Driven by a powerful innovative spirit, tradition lives again, a generous muse ready to guide and inspire the art of glass towards new forms and new ways of interpreting the product in space. The multiple becomes for Barovier&Toso the key to build new visions, an attitude capable of investigating a kaleidoscopic range of possibilities.
18-23 April 2023
The Milan Design Week this year sees Barovier&Toso very involved and present. The perfect stage for presenting the new collections, Euroluce is the main event of the week, a pole of attraction for a vast international audience. The other initiatives take place in the heart of the city, in the full swing of the Fuorisalone, in three contexts of indisputable charm, where Barovier&Toso continues to make its voice heard. The leitmotif of these initiatives is the Multipl*, Serial Attitude project, which wants to tell the company’s ability to develop the theme of seriality, on different scales, going from the micro to the macro.
Reiteration of a basic module as the genesis of the product
The five collections that Barovier&Toso is previewing at Euroluce have a common design matrix, which responds to the logic of seriality. The starting point is a module, a handcrafted Venetian crystal object. In the product development phase, the module or modules are designed to be replicated and combined with each other, according to geometries that are never trivial, but easily legible. This rhythm conquers for its expressive immediacy, which leaves the crystal free to show its purity and its precious manufacturing.
Seriality as a compositional paradigm
Serial Attitude for Barovier&Toso also means considering the product as a module in itself, capable of giving life to serial installations, clusters that emphasize the collection. In this case, the multiple creates a surprising sounding board. The possibilities are many and give planners and interior designers the opportunity to find unique blends of light, the architecture of the spaces and the decorative component of Barovier&Toso creations. More or less eclectic and scenographic, these configurations can enhance any environment, whether domestic or not.
Entirely bespoke projects
The third declination of the theme of seriality is that of made-to-measure installations, created in a highly personalized way, based on specific needs. These are decorative and technological projects created ad hoc, “architectures” of light and Venetian crystal capable of astonishing and exciting with their personality. These are solutions that reflect all of the company’s knowhow and maximize the skills of the master glassmakers and the internal team of designers, who also take care of imagining and creating composites and changing lighting scenarios.
Euroluce. The exhibition project by vandersandestudio Rho Fiera | P09-102
The internal layout of the pavilions, in the shape of an irregular ring, is completely new this year. Barovier&Toso enjoys a privileged position with a trapezoidal stand of 430m2, with 3 fronts. The project, curated by vandersandestudio, has references to brutalist architecture by proposing a clear sensory contrast between the materiality of the walls and the fluidity of the glass. The exhibition is guided by a precise path, which moves through partitions plastered in a light colour, characterized by a rough and raw texture. The floor is entirely covered in mosscolored carpeting, a covering that rises vertically, building volumes that act as shelves and a support base for table lamps and styling accessories.
The harmonious chromatic combination that characterizes the interiors of the stand is given by a bright, realistic palette that reflects the current trends in interior design. The reception welcomes visitors in a very scenographic way, with an installation featuring the new Empire collection.
Like the cavern of an ice cave, jagged volumes of crystal descend from above. They are square-section tubes worked with the “corteccia” technique that give the sensation of ice. Arranged irregularly, they break the eye and deceive the perception of space. Once inside, the story takes on very different notes and the same collection is presented through a more traditional context. Inside a backlit wall stands the image of a minimalist architecture, as a background for an Empire suspension lamp. The dialogue between installation and catalog product plays with the perception of reality, suggests visions, acts as inspiration. This same concept is re-proposed along the way and highlights the versatility of the Barovier&Toso collections, which can be interpreted in multiple ways.
A sinuous corridor leads to the discovery of Clepsydra, a new collection that was born as a reinterpretation of designs from the 1960s, taken from the historic Barovier&Toso archive. Also in this case, the installation proposes the product in the catalog and an installation created for the occasion, decidedly out of the ordinary: the base module in Venetian crystal, in the shape of an hourglass, multiplied in height and in a radial way, becomes column, over three meters long, becoming an architectural element that punctuates the space vertically. The installation composed of five columns thus defines beams of light of great impact, which highlight the striped surface of the individual elements, rigorously made in the traditional way.
Opéra, Vallonné, Metropolis and Grace born in the Barovier&Toso house in the last two years, find ample representation in the stand and for the first time they are presented to the Euroluce public, together with iconic bestsellers, such as the Venezia 1295 chandelier, the Rosati chandelier, the Camparino table lamp, and the long-selling Amsterdam chandelier. The exhibition method still declines the theme of seriality, using these products as modules, repeated and combined to form installations.
The focal point of the stand is the central lounge area, configured in a very welcoming and scenographic way. A large semicircular wall covered in wood acts as a counterpoint to an imposing installation that sees Germogli express itself in all its magnificence.
The idea of multiple finds its maximum fulfillment and is inspired, in this case, by nature. A cascade of luminous canes, wrapped in climbing leaves, in Venetian crystal, dominates the scene, attracting attention. The light sources echo with a deliberately redundant effect, which creates a multitude of sparkles and reflections. Creativity, ingenuity and art come together, giving shape to a magical atmosphere. Also in this case, the installation is called to dialogue with the suspensions, in the catalog version, a comparison that highlights the innumerable potential of the Germogli collection.
Along the way, a more circumscribed space houses the Punk suspension, designed for Barovier&Toso by Roberto Lazzeroni. Poetic, ironic, at the same time rigorous, Punk also revolves around the concept of multiple, a presence clearly marked by strong proportional relationships and combinations that do not hide the structure, as in other cases.
Finally, to present the new Campanula collection, created in collaboration with the designer duo García Cumini, vandersandestudio has decided to highlight its incredible variety of configurations. In fact, there are eight versions in the catalogue, which alternate modules and textures. Each of them is present at Euroluce and is immediately comparable with the others, all lined up to illuminate the very long meeting table in lacquered red. Many legs, which are spaced out like thin stems, are surmounted by an orderly row of bluebells, flowers that gently transform into sophisticated design objects, luminous works of hypnotic beauty.
Floating flowers_Where artisan and nature meet
Barovier&Toso Showroom | Via Durini 5 | Milan
The showroom in Via Durini dedicates its windows to the new Campanula collection, with an installation bearing the signature of vandersandestudio. Like floating flowers, the creations designed by García Cumini are suspended at different heights, close together, in a close relationship of mutual relationship. The modular nature of the collection emerges, its kinetic character, the kindness underlying its design. The concept of multiple here is the synthesis of a profound respect for tradition, for ancient processes, for the company’s know-how. It is a synthesis that goes beyond the idea of a classic chandelier with arms and a classic decorative representation of the flower, to arrive at a modern elaboration of the floral archetype. The setup highlights this care, which draws on the plant world and the spontaneity of nature itself, a source of infinite elegance and truth.
In the window on the left, a garden full of multicolored, tall and slender flowers. Within this naturalistic representation, and also a little romantic in its imperfect being, a series of Campanula lamps blend into the environment, with neutral colors and hints of green. A single piece of furniture, a vintage armchair, conceptually represents tradition, a harmonious presence in dialogue with the contemporaneity of the new collection. In the showcase on the right, on the other hand, the product is placed in a more realistic context, which recalls living elements, suggesting its location in everyday environments.
The Art of Light_Elle Decor Italia Exhibition
Palazzo Bovara | Corso Venezia 51 | Milan
A long-awaited appointment by the design community, the exhibition organized by Elle Decor Italia at Palazzo Bovara this year sees light as the protagonist in relation to living and stages the passion for collecting contemporary art. Barovier&Toso is present with a rich installation that connects two internal environments. Five ceiling lamps from the Empire collection make up a dense weave of Venetian crystal tubes. The luminous and architectural impact is strong and vigorous and underlines the pride of transparent crystal, the expressiveness that even more rigid and geometric forms can assume, the possibility of dressing large surfaces with light and refined contemporaneity.
Ginori 1735_Domus Ginori
Flagship Store | Piazza San Marco 3 | Milan
From the grace and purity of porcelain and the audacity to experiment, the first Ginori 173 home collection was born, under the artistic direction of Luca Nichetto: Domus, the collection of lamps, furnishings, fabrics, which marks the debut of the Maison in interior design. Created in collaboration with expert craftsmen and important partners, Barovier&Toso and Rubelli, chosen for their mastery and common creative sensibility, Domus traces a new and unmistakable path because porcelain is not just a material, but an attitude, a tension, a desire that leads Ginori 1735 towards a transversal lifestyle.
Fine porcelain meets Venetian crystal and from the intersection of these artistic and material languages, three exclusive products are born, intended for everyday life: Trinitas, a wireless table lamp, Sideris table lamp and the Conterie floor lamp.
New catalogues
Updated in 2022, the Workbook is now completed by the Addendum, a volume that acts as its appendix and which fully incorporates its layout. Inside the new Barovier&Toso 2023 collections: Campanula, Clepsydra, Empire, Germogli, Punk. Instead, the Book has been implemented and reprinted, which now includes the new collections launched in the last three years, including the Euroluce 2023 novelties, presented through unpublished set photos. The volume collects both catalog products and bespoke projects, in a dynamic alternation.
