For this year Milan Design Week, Nilufar’s historic venue in Via della Spiga hosts the fourth act of ‘Repertorio’, guided by the intuition of its founder, Nina Yashar. As a meeting of her various souls, ‘Contrasts’ is a tribute to the primordial instinct of those who experience design not as an ephemeral encounter, but rather as a higher ethical and aesthetic value. With a curated selection ranging from ancient Oriental art to creations by contemporary talents, through the icons of Italian and Brazilian Masters of the last century, the exhibition is a journey made of infinite perceptual and sensory short circuits, capable of enhancing and embracing every nuance.
In a continuous play of oppositions and complementarities, the exhibition path highlights the contrasts born from the encounter between works from different eras of art and design. Among these stand the mod. 589 armchairs by Gio Ponti, manufactured by Cassina in 1955: timeless icons that embody the vision of the famous architect and designer,always aimed at the synthesis between formal elegance and functionality. Decorated with a naturalistic scene on a golden background, a late nineteenth-century Japanese six-panel screen creates a refined visual counterpoint, offering a first contrast between modern essentiality and the decorative richness of Asian art.
Completing the ensemble, amplifying the play of material references, are two pieces of rare expressive intensity: the Zig Zag armchair designed in 1948 by Giancarlo Palanti, together with Lina Bo Bardi an emblematic figure of the Estúdio de Arte Palma, and a Tatami signed by Hechizoo. Part of the original furnishings of the foyer of the Teatro Cultura Artística in São Paulo, the armchair, made of Cabreúva wood with a Cavallino seat, is an emblem of warm modernity, combining the purity of the Brazilian studio’s lines with an extraordinary use of materials. A new creation
from the textile atelier founded by Jorge Lizarazo in southern Bogotá, the Tatami unfolds in a weave of natural and metallic fibers. From the Colombian atelier also come two tapestries in gold and purple tones, whose textures blur the contours of landscapes between the Andes and the Akashi mountains. Their ethereal warps, suspended between dawn and dusk, contrast with the rigor of the Vienna straw that covers the chest of drawers by Directional, a vintage American piece from the 1960s.
In the same environment, there is also a lounge composed of two armchairs and a sofa by Franco Albini, unique pieces designed in 1947 for the interior of the Castelli Ferrieri house in Milan. The balanced proportions and sober elegance of these pieces dialogue with two imposing Oriental vases in papier-mâché, decorated in gold on a black background, and with a monumental Japanese plate from the Edo period in enameled bronze, embellished with floral motifs, a central eagle, and dragon figures created with the cloisonné technique. Upstairs, the selection unfolds as an exploration of cultural convergence, where different worlds are woven together, meeting in a harmonious and unprecedented synthesis.
