May, 20 – June, 27, 2021
photo Federico Floriani
We are happy to announce that our RONDO and an experimental form of LEZKA mirror have been featured as part of the collective exhibition “Design As Self-Portrait” in SPUMA – Space for the Arts, an evocative space of industrial archaeology (old Dreher brewery) in Giudecca. The show is part of the Venice Design Biennial and it presents the works of over 20 international designers.
This year’s edition, curated by, Luca Berta and Francesca Giubilei, investigates what design represents for each of us as individuals, and at the same time how we represent ourselves through it, through objects, spaces, experiences. With great and new attention to the evolution of the self-representation techniques themselves. The program of exhibitions is open to the public from May 20 to June 27, in parallel with the first month of the Architecture Biennale, continuing to weave the relationship between the languages of contemporary design and some of the most evocative places in the city.
About the curatorial concept
In recent decades, the self-portrait has ceased to belong exclusively to artists. Everyone is invited to portray themselves even from early school years, and there is no lack of tools or spaces with which a self-portrait can be achieved.
Everyone creates a representation of one’s self in a space of free fluctuation, a space in which identity becomes a design object. And this concept of identity and image as the design is reiterated through the choices everyone makes when it comes to what they link to their bodies and the spaces to inhabit, through objects, devices, clothes, physical locations, and virtual spaces. We are all ‘curators’ of ourselves, self-designers expressing ourselves through the consumption of products or experiences of our choosing and through the ways in which we communicate these choices to others. As it often happens, the transformations within social practices manifest alongside the advancement of available instruments.
About 500 years ago in the 16th century, the production of a flat, non-convex glass mirror was perfected in Venice, creating a mirror image of whatever was in front of it with a level of precision that was previously unattainable. And thus, the self-portrait was born. In 2010, just over a decade ago, the iPhone 4 was released with a front-facing camera. The self-portrait was revolutionised.
Designers on show:
Alessandro Iovine, Anna Aagaard Jensen for Functional Art Gallery, Anna Jožová for UMPRUM, Ariane Shirvani, Arik Levy for Vibia and Citco, Audrey Large for Nilufar Gallery, Bert Loeschner, Duccio Maria Gambi, Elisa Ossino for Amini, Arte 9 Milano, De Castelli, Officine Saffi and Salvatori, Estudio Campana for Carpenters Workshop Gallery, Edra and Friedman Benda, Eva Moosbrugger, Francesco Maria Messina, Kostantin Achkov, Jimmie Durham and Maria Thereza Alves for LABINAC, Lex Pott and David Derksen for Transnatural Label, Ludovica + Roberto Palomba, Antonia Astori and Nicola De Ponti for Tubes, Michal Cole for Knots Rugs, Mohamed Hamden Tarek, Moure/Studio, OrtaMiklos for Functional Art Gallery, Pablo Reinoso, Rita GT, Rollo DC Bryant, Tobia Zambotti, Touche-Touche for Everyday Gallery, Victoria Wilmotte, Oskar Zięta.
photo Federico Floriani
photo Federico Floriani
photo Veronica Motulko