Joining Fabscarte in the prestigious group of finalists are nine leading Italian ateliers, with a series of absolutely outstanding projects demonstrating master craftsmanship and ultra-contemporary design:
Joy by Draga&Aurel: ultra-modern wall lights in retro styles, made of resin, glass and plexiglass, inspired by the 70s, where every layer of hand-fused resin has a different level of saturation; the complementary tones are layered to create a soft, shaded glow.
Draga & Aurel is a multidisciplinary design studio based in Como working in the field of home furnishings, textiles and interior design, using original methods combined with an artistic approach to material and composition.
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Nirvana by Bianco Bianchi: a luxurious table created in marble and scagliola, where the “mandala” motif is created in marquetry using 167 slabs of natural selenite with a thin layer of pigmented scagliola. For the first time ever, the ancient technique of scagliola is on show and allowed to shine.
Bianco Bianchi is a historic, famous Florentine workshop working in scagliola. Founded in the mid-nineteenth century, it is today managed by siblings Elisabetta and Alessandro Bianchi, who learned the painstaking technique from their father Bianco, a great master in the art.
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Mistero by Antonino Negri: a mystical stoneware light created using the technique of slab and coil, cold-coloured with lime and ochre, then finished with beeswax: a vase of light that has a front, and a proscenium that separates outside from inside, dark from light. Behind a second threshold, a theatrical wing of lights invites us into the space beyond.
Tonino Negri, a sculptor and ceramicist based in the Lodi area to the south-east of Milan, takes his inspiration from nature, the animal kingdom and the archetypal figures of myth and history, with highly lyrical touches.
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Horah by Nuova Vetreria Resanese: a highly sophisticated series of five lights in glass and metal created from a drawing by the famous London design duo Raw Edges, composed of leaves of curved, hand-fused glass that turn gently around a central column of light, inspired by the synchronicity of the Israeli dance known as the Horah.
Nuova Vetreria Resanese is an outstanding Treviso-based company producing items in glass for furniture and lighting components. The company collaborates with leading Italian and international brands and designers.
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Dduma by Barbara Abaterusso: a poetic table lamp from the “Merletti” collection in bronze and blackened brass, a sculpture that reproduces a highly sophisticated antique Italian lace design in a floral motif. The work is fixed to a base of blackened brass on which a small LED light is inserted that illuminates the sculpture and projects a large shadow of it.
Barbara Abaterusso is an eclectic and original artist-craftsperson. Starting in fashion, she moved on to interior design, becoming a master of the art, with a degree in interior design from the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome, where she lives and works.
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Filide by Laura Carraro: a spectacular mosaic centrepiece inspired by the image of a leaf lying on the ground in a meadow, reflecting the sun. Inspired by the leaf, but taking a much more stylised form, the piece retains lightness and subtlety thanks to a technical experimentation with a self-supporting mosaic in gold tiles.
Laura Carraro, a master craftsman who graduated from the historic Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli, creates artworks, jewellery, objects for the home and architectural projects from her studio, Carraro Chabarik Mosaico Contemporaneo, in the heart of Udine.
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Freedom by Davide Medri: a contemporary modular light created with a layer of mirrored mosaic, a chain connecting to life and liberty: to life because it can proliferate, germinate, expand freely in space; to liberty because it units earth and sky, the solidity of the earthly dimension and with the vastness of the spiritual.
Davide Medri, artist and mosaicist, with a wide range of experience in the artistic world, creates objects for the home in glass mosaic with unique designs and a completely artisanal production in his workshop in Cesena, south east of Bologna.
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Ferai Codega by Salviati: a sophisticated collection of three blown glass lamps from a design by Alberto Lago. The lamps are created by fusing two pieces of blown glass which combine to form a single piece. The project is inspired by the story of Venetian lighting, a modern day version of the Venetian lantern that brings to mind the archetypal designs of the Murano glass tradition.
Salviati is one of the famous and celebrated Murano glassmakers, founded in 1859 by Antonio Salviati for the production of mosaics, smalti and blown glass. Internationally-renowned, it respects and celebrates a thousand years of Venetian glassmaking tradition, collaborating with leading artists and designers.
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La Luce di Venere by Alessandro Rametta: a charming mirror in different metals, a true demonstration of technical mastery. The embossed, chiselled copper surface evokes the sea around Cyprus, the waters that gave birth to Venus. The patination is inspired by the crust of the planet Venus, with its different layers of copper nitrites, sulphur and sulphuric acid. The bronze hemisphere is forged and hammered over an iron mould. The rotatable base allows infinite variations of moving light.
Alessandro Rametta, a Milanese arts graduate, founded La Fucina di Efesto in 1997, a place for research into metals that straddle art, design and architecture. He experiments with different sculptural and painting techniques using metals and is dedicated to producing unique works.
