8 April 2014
“Etna is a mine with no miners.” This statement sums up the idea that lies at the root of De Natura Fossilium, the latest research project from Formafantasma presented at Palazzo Clerici during Miart and the Fuorisalone, in Milan. A series of bowls, coffee tables, clocks and mirrors made entirely from lava in a variety of states: from rock to polished crystal to fibers. The natural process of eruption has been subjected to critical analysis: its irreversibility was the first thing to fall by the wayside and the porous lava has been restored to its magmatic and vitreous state. Thus the phases of matter become steps in a process of understanding that leaves a mark on the different components of the objects, all of them derived from that unique natural mine that is the furnace of the volcano. The task faced by the designers was to extract what the material already possessed: a physical and cultural potential that took on meaning and function under the lens of the project. This work is the latest, convincing confirmation of a precise approach taken by the duo Farresin/Trimarchi, since the outset engaged in seeking an identity in the recesses of a local and regional character that goes beyond the banality of the designer’s nationality. Showing that what differentiates a tourist from a traveler, and a compiler from a researcher, is the willingness to learn and let yourself be influenced, but also to be led wherever the journey and the research may (sometimes unexpectedly) take you. Where: at Palazzo Clerici, Via Clerici 5.
