Battiti: a design investigation of light and ceramics
Battiti is a project of pure experimentation on light, undertaken by Foscarini in collaboration with Andrea Anastasio and Davide Servadei of Ceramica Gatti 1928. It is an unconstrained experience that breaks away from conventional approaches, to open up new interpretations of light. In this context, light transforms into a material, engaging in a dialogue with ceramics.
In the project Battiti, presented in an exhibition at Fuori Salone 2022, light is used not to illuminate but to construct. As if it were a material: it generates effects, underlines forms and invents shadows. Because this is what Andrea Anastasio does when he gets his hands on the archives of the Gatti workshop, taking things apart and putting them back together, following the primordial instinct of someone who creates by desire, passion and necessity. He overturns traditional logic and reaches a new logic, interpreting history to give it a different direction and a different meaning. In this action of creation and discovery at the same time, Anastasio uses light, which also becomes a tool of dialogue with the observer. The openings of light, active and “live” elements in the bas reliefs and sculptures by Anastasio, are thus the beginning of a new relationship between the objects that contain them and those who observe them.
“Battiti began with reflections on the age-old relationship between light and ceramics, a voyage that extends from oil lamps to religious shrines, and accompanies the form of vision in its many manifestations. Then another observation made its way into awareness, and I began to dissect ceramic panels from the castings of the Gatti archives in Faenza, breaking them down in a systematic way. Bringing light into this series of works was a slow process that came after an immediate intuition, as often happens when we want to convey the impact of a vision that has captured us yet eludes us at the same time, precisely because it is impalpable. So, once again, the dialogue between ornament and light becomes an opportunity for awareness of the role light plays in our everyday progress, and its ability to remind us of the illusive character of continuity, the futility of the search for completeness.”
ANDREA ANASTASIO
/ Designer
Research that is the result of the freedom that has always been an earmark of Foscarini, a company without a factory that thrives on ideas and imagination. This freedom makes it possible – and even necessary – to investigate the most suitable materials and production methods for the optimal development of every new idea. An approach that sets the company apart, combining industrial intuitions with an innate spirit of craftsmanship. An operation far from any commercial strategies, typical of the identity of Foscarini, a company that has always believed in innovation and the constant pursuit of meaning.
“Because it is only by getting off the beaten track that one can gain the courage to imagine new ideas. It is only by listening and sharing visions with people who belong to other worlds that one can understand where it makes sense to go. It is only by sharing the true passion of creators that we can grasp the meaning of the word design, in its purest, most authentic significance”
CARLO URBINATI
/ President and founder of Foscarini
E-BOOK
BATTITI —
Foscarini Artbook series #1
Research & Developement
Download the exclusive e-book about this research project, inspired by the sole desire to explore new expressive languages, meanings, and ways of experiencing light. Texts by Carlo Urbinati, Andrea Anastasio, and Franco La Cecla. Photographs by Massimo Gardone.
Do you want to take a peek?
Design, art and experiments with craftsmanship: At Milan Design Week 2024 Foscarini presents HABITUS, a new research project with Andrea Anastasio and Amal, expression of the privilege of absolute creative freedom.
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