ARGALLERY ARLAB 2018

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BLUEXPLOSION
of Petra Cecilia Borgomaneri
Specular elements of Giorgio
Collection, with coloured tulle
veils attached to an iron-wire
supporting frame
PROPERTY: WORK OF THE
IFDM ART FUND

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SENSU
Japanese folding fan realizated in bamboo and traditional paper sticks.
It is generally used to cool off, but is also used in rakugo, the traditional
Japanese comic monologue, and in buyou, Japanese dance.

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ORIGAMI

Origami (from ori meaning “folding”, and kami meaning “paper” (kami changes to gami due to rendaku) is the art of paper folding,
which is often associated with Japanese culture. In modern usage, the word “origami” is used as an inclusive term for all folding
practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is a flat sculpture. Modern origami practitioners generally discourage the use
of cuts, glues, or markings on the paper. Origami folders often use the Japanese word kirigami.

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59 opening

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71 designer

SHIRO KURAMATA

Born in Tokyo in 1934, Shiro Kuramata studied architecture at Tokyo Polytechnic
until 1953 and then spent a year working for the Japanese furniture manufacturer
Teikokukizai. Shiro Kuramata subsequently studied interior decoration until 1956 at
the Kuwazawa Institute of Design. From 1957 until 1963 Shiro Kuramata worked for
the Maysuya department store in Tokyo. In 1965 Shiro Kuramata founded a design
practice in Tokyo.
He designed furniture and, as an interior decorator, designed more than three
hundred bars and restaurants. In 1977 Shiro Kuramata became famous overnight
worldwide for his “Drawer in an Irregular Form”, a piece of storage furniture with a
sinuous S-curve as its signature feature,
made of ash stained black with drawer fronts lacquered white.
In the 1980s, Shiro Kuramata again caused a sensation with designs executed in
unusual materials.
The “Miss Blanche” chair of transparent acrylic glass into which red paper roses
have been molded, was a tour de force by Shiro Kuramata, a highly original and
poetic piece of furniture. Another piece of Shiro Kuramata seat furniture is the 1986
“How High the Moon”, notable for voluminous forms realized in nickel-plated expan-
ded metal, sheet metal slotted and stretched into a mesh or lattice to achieve an
astonishingly light and airy transparency.
In 1976 Shiro Kuramata designed the “Glass chair”, made entirely of slabs of glass
glued together. In the 1980s, Shiro Kuramata designed several pieces of furniture
for Memphis, which are both more sophisticated and, aesthetically speaking, reticent
than most other designs produced by Memphis.
Shiro Kuramata’s Memphis designs include the “Kyoto” table (1983) of stained con-
crete and “Sally” (1987), a table made of metal and broken glass.
From 1984 Shiro Kuramata designed for the Issey Miyake fashion boutiques in Paris,
Tokyo, and New York. In 1988 Shiro Kuramata moved his design practice to Paris.
His designs are executed by such distinguished firms as Aoshima Shoten, Cappellini,
Fijiko, Ishimaru, Kurosaki, Mhoya Glass Shop, Vitra, and others.

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ADRIANA LOHMANN

Ex model from Brasil, Adriana Lohmann comes in Italy in year 1989 to study and live
in first person the styles, the design and the fashion trends, the tailoring and decorati-
ve techniques in the world of fashion.
She studies the art history and the history of clothing, the crafting techniques, the fur-
niture design and the restorations, the textile fabric painting, the Trompe l’oeil, paper
techniques, mosaic, the Feng shui and the ecological sustainability of design.
Becames collector of vintage clothes and fashion decorations, then she is called to
set up shows, also as stylist for advertising events, interior designer and consultant for
the harmony of the interior design and for the healty living.
In year 1999 she founds a design agency that wins, in year 2000, the international
prize “Fabbrica del vapore” (polifunctional art center)
of Milan.
Through a constant research over materials, often coming the fashion world, she cre-
ates chandeliers with strong visual and scenographical impact, eclectic design and
made with exclusive materials.
Her “luminous collections”, entirely hand-made and often tailored for specific reque-
sts, tend to the jewel and sometimes are ironic…..between clothing and living.

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ALBERTO MORO

Alberto Moro lives and works in Milan.He is President of the Cultural Association
Giappone in Italia, whose he was the founder in 2007. He organizes numerous and
successful cultural initiatives. In particular, he was President of the three editions of
Milano Manga Festival, promoted in cooperation with the Milan Municipality and the
General Consulate of Japan in Milan. Refined estimator of the Japanese culture in all
its aspects, Alberto Moro has been a member of the Urasenke school in Milan since
1993. He practices and teaches chado (the Way of Tea) that has become to him an
authentic life style. He is an expert of Japanese movie, lover of the Web, he has been
cultivating for years riendships and liaisons with people who share his same pas-
sion for Japan. Alberto Moro has the soul of a true artist, he realizes his work with
intelligence, passion, spirit and grace. He discovers the importance and the value of
the human factor in the photo telling and through certain signs he conveys to others
the feelings he has felt. Since ever he has been attracted by the portrait for its ability
to convey joy and respect, respectability and dignity and he looks for the look of the
characters to tell their histories. In the artistic creation he prefers the beauty in itself
and the recent nearing to photo exhibitions derives from the need to tell, in a society
where pictures has gained more and more importance, the deepness and the beauty
of the Japanese culture, taking advantage from the pictures hemselves. Able to look
in depth, to catch some revealing details of a certain history, Alberto Moro concen-
trates his interest for the photography also on towns and on the urban landscape. To
this respect, on occasion of the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the twinning
between the city of Milan and that of Osaka, in 2016 he was invited by the Osaka
Municipality to realize a photo exhibition entitled “Osaka vista da un milanese”
within the prestigious Osaka Town Hall. 20 pictures that show the artistic and cultural
affinities of the author with the Japanese world. The exhibition was showed at the
Urban Center in Milan on January 2017, too. A new exhibition, entitled “Gente di
Tokyo”, that received the Patronage of the Japanese Consulate in Milan, was hosted
at the Corte dei Miracoli in Milan. He was also invited by the Chamber of Com-
merce in Osaka, in his quality of President of Aspesi Milano (National Association
among the companies of real estate promotion and development), to introduce his
city to the Japanese entrepreneurs. In February 2018, with the exhibition “Lo stile
Milano”, dedicated to the most important Milan events during one year, he showed
for the second time the city of Milan in an institutional site, the Honor Entrance Hall of
the Osaka Town Hall.

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VALERIA ANGELINI

Valeri Angelini is my stage name. In reality, Valeria Maggiolo: my creative path coin-
cides with my research on my identity. My personal story: a drawing I have pursued
for years unconsciously. I followed the trail of memories, stories told to trace the tree
of my life my surname originating Angelini, the last name of my paternal grandfather.
My artistic research lives of the transformations of my soul and my body, empathi-
cally on reflection of my reality; and the extreme need to see materialize my feelings
and thoughts with all possible forms of expression: painting, sculpture, printmaking,
photography. The shape has never been as important as expressing and imparting a
feeling, a penetrating message, like a scream.
As in a spiral, I walked to my life back and also the case has taken on a shape, a
non-random pattern, which I wanted to propose in my works, miraculous intention,
magic, the strength and the energy of a universal mechanism behind every granel the
sand, behind the creation, and especially behind human existence.
Like a game in these works the reality breaks down to compose himself, an endless
puzzle: after all, MOTHER NATURE has taught us that only with the transformation
and the contamination we can renew and have continuity. Life is a puzzle, an incre-
dible game where each piece makes sense and the end result is given by the set of
pieces. I like to think of this happening also in my work, in which the sense of what
you see you leaving drag onto the overall vision of the works.
Valeria Maggiolo Angelini, I was born in Massawa (EE) on 14 September 1969, I
grew up in Rome, my adopted city: I earned my art studies at the
Academy of fine Arts of Rome in Painting art teacher, I currently live and work in
Seregno
pose himself, an endless puzzle: after all, MOTHER NATURE has taught us that only
with the transformation and the contamination we can renew and have continuity. Life
is a puzzle, an incredible game where each piece makes sense and the end result is
given by the set of pieces. I like to think of this happening also in my work, in which
the sense of what you see you leaving drag onto the overall vision of the works.
Valeria Maggiolo Angelini, I was born in Massawa (EE) on 14 September 1969, I
grew up in Rome, my adopted city: I earned my art studies at the
Academy of fine Arts of Rome in Painting art teacher, I currently live and work in
Seregno

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ALTERNANZA SCUOLA LAVORO PROJECT: ”JAPAN: TRADITION AND MODERNITY”
in collaboration with the”Liceo Artistico Modigliani

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79 Since 1977 Arredaesse has de-
veloped and implemented
projects all over the world,

from Geneva to Rome, to Alko-
bar, from Austria to Los Ange-
les, Makkah, Panama, Ryadh,
London, Paris, Moscow, Doha,

Montecarlo ...
Between 1984 and 1985, Arre-
daesse landed in Japan with
several projects in Tokyo and
Kyoto, interesting realizations
because of the mix between
Western and Eastern culture

and tradition.

The long history and the rich Japanese culture are not known as well as the Western ones, both for the undeniable cultural differences and for the isolation in which Japan
remained until the nineteenth century.

Japanese culture doesn’t believe in a god who created man and nature, on the contrary it recognizes an intrinsic divinity in nature. From this principle comes the predi-
lection, both in architecture and design, for the choice of natural materials, and explains some of the key features of Japanese architecture, such as the continuity between
exterior and interior in the traditional house and a certain lightness borrowed from Buddhist Chinese temples that are very common in Japan. Even the arrangement of the
furniture in an interior refers to this sense of lightness, it starts from a focal point in the center and then spreads out towards the perimeter of the room, which, however, is
never completely defined, but leaves the possibility of opening towards the garden.

Other features of Japanese architecture are the repetition of a modular element, think, for example, of the tatami, which is both floor / carpet and a surface measurement
unit, the different elements are built separately and then assembled according to the needs and wants of the client. These aspects, together with the choice of aromatic
essences such as sandalwood and cedar, make Japanese architecture seem extremely modern to us.

In 1905, Frank Lloyd Wright visited Japan and was so impressed by the traditional Japanese house, by its continuous dialogue between interior and exterior, that he deve-
lops its architectural style according to similar principles of natural harmony. Those principles translates in iconic projects such as the Fallingwater House, and the settlement
in Taliesin West, Arizona, which now hosts the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and the Taliesin School of Architecture.

Japanese design, unlike the Western one, doesn’t move from an ethical experience, from a tendency to improve an object and it develops an aesthetic research at a later
time; for the Japanese culture the aesthetics (understood as harmony) is already included in nature and relating virtuously with nature, we reach an ethically sustainable
solution.
The principles of Japanese design translate into the simplicity of the shapes, the use of natural materials, but also in an affinity with the artisan skills that permeates art and
life in general. Just think of some of the objects that we instinctively associate with Japan: the kimonos, the lacquered boxes for food transportation, the folding fans, raku
pottery. Think also of the design production of masters such as Shiro Kuramata and Sori Yanagi, or the emerging designers who play on delightful parallels between past
and present, between shapes and materials, in a game of irregularities and asymmetries, up to origami: the art of folding paper that is often a source of inspiration for both
artists and designers.
Japanese art includes a vast repertoire of styles and means of expression, sculpture, pottery, painting and calligraphy on paper and silk, ukiyo xylographic prints, and more
recently the manga.

The Japanese design produces extremely well finished objects, aesthetically pleasing and with a propensity for lightness, modularity and reduced dimensions. This taste for
miniaturization, always present in the Japanese tradition, has been a definitely advantage for Japanese production in the microelectronic field.
About miniaturization: urban lots, especially in big cities, have been divided into smaller and smaller particles, especially because of the real estate crisis of the 1990s,
and are able to accommodate only minimal housing units. That is how micro-houses are built on commission, designed to satisfy the wants and needs of each client. Small
spaces are called to perform various functions through the meticulous study of multi-functional objects and retractable walls that transform the architectural space according
to the use needed at a given time.

The theme chosen by Arredaesse for the Alternanza Scuola Lavoro project in collaboration with the Liceo Artistico Modigliani is Japan: Tradition and Modernity.

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DESIGN SCENOGRAPHY
We asked design students to design furniture items that would Scenography students were asked to redesign the AR Lab
combine tradition and modernity, aspects that have always exhibition space, taking into account the principles underlying
been present in the philosophy and identity of Arredaesse. Japanese culture, customs and architecture, from a formal,
Many interesting projects were born, both for indoor and functional and materic point of view.
outdoor use, with many transformable elements and furniture
that are extremely bound to tradition but declined in a modern ARCHITECTURE
way through materials choices. Architecture students will have to deal with the study of
projects carried out by Japanese architects or by architects
FIGURATIVE ARTS who have been profoundly influenced and inspired by Japane-
Students of Figurative Arts were asked to design ceramics, se culture, such as Carlo Scarpa and Frank Lloyd Wright.
graphics or wallpaper to be displayed in the AR Lab exhibi-
tion space.

AUDIOVISUAL AND MULTIMEDIA GRAPHIC
The students of the Audiovisual and Multimedia classes will We asked Graphic students to address the issue of communi-
have to document and show, through a 10/15 minutes video, cation and promotion of the inaugural event by designing the
the Alternanza Scuola Lavoro project journey from the begin- invitations and flyers. They will also have to produce a publi-
ning to the realization of the exhibition and the opening night. cation that describes the Alternanza Scuola Lavoro project of
In addition to the video, they will have to design wallpapers the previous year.
starting from the detail of a photographic image, from the
detail of a natural element, from experimentation with the
reaction between chemical agents and photographic paper
(chemigram) or the assembly of frames selected from Japanese
movies.

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83 arlab workshop

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Young promises of Liceo Amedeo Modigliani in Giussano have worked
together with Arredaesse technicians for four months. Guided by the Japanese
designer Naoko Shintani, they have developed their ideas and projects.

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Walking through the Japanese portals, visitors arrive in the poetic corner of AR Lab: a
zen area designed by the scenography course students, where you can relax and get
cradled by an origami sky, representing purity through lotus flowers, besides love and
balance through flamingos.

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Ikigai is a table/bed with a soft and sinuous shape. When closed, it can be
used as a small table; when opened, instead, it turns into a seat or a bed.

Reflected Tier is a mirrored screen – made up of mirrors put together or overlapped –
representing the Yin and Yang ideogram.
This wallpaper was created starting from a detail of a photograph representing a
seed waiting to be carried away by the wind. Its final pattern recalls an oriental
flower.

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