“Delta” by Formafantasma is the collection that inaugurates the collaboration between the designers and the gallery. The collection, designed in exclusive and curated by Domitilla Dardi, has been developed within Privato Romano Interno, the gallery’s program curated by Emanuela Nobile Mino that since 2011 commissions designers to use Rome as a source of inspiration for new furniture pieces. In this regard, the “Delta” collection – composed of lighting fixtures, furniture and objects – expresses the characteristic mix of architectural styles of the city of Rome that, as with sediments, have layered over one another over the centuries.
Formafantasma found in fact knowledge in the past: almost as in a study-trip to the city, they visited the numerous Roman archeological venues and museums and accumulated a large numbers of photos and documents that over the year-long process to design the collection became the foundation of their work. During this time a clear selection of materials emerged: marbles, metals, porcelain and wood. Particularly they were attracted to very mundane objects of imperial Rome and while some artifacts seen in museums have served as inspiration, others have been directly sampled and carefully updated for contemporary use.
Andrea Trimarchi (1983) and Simone Farresin (1980) are Studio Formafantasma, a duo of Italian designers based in Amsterdam. They took their degrees in the IM Master Course of Design Academy Eindhoven in 2009. Their works have been shown and published on an international level and are part of prestigious public collections like those of MoMA New York, Stedelijk Museum’s Hertogenbosch, Metropolitan Museum New York, MAK Museum Vienna, Victoria and Albert Museum London, MUDAC Lausanne, Mint Museum of Craft and Design in North Carolina, Chicago Art Institute, and the Textiel Museum in Tilburg. Formafantasma teach in the “Man and Well-Being” department at Design Academy Eindhoven and are leader of the MADE design course at the Rosario Gagliardi Fine Art Academy in Siracusa. The have been awarded the Milano Design Award 2017 (Press Choice and Best Technology) for the exhibition Foundation at Spazio Krizia showcasing, among other pieces, all the lihting fixtures from the “Delta” collection. In the same year they also won the Limburg Design Award.