WOOD OBSESSION

curated by Design.VE

Palazzo Loredan
TUESDAY > SUNDAY 
10am-6pm
CLOSED ON MONDAY

 

Works on display

​

Ron Arad for Moroso, Francesco Ardini, Antonio Aricò for Editamateria, Mario Botta for Riva 1920, Andrea Bouquet for Editamateria, Lorenza Bozzoli for Colé, Andrea Branzi for Riva 1920, CarrerBikes, Antonio Citterio for Riva 1920, Claesson Koivisto Rune for Smaller Objects, Edoardo Colzani, Simone Crestani, Craft Combine, Cucula, Maarten De Ceulaer for Moroso, Maarten De Ceulaer for Victor Hunt Designart Dealer, Andrea Francesconi with Warm and Wood, Front for Moroso, Giraldi Calenda Design, Lock, Peter Marigold for Dilmos, Naanstudio / Sabina Bonfanti, Daniele Papuli for Dilmos, Paola Paronetto, Paolo Polloniato for Editamateria, Karim Rashid for Riva 1920, Maria Grazia Rosin, RuralUrban, Siba Sahabi, Tobia Scarpa for Atanor di Merotto Milani, Barbara Schweizer, Roberto Sironi for Editamateria, Pascal Smelik, Tête de bois, Tim van de Weerd, Walter Visentin for Dilmos, Debra Werblud, Zanellato e Bortotto for Moroso.

 

Focus

Wood Obsession is hosted on the piano nobile of Palazzo Loredan and it does not fail to come up to expectations as it stages a real material obsession, where the items’ wood forms a relationship with the copious wood of the interior decoration.

 

In a setting rich in dramatic tones, emphasized by the play of light and shadow by Sabina Bonfanti/Naanstudio and interrupted only by the total white of the entry hall, the following works will be displayed: the furniture of the Korean Craft Combine and their concept of reloaded wood encapsulated in the Patterned Pallet Chairs, the Cucula - Refugees Company for Crafts and Design project - inspired by Enzo Mari’s Autoprogettazione technical method - faces the issue of refugees, providing them access to training and placement through a new pattern of social design, the very young Warm and Wood brand that uses only thermally treated wood without solvents or chemical additives in the wonder rooms devoted to food, bearing the wonderful name of Wonderbuffet, the young and ecological RuralUrban with its contemporary interpretation of the vinyl record storing piece of furniture Vynilla and the outstanding cabinet Aside, the zero waste production process of Lock - a brand transforming single beech plywood sheets into future- looking but graceful at-pack furniture.

The Briccole collection by Riva 1920 is a tribute to Venice and the celebration of reuse material. It participates in Design.Ve with pieces of furniture signed by Mario Botta, Andrea Branzi and Antonio Citterio. Karim Rashid’s design air is also on display.

Examples of high-end know-how are the Santiago coat-stand and the Oscarina chair, two wonderful pieces of design by

Tobia Scarpa belonging to the wider Atanor project by Merotto Milani.

The sculpture-like Three Skin Chair and the One Skin stool by Ron Arad for Moroso are made of curved painted wood. They are an homage to the ductility of this material. The “soft psychedelic illusionism” of the Soft Wood Bench by Front also for Moroso, where wood is present in the appearance of the cover on which a realistic picture is digitally printed, is misleading and surprising at the same time. On display, you will also nd Woof and Wrap, a screen stemming from the cooperation between Maarten de Ceulaer and Moroso, that can be de ned “pure serendipity”. The historic Friuli brand has also designed the Press Point Of ce, where Venice is celebrated by the Collezione Serenissima by Zanellato & Bortotto.

 

With Dilmos, we open the doors to unique specimens and limited series. At Design.Ve you will nd the Cartodendro Desco by Daniele Papuli, the Osso Table by Peter Marigold and the Lounge by Walter Visentin.

A design approach can be found also in Simone Crestani’s work, where the skilful and sophisticated use of glass blowing techniques allows him to defy the laws of matter physics in an unprecedented and innovative dialogue with wood, whereby creating a consolle that seems to be resting on light crystal air bubbles.

Editamateria is strongly represented at Wood Obsession starting from Andrea Bouquet’s Bouisoun Consolle, where wood retains its original spontaneous character mixed with re ned wood textures.

Futuristic textures are to be seen in UNLIMITED / wall padding by Edoardo Colzani, designed for Laurameroni Design Collection, where unexpected motifs are laser engraved on the wood surface. The Trois chair, where wood dresses in copper and concrete in a perfect balance between shape and substance designed in collaboration with Keyform s.r.l., is also on show at Design.Ve.

Victor Hunt Designart Dealer presents Grid by Maarten de Ceulaer, a wooden table that takes on an unprecedented sculptural wave-like turn. The table is processed with a grid groove system, it is rst bent and then, after the grooves are lled with resin, it is brought to the solid state. The wood shape becomes uid and it brings its material character closer to the abstract shapes of tridimensional processing. The grid intersections contain led lights which turn Grid into a surprising programmed lighting surface.

 

Passing from furniture to design objects, wood takes on a decorative dimension. This is the case with Corsè by Giraldi Calenda Design, whose classical wooden corset is covered with succulent owers and leaves shifting the emphasis from function to decoration. Hybridization is not only cultural but also temporal in Three Wise Mirrors Eze, a mirror sculpture made of solid beech wood on which a mirror and brass sheet is applied, by Lorenza Bozzoli for Cole. Tête de bois, a young brand created by Andrea Deppieri surprises us with a collection of wooden hats that are highly decorative. Along the same line, Panama - an essential hat rest designed by Claesson Koivisto Rune for Smaller Objects - brings back a timeless object, takes it out of the wardrobe and turns a minimal rest into an object that does not go unnoticed.

 

Balanced between exhibition item and transport means, Iroko by CarrerBikes is a city bike completely handmade using the cabinet-making’s techniques traditionally applied in the boat sector. Iroko is also on display at Design.Ve.

 

At Wood Obsession there is also room for selected items and accessories made of white ceramic, opal glass, alabaster, copper, steel and felt. They rest on the furniture, they are placed on book shelves or they are free to oat in the air. Their role is to accompany the visitor’s look beyond furniture and to harmonise the interior decoration and the mounting, one room after the other.

 

Just like randomly aggregated atoms, Molecules vases by Pascal Smelik are made of white china. The vase series Proliferazione by Francesco Ardini winks at scienti c research into the rst forms of life. Here, ceramic interacts with the space surrounding it. The edges become vague and ceramic undergoes the transformation of organic and bacterial phenomena such as cellular explosions.

The Carnivora plant pots by Tim van de Weerd have look like an extension of the plant, as they rest on short little legs that look ready to wander off.

Editamateria is present also in this sector: it has carried out a careful research work and selected some items from The Blowing Man Collection by Antonio Aricò. It is made of blown, hand-crafted borosilicate glass in a limited edition exclusively for Editamateria. The Blowing Man is the dream-like and poetic interpretation of the art of glass-blowing, a real tribute to the glass-blower work, who is the protagonist of each single work and at the same time, it is a speci c tribute to Venice.

At Design.Ve there is also Alabastri, the brand new collection of centrepieces made of Volterra’s alabaster by Roberto Sironi for Editamateria. The essential shapes, the transparency and the natural colours of alabaster are highlighted by de ned proportions, thinness and detailed edges.

The Craft Combine is present also in the accessories section with its “Around the Window “ project aimed at emphasising the characteristics of materials and natural elements such as light, wind and shadow. The Craft Combine Plate is a real voyage into the various metal surface treating techniques. Aluminium, red copper and brass express themselves differently on the basis of the treatment used. There are 9 treatments and the result is a kaleidoscope of colours.

Barbara Schweizer presents B22, a set of three trays. They are made of three different materials: steel, brass and copper. They have a glossy surface and a satin nish on the back side and they draw your attention to the central laser cut which is different for each metal used. When placed one upon the other, the trays create a charming polychromatic geometric pattern.

Felt makes its entry into wood Obsession with Siba Sahabi. Her work is the result of the comparison of different cultures and it turns an old cultural heritage into contemporary design.

Limine by Sabina Bonfanti / Naanstudio shifts the focus to the material relationship between opposites, brilliance and darkness, glass and steel, transparency and opacity. A collection of glass, acid and rolled ready-made items is here on display. Their metal nish suggests an alchemist’s abacus of objects in endless fragile transformation.

From the dim light of the old library woodwork, like from an abyss, two biomorphic chandeliers emerge, made by the artist and glass designer Maria Grazia Rosin, who has set a long-standing and fruitful collaboration with the glass masters from Murano.

Debra Werblud is a designer and a multidisciplinary artist presenting VITE spinata | barbed VINE: her rst wallpaper project printed on mulberry paper rolls. She takes part in this exhibition with a triptych, where the re ned black and white tree pattern communicates with the lights and the shadows created by VINE shadow – a steel suspension hand- crafted using laser by Eugenio Caratelli for Caratelli Acciaio.

 

A separate chapter of Wood Obsession unfolds in the two decorated rooms on the piano nobile of Palazzo Loredan, that are placed at the two ends of the collective exhibition. The two rooms want to emphasize the break with the wood predominance in the exhibition and they host a paper clay sculpture installation handmade by the ceramist artist Paola Paronetto and the Agatha’s Room installation by Paolo Polloniato for Editamateria, where an aggregation of Formanova and a Metamutante - made by assembling white clay elements by leakage, manipulation and contamination of different rough shapes taken from the historical moulds of the Nove manufacturing tradition - will invade the Palace’s old boudoir.

 

The sensory involvement of Wood Obsession is enhanced by the olfactory design by The Merchant of Venice, that will scent ve rooms with ve essences derived from aromatic plants wood such as Black Oud, Cedarwood, Sandalwood, Scots Pine and Patchouly traditionally used by the masters of perfume art.

 

The Wood Obsession of the interior and of design items becomes also an exhibition mounting obsession. In some rooms there are green installations byStudio Vendramin – a team of professionals specialized in the design of parks, balconies, roof tops, the restoration of historical gardens and the safeguard of natural landscape – developed by the Cooperativa sociale L’Isola, dealing with low environmental impact creation and upkeep of parks, gardens, balconies, vertical gardens, terraced gardens and green settings for indoor and outdoor.