FORMAFANTASMA
FORMAFANTASMA AT MANITOGA’S DRAGON ROCK: DESIGNING NATURE

May 13th – November 14th, 2022
Manitoga / The Russel Wright Design Center
Garrison, NY

About the Exhibition

Always interested in the complex relationship between design and the natural world, Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin of the design duo Formafantasma present
 a selection of works in dialogue with Manitoga – the house, studio and surrounding landscape of the renowned American designer Russel Wright (1904-1976). An iconic example of modernist architecture in the idyllic Hudson Valley region, Wright’s home and studio – known as “Dragon Rock” – is made of stone, wood and glass, and was conceived in dialogue with the landscape in which it was constructed. The project represented for Wright a critique of, and an alternative to, modern urban life, through which man has lost his ancestral and primitive connection to nature.

The same attention to the relation between man and nature informs the research and practice of the Studio Formafantasma, whose works largely evolve out of a close consideration of the most critical current environmental issues.

The selection of exhibited works – belonging to different collections such as Craftica, Botanica and Delta – fit discretely into the architectural setting, as if they belonged to it, thereby underlining the affinities between the two contemporary designers and Wright’s philosophy.
In this way the site-specific installation of Formafantasma’s work – generates a direct dialogue with the surrounding architecture and environment.