Italien 1975/1985, Keramik, glasiert, Höhe 30 cm, Länge 80 cm, Tiefe 20 cm. (DRAX)

Unikat

Provenienz:
Aus dem Besitz des Künstlers

Vgl. Lit.:
UFO Story. From Radical Architecture to Global Design, Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pezzi, Florenz, 2013

“The idea for this lamp came to me in 1975 in the study at Piazza del Limbo in Florence, which was called ‘Laboratorio Casa ANAS’. Its implementation with glazed ceramic was especially laborious and was completed in 1985. In 1986, it was displayed at the exhibition entitled ‘Abitare il tempo’ in Verona. This item is a unique piece made by hand by Lapo Binazzi (UFO), then fired and painted by the same in the workshop of Alessio Sarri in Sesto Fiorentino. The idea for this lamp was born from Lapo Binazzi’s interest in the streets and motorways which – along with ANAS (the Italian national roads authority), electric service masts, gas pipelines, and other services that are visible in the landscape – represent the plethora of infrastructure that would transform Italian society in those years and which is known as ‘tertiarisation process’. In the case of motorway restaurants known as ‘autogrill’ in Italy, consumerism merges with the automobile journey motif. The ‘Autogrill’ lamp represents an arch bridge consisting of an arm covered in a sleeve, through the openings of which light emanates from two light-bulbs. The ‘poetic’ vision of this artifact is combined with a style that could be defined as post-human and also occurs in the works of other designers, such as Gaetano Pesce. When this work was still just raw earth, two fingers broke off from the hand. Their fragments were fired and painted separately, then glued and plastered along the suture line in order to cover the ‘wounds’. The photographs in the catalogue of the exhibition in Verona are by Maurizio Marcato. The lamp is reproduced on the cover. An image inside the catalogue shows Lapo Binazzi holding the lamp, using one of his own creations, as has long been his custom, for an improvised performance. In this case, too, the performance should, in the intention of its author, counterbalance the immobility of the object and establish a dialogue or close confrontation between the artist and his creation. A further development of the idea at the origin of this lamp are the ‘vassoi autostrada’ (motorway trays), open to multiple interpretations, as centerpieces on long tables.”
(Lapo Binazzi (UFO), Florenz 2017)

Noch als Architektur-Student in Florenz gründete Lapo Binazzi 1967 zusammen mit Carlo Bacchi, Patrizia Cammeo, Riccardo Foresi und Titti Maschietto die Gruppe UFO. In ihrer Propagierung der Offenen Form und konsequenten Marktverweigerung gilt UFO als die radikalste Manifestation des italienischen „desegno radicale“, dem mit Archizoom, Superstudio und Gruppo 999 zwei weitere Architekturkollektive mit ähnlichem Ansatz zuzurechnen sind. Beeinflusst von der Philosophie Umberto Ecos war Florenz in dieser Zeit ein Zentrum radikal neuer Architektur-und Designideen mit einem veränderten Blick auf Umwelt und Gesellschaft. Lapo Binazzi war einer der unkonventionellsten darunter und seinen Konzepten eignet immer ein ironisch-reflektorischer Ansatz mit überraschend formaler Umsetzung.

„They were young, mad, and on a revolutionary mission. For one of them, the battle for the soul of design is far from finished.
(Lee Marshall, 2016, über Lapo Binazzi)

© Maurizio Marcato