon

Zanellato Bortotto, views of the studio. ph. Claudia Zalla for Novamobili

12 – 17 april 2016
Zanellato Bortotto
Arengario – Cappellini

Microfacts
Subalterno 1
via Conte Rosso, Milano

Giudecca – CC Tapis
Fiera Rho-Pero, Pad. 6, Stand E40
Exquisite Jungle – Novamobili
Muzauwaq – Nilufar

Zanellato Bortotto

Again this year a precise sense of place and durability emerge from Zanellato and Bortotto’s proposals at the Salone. Such as the rug Arengario for Cappellini and furniture made for Nilufar. #MDW2016

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