Ready-mades of the great masters of contemporary furniture, as we reveal the ironic and entertaining side of objects, with benches in the form of clothespins, tractor seats borrowed from farmers and bicycle wheels supporting glass tabletops
Tour table on wheels by Gae Aulenti, 1993, for FontanaArte; glass top and pivoting wheels with chrome-plated supports, tires in solid rubber. Elmetto table lamp by Elio Martinelli, designed in 1976 for Martinelli Luce, for direct and indirect lighting with adjustable diffuser, molded in colored resin.
Blue Luzy and Luzy Take Five by Ingo Maurer, ironic ceiling and wall lamps made with blue gloves and low-tension frosted bulbs on the fingertips. Each glove, right and left, is painted by hand with a special blue color, and the fingers can be positioned in different ways.
Alessandro M., self-portrait of the author Alessandro Mendini, designed for Alessi in 2004 as a response to the success of the Anna G. corkscrew-woman, in thermoplastic resin and chrome-plated zama. Profiterolle by Sergio Asti, 1968, table or floor lamp for ambient lighting, with diffuser in transparent methacrylate and polyester with fiberglass, junction ring in black rubber, base in black metal, Martinelli Luce.
Mezzadro stool designed by Achille & Pier Giacomo Castiglioni in 1957 for Zanotta: the ready-made object par excellence. A tractor seat becomes a chair in molded sheet metal, painted in the colors orange, red, yellow, white and black. The chrome-plated steel leg resembles the strut of a tractor but placed upside down, while the beechwood base provides the footrests.
Molletta, bench in solid aromatic cedar, designed by Baldessari & Baldessari for Riva1920. Fante lamps by De Pas D’Urbino Lomazzi, 1978, for Stilnovo, with molded rubber cone and shade in white coated aluminium, moving freely on the bulb. Bowl Chair by Lina Bo Bardi from 1951, edition by Arper, with circular steel frame and tilting textile seat. Womb Chair designed by Eero Saarinen in 1946 for Knoll, with polyurethane shell, down cushions, covered in Kvadrat Divina Mustard.
Vidun table designed by Vico Magistretti in 1987 for De Padova, with top in extra-clear glass and height-adjustable tripod base using a ‘big screw’ in solid beech with red and yellow aniline stain. Dry chair, 1987, by Massimo Morozzi for Giorgetti, in multicolored beech, made with interlocking to avoid the use of glue, with 32 completely separable parts.
Santapouf by Denis Santachiara for Campeggi, containing an inflatable bed complete with electric inflation system; the ottomans are covered in colored Lycra, with stacked curves that reproduce the profiles of famous figures in design and art such as Le Corbusier, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. At the center, Pillow by Andrea Anastasio for Et-al., simple cushions that become upholstered ottomans with multicolored textile covers.
