photo courtesy Foscarini only the luminous body of the Sun appearing and disappearing within a dark infinity . The atmosphere enables us to experience the different colours and temperatures of light . The sunrise and sunset also make us understand very well the third dimension , time or Kronos , which is deeply connected to light and shadow , to the alternation of darkness and light that is the cycle and rhythm of life .
From light and shadow we have come to talk about time ... The marking of time passes through the movement of the shadows visible using sundials . Before the invention of the clock , the relationship with Kronos was this : day and night hours , and the lengthening of one
Fregio , particolare . Lampada realizzata per Foscarini / Fregio , detail . Lamp made by Foscarini
a sinistra / on the left Lampade Fregio montate nell ’ installazione ( IM ) POSSIBLE NATURES presso Foscarini Spazio Monforte durante la Milano Design Week 2023 / Fregio lamps on display in the ( IM ) POSSIBLE NATURES installation at Foscarini Spazio Monforte during the MDW 2023 or the other in relation to the seasons . Then , in the contemporary world , it takes the form of the switching on or off of the electric light , as an alternation between working hours during the day and resting hours at night . Although nowadays , this is paradoxically no longer the case , because it has become a continuum , a parallel space to the natural one that allows activities to take place throughout the day . This was something that Brian Eno introduced us to with a very poetic exhibition where he placed horizontal TV screens to give shape to a whole series of chromatic shadows that accompanied his music . It was the beginning of the dimension of light of computer screens that today characterise the daily life of millions of people at any latitude . And so the writing that for thousands of years went through the sign , the line , and the stroke , when we think about it , now flows through the light of the screen .
Finally , I would like you to talk about Fregio , your latest work … I presented it at Euroluce with Foscarini , it is called Fregio and is about the light of bas-reliefs . It actually starts from a ceramic floral frieze , cut in a deliberately arbitrary manner to reflect on how closely plastic volumes are linked to light . A bas-relief lives in the moment in which light falls on it , and the more the light is grazing , the more its volumes stand out .
I wanted a lamp that would act as a basrelief during the day and , therefore , live of the light that reaches its sculpted surface while at night , instead , it would spread light . I liked this idea and that is why the lamp is a real frieze , suspended in the air : a pendant lamp made of two friezes held together by two straps inside of which runs all the technical part , with double lighting directed upwards and downwards . I chose ceramics because it is a material that I have looked at with great curiosity , and great awe , for decades , as it is so rich in narratives . I started with glass and ceramic is really the opposite , even if they both need fire to “ be ”. Then it happened that , a few years ago , I had this very mighty chance to work at the Bottega Gatti in Faenza , and that is where the whole path I am on began . Fregio was born out of the desire to bring back into lighting a material that had been around for centuries - just think of the fact that lanterns were once made of terracotta but even with the transition to electricity , ceramic and porcelain continued to be used . Earth and water , shaped and then fixed by fire , living in space in relation to light . So , it was really essential that this lamp would be made of ceramics and came out with two matrices , Bottega Gatti and Foscarini . In this way , I managed to tie together two manufacturing skills : the first about hundred years old and the other a bit younger , but equally relevant .
INTERVIEWS / LUCE 344 31