IDEAS AND INSPIRATION FROM THOSE IN THE KNOW
WORKING WONDERS
“BEHIND EACH BRAND, THERE ARE STORIES THAT HAVE NOT YET BEEN TOLD. I TRANSLATE THOSE STORIES WITH MY OWN STYLE.”
Andrea Mancuso inhabits a whimsical and dreamy universe, transporting audiences through time and space with his designs that offer surprises and convey feelings. Take, for example, the Rhyton series of five surreal, hybrid ceremonial drinking vessels made by master glassblowers in Murano. Half goblet and half mythological creature, they metamorphose into characters to populate the rituals taking place in the dining room.
Then there is The First Supper table in concrete and steel that pays tribute to Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, The Last Supper, by transforming the “last” into the “first”. Carving out traces of familiar objects like plates, forks and nutcrackers on the surface of a table, Mancuso leaves behind signs of a banquet that are visible depending on the way light strikes it, thereby allowing the user to imagine the story.
With the Glacoja vases and centrepieces hand-carved out of blocks of plexiglass, he reveals their hidden raw side, treating them with pigments that give them a strange, primitive appearance resembling geological formations.
Lord of small things
Andrea is recognised for his playful objects, furniture, lighting and installations that alter reality, marry the past with the present, evoke emotional responses from users and arouse curiosity. He describes his creative process, “The first approach to a new project is research. I look for books related to the subject I want to study. Every project is an opportunity to learn. The materials or manufacturing I favour are those I have never explored before. When I acknowledge the manufacturing limits of certain materials, I somehow start limiting my imagination. Production is certainly a complex part of the process. Even though I work with very skilled artisans, there are often problems to be resolved in the passage from paper to life.”
Born thinker
Born in Rome in 1982, Andrea grew up in the narrow, serpentine streets and small lively squares of Trastevere, a picturesque and charming neighbourhood where history coexists with the quotidian.
His mother was a psychologist and his father worked in advertising, and when his grandfather retired and transformed his garage into a workshop to make wood models, the young Andrea spent time with him learning how to use tools and to bring ideas to life.
In his early 20s, harbouring a passion for cinema, he worked as a film editor for short movies and documentaries while studying design.
Obsessed by the possibility of changing the perception of reality by inverting sequences and associating them with sound, he thereafter discovered that he could use design to craft a narrative.
“I describe myself as an observer,” he states, “I like to investigate the relationship between the familiar and the unexpected. Everyday spaces and objects represent ourselves, our past, memory, history and culture. Through objects, installations and interiors, design can be a medium to tell stories and create emotions.”
Forging a career
After meeting Emilia Serra at the Royal College of Art in 2008, they cofounded a design studio, Analogia Project, in Milan three years later. Their big break came in 2012 at Milan Design Week, where they presented Analogia #003, a temporary, site-specific installation that challenged conventional spatial relationships and the frontier between reality and unreality, where visitors saw life-size charcoal sketches of common household objects brought to life through the meticulous placement of black wool wrapped around a maze of transparent fishing lines fixed to walls and ceilings, as if one were living inside a drawing.
A few weeks afterwards, Hermes commissioned them for the window displays of its Ginza store in Tokyo, and Bulgari came knocking the following year.
Andrea explains how he interprets the identity of each brand he works with, “Behind each brand, there are stories that have not yet been told. I translate those stories with my own style.”
In 2016, when Fendi asked them to design a permanent installation for its headquarters in the Palazzo della Civilta Italiana, they recreated the palace’s iconic repeating arch facade, which protrudes from the interior walls in multiple spots, emerging and disappearing as if they belonged to a lost memory.
Today, Andrea’s studio is located in Milan’s Navigli district, characterised by the presence of numerous artisan workshops and artist studios now converted into bars and restaurants. Having inherited one of these spaces that was about to shut down eight years ago – a small atelier with a window looking out onto the street – he uses half as a studio and the other half as a workshop to construct maquettes and prototypes, tackling up to 10 projects at a time with the help of two assistants and a few external collaborators that join the studio when required.
“Nature and sustainability are indeed important considerations, as well as tradition and culture,” he says about his creations, “Most of my projects are developed with local artisans in limited editions and are objects made to last over time. People are becoming more sensitive to climate change problems, and I hope that the design world will respond accordingly. We are urged to change our attitudes, and I believe that design has the ability to do so.”
6. The Metamorphosis champagne glasses designed for Perrier-Jouet.
KEY DESIGNS
ANALOGIA WOOL INSTALLATION
BOOMING VASES
GOLDFISH TABLES
STORYWALL TILES
RHYTON VESSELS
