Luminaire Lab will be featuring limited-edition pieces by the avant-garde collective Gruppo T as part of transFORM. Originally conceived in 1960 and now produced by Officina Alessi, these works eschew practicality, instead variously employing kinetics and optical effects to encourage interaction with the observer and to elicit an emotive response.
In 1960, Milan’s Bruno Danese showroom hosted an historic exhibition of five works by Gruppo T, a consortium founded the previous year by Giovanni Anceschi, Davide Boriani, Gianni Colombo, Gabriele De Vecchi and Grazia Varisco. Fifty years later, this installation comes to Luminaire Lab, an environment exactly in line with the group’s experimental investigations into the boundaries of design.
Emerging from the contemporary interest in kinetic and programmed art, Gruppo T referred to its work as miriorama (from the Greek roots myrio, meaning infinite, and orao, signifying sight), and sought to produce objects that could be created in multiples. Intended to purposefully engage the viewer in an interactive experience, visitors are encouraged to touch and manipulate these pieces, which variously employ moving parts and optical devices to inspire discovery and play. Thanks to the efforts of Officina Alessi, dedicated to the production of unique and sophisticated design objects, each of the five works is again available in a limited edition.
With a vast product line that includes everything from an iconic, whistling teakettle to a designer flyswatter, the Alessi company, founded in 1921 by Giovanni Alessi, has long been at the forefront of innovative and inspired product design. The company has created a dynasty out of not only offering products geared towards the mainstream – serving trays and everyday cutlery among them – but by also creating some of the most celebrated cult objects of our time.
November 2010
