Tempesta Gallery presents:

City Oasis

The gallery is transformed into a multi-sensory place and pop up café

For the first time during the Fuorisalone, the space of the Foro Bonaparte 68 gallery opens its doors to a project that combines art and design.

Piero Fogliati’s sensorial machines of the City Poetry exhibition meet the iconic furnishings of Riva 1920, an Italian company, based in Cantù in the province of Como, which for over one hundred years has been producing solid wood furniture capable of defying time in full respect of the ‘environment. The synergy is completed by a special coffee tasting station by Mirabilia, the innovative service dedicated to sustainable and ethical Specialty Coffees, and the collaboration with Reading Room, a space in Milan that promotes the dissemination and understanding of contemporary magazines.

An exhibition designed by Tempesta Gallery divided into three “sensory areas” which updates the figure of the artist-engineer and allows you to rediscover the entire corpus of mechanical works by Piero Fogliati alternating with the iconic furnishings of Riva1920 designed by names that have made history of architecture and design such as Enzo Mari, Renzo&Matteo Piano, Mario Botta, Claudio Bellini who have experimented with projects based on sustainability and reuse.

An example of this is the Briccole, the undisputed protagonists of Venice: from the great attention towards the environment and ecology, the intuition of Riva 1920 was born, which wanted to give new life to the oak wooden poles, which guide the boats and they signal the low tide in the lagoon and which are periodically replaced due to wear. Made unique by the industriousness of the shipworms, small molluscs, the Briccole are transformed into exclusive pieces of furniture capable of transmitting a special emotion. Another example is the Kauri: Appearing in the Jurassic period, these plant giants were knocked down by huge cataclysms 50,000 years ago, remaining buried under meters of mud until today extraordinarily intact. Trunks that reach 70 meters in length and 9 meters in diameter are brought to light, real natural sculptures ready to be worked and become extraordinarily unique design pieces.

An oasis of culture, relaxation and insight in which to find a moment of tranquility during the frenzy of the design week, taste the coffees of the multi-award-winning Italian micro-roasting Vannelli, read the magazines of the most interesting international titles carefully selected by the Reading Room, including illustration, travel, art, design, literature, nature.

Piero Fogliati has dedicated his life to research on perception, his ingenious and poetic installations, in which art is movement, light, retina and sensations, are understandable only if experienced. He was born in Canelli in 1930 but chose Turin as his home. Starting in the 1950s he devoted himself to the visual arts but soon his passion for science and technology took over, exploring the perceptual spectrum and natural phenomena, Fogliati built machines with a sublime and refined aesthetic connected to the visual sphere. acoustics.

RIVA 1920

Riva 1920 is a company specialized in the production of solid wood furniture founded in Cantù, in the heart of Brianza in 1920. It is a production company based on traditions, culture, creativity and innovation, where craftsmanship and values ​​are combined with progress and cutting-edge technology, where design, signed by the most important names of international renown, improves ideas and where attention to respect for the environment is a daily challenge.

The love for nature and the search for a high quality standard of living beats the time of the company where craftsmanship is combined with technology, where design improves ideas and where attention and care for every detail give life to something special, unique, timeless.

The products that make up the Riva 1920 collection are made with real reforestation solid wood, using different types of wood such as maple, cherry, oak and walnut. Characteristic of the company is the reused wood, such as for example the millenary Kauri of New Zealand (giant plants, up to 70 meters high and 9 meters in diameter in length, destroyed by enormous natural disasters that occurred more than 50,000 years ago which kept buried under meters of mud up to the present day), Briccole di Venezia (undisputed protagonists of Venice, which guide the boats and mark the low tide of the lagoon and are periodically replaced due to wear, made unique pieces by the industriousness of earthworms , the small molluscs that dig tunnels in the wood creating extraordinary patterns) and Lebanese scented cedar (majestic trunks felled due to natural phenomena or programmed events, shaped by technological machinery).

Its essential requirements, guarantee of a natural and genuine product, are not only the high quality of the raw materials used, but also the use of glues that are not dangerous for humans and the environment and a finish based on oils and waxes natural of plant origin.

Producing furniture that defies time and fully respects the environment is the thought that has been the basis of Riva 1920 for almost 100 years, a true excellence of “Made in Italy”.

The following works are featured in the exhibition:

STANDARDO

Designed by ENZO MARI
Year 2011

“Maurizio Riva asked me to create a project using the oak wood of the disused “Briccole”, destined to increase some of the infinite landfills.

Everyone is horrified at the sight of landfills. What can I do? I decide to create a work as a banner for the exhibition: three semi-finished oak planks emerge from an uncleaned Briccola waiting to be used…” Enzo Mari

KAURI EARTH, designed by C.R. & S. RIVA1920 (TOP) / RENZO & MATTEO PIANO (BASE)

Year 2016

Table with top in Kauri wood and resin, stylized representation of the terrestrial globe: metaphorically the wooden parts represent the continents and the resin sections the oceans. Base in dark iron, with tubular section and visible welding.

DIY STOOL

Designer: MARIO BOTTA

Year 2011

Stool in solid Briccola wood, whose design is a tribute to Brancusi. Available in three different sizes.

VENICE

Designed by CLAUDIO BELLINI

Year 2011

Console featuring a polished steel top (also available in the extra-clear glass and “stopsol” glass version) combined with a series of solid Briccola wood poles.