The new lamp LaSospesa by Stefano Boeri
For FontanaArte to amaze means to surround yourself with Masters. It could not be otherwise for the company founded by Gio Ponti, which has had personalities such as Max Ingrand and Gae Aulenti as its artistic directors, and names such as Umberto Riva, Shigeru Ban, Alvaro Siza, Renzo Piano as designers,to name but a few. For design week 2019 -in the Euroluce biennial -FontanaArte calls upon Stefano Boeri Architetti and launches “lasospesa”, the new table lamp. For one of the best-known Milanese architects in the world, whose Bosco Verticale is one of the most representative and iconic projects of our time, trying his hand at a lamp has been an interestingchange of scale. Like FontanaArte: historicaland contemporary Milan, with elegant entrances and new skyscrapers, fashion and major art exhibitions. Like the art of FontanaArte: it takes shape in an object that does not preclude function, from which a light comes to life. lasospesa is in fact a symmetrical table lamp, born from the elementary principle of the incorporating of two cylinders: a cylinder of primary light suspended in a cylinder of diffused light.
Unpublished versions of the iconic Bilia and Fontana 1853
In designing BILIA, the 1932 iconic lamp with a metal cone and a glass sphere, Gio Ponti imagined a smaller version in a range of “spray colours” as on his handwritten notes of the original project. FontanaArte presents BILIA Mini in ten breathtaking chromatic variations. Fontana represents the abat-jour par excellence. For design enthusiasts and connoisseurs of the history of the brand, 1853 still remains a sort of nickname today. Now presented in new and coloured versions - light grey, amethyst purple and brass - which reinforces the contemporary nature of the project.
FontanaArte illuminates Palazzo del Quirinale with its icons
FontanaArte is proud to have been selected, with the Parola lamps by Gae Aulenti and Piero Castiglioni (1980) and Flûte designed by Franco Raggi (1999), to represent Italian excellence in the permanent exhibition at the Palazzo del Quirinale, seat of the Presidency of the Republic. Seventy masterpieces of contemporary art and design were chosen for 'Quirinale Contemporaneo', a project strongly desired by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, who attended the opening ceremony during which he thanked the artists and companies that contributed to the project.