Fabrica will present a change-inspired collection of wood furniture, Down Side Up among the off-show events at the Milan International Furniture Fair, 14-19 April 2010.
Hosted in historical Palazzo Borromeo, Down Side Up is an encounter between experimentation and consumption, where design challenges shapes, volume perception and directions to create objects with constantly varying functions and interpretations. And so by adding a few essential accessories like legs, handles, hooks or hands, and by choosing a precise orientation, a simple basic wood unit is transformed into something new with a unique personality. The heart of each unit is a hole, a functional element which also gives the unit an aesthetic value. Therefore the effectiveness of each article lies in its versatility of use and its potential for creating customised modular systems.
Palazzo Borromeo is also the venue for Around the Table, a selection of blown glass and ceramic objects, the fruit of many years of collaboration between Fabrica and the Roman gallery Secondome. New designs in 2010 include a collection of cake stands, an article with an old-fashioned air that evolves into a completely unexpected form and a series of ceramic objects, the result of a workshop between Fabrica's designers and a master craftsman in the Puglia region, Italy. The ancient savoir-faire of the artisans meets the creativity of today's designers who, applying their own experience and culture to the creation process, give birth to new experimental forms.
Fabrica will also be at Salone Satellite (a major launching pad for young designers from the world's top design schools) with The Riot Act, a collection of 12 decorative articles. The collection takes its name from the 1713 Act of the British Parliament which gave local authorities the right to order the dispersal of groups of 12 or more people deemed unlawfully assembled. Each of the 12 designers from Fabrica was given a ceramic cylinder to transform it in form and function through modifications, processes or additions of new elements.
Invited by INTERNI magazine, Fabrica's young Portuguese designer Catarina Carreiras will present her Divine Providence project at INTERNI THINK TANK, an exhibition/event that offers an opportunity to reflect on the necessity of new approaches and on changes in design values in the new millennium.
In a society dominated by technology, it is important to stop and think about the relationship between human beings and machines. We unconsciously continue to become attached to everyday objects. We pass more time and waste more energy with objects than with our loved ones. We seek attention, understanding, information, knowledge - and even love - from an inanimate being. Divine Providence looks at technology as an entity with a soul, a kind of private god that we adore and trust, to whom we turn for guidance and advice. Using web printing, a new concept developed by HP Imaging&Printing Group, Catarina Carreiras creates a new "religious arsenal" for the contemporary designer. The printer is considered a creative tool - ignoring the role it plays in mass production - to create a limited series of images illustrating a new enunciation: design providence.