Made of straw, wood, or better yet, bricks.
In childhood, home means protection—from the weather, strangers, and anything that could threaten the well-being of its inhabitants. As adults, the house remains a trusted shell, a place where one feels content without the need to seek solace elsewhere, surrounded by personal objects and cherished memories.

The home is a poetic place, where care is evident in the cushion, the plant, and the small feline wandering silently among surfaces of every size, material, and shape. These horizontal and vertical surfaces offer infinite sensory perceptions. Hence, it is also an aesthetic place, from the Greek αἴσθησις (aísthesis), “to perceive through the senses.”

Rugs, furnishings, paintings, family memories, and travel recollections define a temple where daily private rituals occur.

Every house finds its rhythm with the passage of time, a time marked by the presence of what we introduce, akin to the pages of a novel or the growth rings of a tree trunk.

By definition, it is an anthropic element, connecting us through its walls with the surrounding environment. If all walls were made of natural materials, the boundary between inside and outside, natural and artificial, would blur, bringing humans closer to nature.

This philosophy inspired “Àlfa, a Possible Home,” a project presented by Paola Lenti for the 2024 edition of Milano Design Week. This subtle architecture and interior exercise ultimately responds to a precise ethical choice.

It reminds us that initiating new and better practices requires positive thinking and a good dose of willpower.

INSIDE THE ROOMS OF ÀLFA
Director Maurizio Natta
Filmed by Fabrizio Polla Mattiot
Soundtrack Universal Music Publishing Ricordi srl

ph. © Maurizio Natta

© 2024 Paola Lenti srl, all rights reserved

L'articolo Home, the temple of private rituals proviene da Paola Lenti.

The rustle of leaves in a city park, stirred by the wind; the dust particles dancing in the sunlight filtering through dense urban buildings; the gentle patter of raindrops on a military green raincoat; the fiery red sun setting against the backdrop of a bustling street in Tokyo as seen from a van.

These fleeting moments, captured through the eyes of Hirayama in Wim Wenders’ acclaimed “Perfect Days”, evoke the essence of perfection. They remind us of the joy found in simply experiencing nature’s spontaneous offerings without any prompting.

Oki Sato, known as Nendo, finds inspiration in these subtle cues from nature – what he refers to as “hints” or “whispers”. It’s these whispers that he explores in his solo exhibition, “nendo: whispers of nature,” held at Paola Lenti’s new space in Milan during Milano Design Week 2024.

From their shared geographic coordinates in Tokyo, Japan, Nendo and Wenders, with a distinctly Western perspective, advocate for the importance of living in harmony with oneself and the natural world. They encourage us to appreciate life’s simple pleasures and to cultivate a deep respect for the environment.

“Exploring the connection between nature and humanity is deeply ingrained in Japanese culture,” explains Nendo. “That’s why I felt compelled to delve into this theme and chose Paola Lenti Milano as the perfect venue to showcase my exhibition. Nendo and Paola Lenti share a profound love and respect for nature – it’s what unites us.”

In the richness of the Japanese language, there exists a treasure trove of words that encapsulate intricate concepts and the beauty of natural phenomena with remarkable brevity.

Komorebi, as unveiled by Wim Wenders at the conclusion of his film, captures the ethereal shimmer cast by sunlight filtering through swaying leaves – a fleeting glow frozen in a singular, precise moment.

Hana-arashi, as disclosed by Nendo, describes the mesmerizing spectacle when cherry blossom petals detach and dance through the air – a transient beauty more captivating than the blossoms themselves, lasting mere moments.

Lastly, Mottainai, elucidated by Paola Lenti, embodies the ethos of waste not – a call to utilize existing resources rather than squander them. This concept has been embraced by the company, transforming into a project aimed at imbuing surplus materials with renewed function and aesthetic value.

The imagery of petals dancing in the air directly evokes Paola Lenti’s philosophy, which, through the Mottainai project, gathers and repurposes what remains, what literally falls from production processes, thus avoiding any form of waste.

“We were intrigued” explains Paola Lenti, “to explore collaborations with designers boasting diverse aesthetics, distinct from those of the Campana Brothers, with whom we initiated the Mottainai project’s first chapter. Thus, we engaged with Nendo studio. Oki Sato artfully breathed new life into Maris offcuts, harnessing their inherent structure and texture to inform the collection’s form. The resulting Hana-arashi collection exudes a restrained yet vibrant charm, evocative of quintessential Japanese design.”

Nendo’s concept for creating objects that experiment with various forms and combinations crystallized only after visiting Paola Lenti’s headquarters, witnessing the production processes, and grasping the company’s research efforts and unique savoir-faire. The Maris cutoffs, with their quality and array of colours, meticulously recovered and thoughtfully combined according to a cohesive chromatic scheme, give rise to petals of newfound and unpredictable beauty.

“The initial impression I had” recounts Nendo, “is that Paola embodies a certain Japanese sensibility. Quiet, exceptionally courteous, with a deep respect for nature. She truly sees and understands nature in a manner that resonates with me, reflecting an authenticity reminiscent of my own culture. I was pleasantly surprised to encounter the term Mottainai within an Italian company. It immediately felt familiar, akin to home. Through this project, I believe Paola and I achieved a harmonious balance between spirituality, materiality, and sustainability, as we, in a way, speak the same language. It was akin to composing a haiku.”

THE PLAY-DOUGH MAN
Director Maurizio Natta
Author Alessandra Noto
Filmed by Maurizio Natta – Fabrizio Polla Mattiot – Gianlorenzo Bernabò
Interview Dop Luciano Limoli
Editor Mattia Cutaia
Colorist Michele Ricossa
Audio Recordist Andrea Serventi
Audio Editor Matteo Fusi
Soundtrack Universal Music Publishing Ricordi srl
© 2024 Paola Lenti srl, all rights reserved

Go to the dedicated page to watch all our videos

L'articolo Nendo and Paola Lenti: A Symphony of Signs, Colours, and Emotions proviene da Paola Lenti.

Over two decades have passed since we embarked on a pioneering journey in the production of contemporary outdoor textiles, forever transforming their essence, scale, typology, and colour with a thin, impalpable thread – one suitable for twisting, coupling, shaping, and flattening into fabrics and cords.

The present and future of our company began with the unprecedented intuition, against the tide at the time, that such a flexible and potentially infinite raw material – akin to a thought relentlessly intertwining images, inspirations, and new connections – could transcend the conventional and establish the idea of a home without boundaries between indoor and outdoor.

From short film «Per filo e per segno» © Paola Lenti srl

However, we were not satisfied. We improved its performance, enhanced its qualities, and uncovered its aesthetic potential. Thus, a synthetic material, previously trapped in technology that rendered it rigid and soulless, superficially essential yet a source of ecological issues, became a valuable, sustainable material, functional for designing long-lasting and durable products, meeting the present requirements of the circular economy.

Over the years, that thread transformed into cords of various dimensions and forms, flexible enough to be woven, and into intricate, high-performance textile structures. It also manifested as soft knitted fabrics, reminiscent of classic craftsmanship like rib or plain stitch – a modern take on traditional handmade with a familiar, timeless essence. Additionally, it gave rise to dozens of unprecedented outdoor fabrics in exclusive colours, plush, inviting, and nearly indistinguishable from indoor fabrics, yet equipped with all the necessary qualities for outdoor use.

From short film «Per filo e per segno» © Paola Lenti srl

Per filo e per segno: the title binds the protagonist of our narrative to the meticulousness, care, and precision with which it is worked by the skilled hands of our staff, following the invisible threads of fantasy with their minds. This same attention is devoted every day to our work, to inventing new solutions, and to facing new challenges.

The enduring, contagious enthusiasm, the same as twenty years ago, has defined our identity. Paola Lenti herself guides us on this journey, unravelling and reweaving the thread of our history once again: a delicate yet resilient thread, leaving an indelible mark.

PER FILO E PER SEGNO
Director Maurizio Natta
Author Anna Vullo
Filmed by Maurizio Natta – Fabrizio Polla Mattiot – Gianlorenzo Bernabò
Interview Dop Luciano Limoli
Interview Gaffer Mattia Rossetti
Editor Mattia Cutaia
Colorist Michele Ricossa
Audio Editor Matteo Fusi
Hair styling and make up Karine Valbrun
Soundtrack Universal Music Publishing Ricordi srl
© 2023 Paola Lenti srl, all rights reserved

Go to the dedicated page to watch all our videos

L'articolo Per filo e per segno proviene da Paola Lenti.

Curious by nature, cosmopolitan by choice. Hugo Yoshikawa is a young artist who mainly draws inspiration from nature, from its diverse forms and myriad colours.

Born in Tokyo and raised between Paris, Bangkok, and New York, he graduated from Camberwell College of Art in London. Yoshikawa took his first steps as an illustrator in Madrid and later devoted himself to art in a broader sense, yet always maintained an original, graphic, whimsical, and sometimes naive style that still characterizes his work today.

To ignite his imagination as a child and push him to cultivate the art of illustration, especially influential were the bandes dessinées. These are the comic strips of the Franco-Belgian school, considered in those countries as real coming-of-age novels. One such series was the adventures of Spirou and Fantasio, two journalists facing various vicissitudes and aided by the faithful and ubiquitous squirrel Spip.

In the imaginative world of this French-Japanese artist, nature enters the home and envelops everyday objects. Tree roots infiltrate between tables and chairs, leaves float freely in the air, flowers bloom from milk cartons, and citrus fruits hang from laundry lines like laundry itself. It’s a world of fantasy, permeated by the emotions often found at the heart of haiku poetry – the central theme of nature with all its mysteries. It’s also an expression of traditional Japanese manga culture.

Designart Tokyo provides the perfect platform. It’s an event born with the goal of erasing the lines between art and design, functionality and beauty. This international event transforms the entire city into a museum each year. Through various settings, artists and creatives from around the world can come together, creating new and unexpected opportunities, synergies, and connections.

To produce the animation that will be part of the exhibition, the artist has created a series of sketches. They draw inspiration from some of Paola Lenti’s iconic products: Telar, Frame, Hammock, and Tapio armchairs. They blend these pieces into a nature that’s “intrusive”, and yet inviting, positioning them as central figures within his unique vision of the potential fusion of art, design, and the botanical realm.

The “Outside Inside” exhibition, its title already a manifesto, is organized by Rikka Gallery and open to the public from October 20th to October 29th, running from 11 am to 6 pm. It is held at the Paola Lenti Tokyo showroom in Azabudai Hills, a modern residential district where buildings are nestled amidst lush green spaces and have rooftops teeming with vibrant vegetation, all in harmony with nature.

L'articolo Hugo Yoshikawa’s art in the new Paola Lenti Tokyo space proviene da Paola Lenti.

When Paola Lenti and Francesco Rota met for the first time, they were little more than teenagers. It was the end of the 1990s: The company founded by Paola at that time was still a small reality. Francesco had recently completed his degree in architecture at the Art Center College of Design in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland. It’s been 25 years, and the partnership of that time is stronger today than ever.

To celebrate this anniversary, we asked them to revisit together the milestones that have marked these 25 years of professional understanding while getting comfortable on a sofa, one of the products that have defined the success of this long-lasting collaboration. However, both of them preferred to sit on the floor. This gave birth to an informal, two-part narrative, which was summarized in an interview revealing a strong affinity of thought. Their bond is founded on mutual respect and freedom, as well as a shared vision of work: a ‘serious amusement‘, as they both like to describe it.

This brings us back to their first ‘official’ encounter. It was 1998 when they began to think together about a project that would enhance and give three-dimensional shape to felt, the material that had been used for the production of rugs already for some years.

The understanding between the two was immediate and at once translated into the essential and linear features of the Atollo sofa and Linea, the indoor chaise longue that over the years has become one of the most iconic products in the collection.

Thus began a collaboration that gave shape and function to furniture elements characterized by an unconventional design and originating from a strong propensity to research and innovation.

Some years later, new territories are being explored. The challenge is then to design outdoor upholsteries that are as welcoming and pleasant to the touch as those traditionally used in the interiors. The research focused on polypropylene, a light and waterproof fiber. While she was studying the materials, he was working on the forms: The success of Linea was renewed with Wave, the first of a long and articulated series of products designed specifically for outdoor life.

The rest is the story of a creative partnership punctuated by dozens of furnishings, innovative and original, that thanks to their understated elegance have survived unscathed over time – seats, tables, side tables, cabinets and complements such as Frame, Cove, Ami, Smile, Harbour, just to name a few –, many of which have been awarded prestigious accolades. In the meantime, the two “teenagers” have kept the same enthusiasm they had 25 years ago and still enjoy sitting on the floor.

Due sopra il divano

Author Anna Vullo 
Director Maurizio Natta 
Filmed by Maurizio Natta, Fabrizio Polla Mattiot, Gianlorenzo Bernabò 
Editor Mattia Cutaia 
Colorist Michele Ricossa 
Audio Editor Matteo Fusi 
Soundtrack Universal Music Publishing Ricordi srl 
© 2023 Paola Lenti srl, all rights reserved

L'articolo Due sopra il divano proviene da Paola Lenti.

The fourth episode of Face to face is dedicated to Simona Sporchia, a master in the contemporary interpretation of the mosaic. Growing up in Milan, Simona was one of those little girls who always carried her sketchbook with her. She portrayed people, landscapes, and nature. Every chance she got, she’d arm herself with coloured pencils and give free rein to her imagination.
The artistic high school represented a natural landing place at the end of middle school. Simona discovered a passion for colours and materials; artistic techniques are the foundation for finding her expressive language.

She continued her studies at the Faculty of Architecture, but her heart was elsewhere: Simona felt the need to shape her thoughts with her hands, to return to her old love for a less icy and reasoned material. «I feel like art is a calling,» she says. She remembers the power of certain mosaic masterpieces she studied in school. It is where her inner gaze is focused. She drops out of university and enrolls in a mosaic school to learn the technique; she becomes a master mosaicist and opens her own workshop in Monza.

The encounter with Paola Lenti occurs during the first lockdown’s silence. They worked by assonance in that suspended atmosphere; in the warp and weft of the collection’s fabrics, they captured the same foundations of the mosaic composition: tesserae and joints, while intertwining and matching, create a decoration, just like the threads woven on the loom Furthermore, both realized that the combination of more shades determines the final colour equally in the mosaic and the company fabrics.

Together, they decide to subvert the traditional mosaic technique to create tesserae with different shapes and dimensions, round for example; they strip the joint of its function as a “hinge” to make it a background that recalls the chromatic palette of the collection products with which it is combined.

A new and contemporary vision of the mosaic emerges, where even the materials used support the desire to convey unprecedented suggestions: ceramics, recycled glass, silica powders, and oxides give rise to tesserae that differ from one another and in exclusive colours. The end result is a series of modules for flooring, side tables, and large table tops that have become part of the collection.

Nerikomi, a Japanese ceramic production technique, inspired the most recent experiments. Simona Sporchia creates coloured ceramic tesserae in her Monza workshop, which she then cuts, fires, and inserts on backgrounds made of concrete agglomerates and natural materials such as marble and recycled shards. The Venetian floor served as inspiration, with its chromatic bases in various shades punctuated by coloured grits.

Face to face with
Simona Sporchia, Monza

Interview by Anna Vullo
Director Maurizio Natta
Cinematographer Fabrizio Polla Mattiot @ateliermistral
Filmed by Maurizio Natta, Fabrizio Polla Mattiot @ateliermistral, Gianlorenzo Bernabò di Negro
Audio post production Top Digital
Soundtrack Universal Music Publishing Ricordi Srl

L'articolo Face to face with Simona Sporchia proviene da Paola Lenti.

Alessandra Malfatti fell in love with “grand feu enamelling” during an exposition of Paolo De Poli, a renowned Paduan enameller who worked with Gio Ponti. She was seduced by its dazzling colours, the reflections, and the shimmering luminosity of the enamelled surfaces.

Since then, she has nurtured the dream to learn to work with fire to reproduce that magic. For the mystery of enamel is generated by the fire: letting melt powder of coloured glass on metal surfaces in kilns at extremely high temperatures.

Graphic designer, already used to designing little objects, Malfatti enrolled in an art school. There, she met two excellent masters, Graziano Visintin and Maria Rosa Franzin, and she specializes with Ennio Cestonaro, a polyhedric artist and an expert in enamel.

The path is marked. Driven by the desire to develop her expressive style, she establishes a laboratory on the outskirts of Padua, purchases the first kilns, and begins chromatic research to select the best glazes.

«The absolute seduction of enamel lies precisely in the colour» Malfatti explains. «In the nuances, shades, and combinations that can be achieved».

This is what binds her to Paola Lenti. They started by imagining surfaces that can be combined with the company’s collections: movable backdrops, bookshelves, and table tops.

A complex technique that originated in the Mediterranean between the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries BC. and is now used by very few artists worldwide.

Alessandra Malfatti chose copper as a support material; her inspiration comes from nature in all of its changing forms and innumerable shades. Another common ground: the family lexicon shared with Paola Lenti.

From the observation of the luxuriant vegetation of the Padua Botanical Garden – Alessandra Malfatti’s place of the heart – an installation of philodendron leaves in enamelled copper arises which, suspended from the ceiling, restores the atmosphere of a tropical forest.

Colours and veins derive from a skilful stratification of the enamels, while the movement of the leaves is forged manually when the copper comes out of the kiln and when the material is still ductile. Finally, fire puts its indelible mark on it, since different temperatures and firing times can produce signs, chiaroscuro and transparencies that are different each time. This is the mystery that Malfatti had sensed in De Poli’s works.

Experimentation goes on. “I am conducting several experiments with the idea of creating a sort of fantastic herbarium in various shades, from green to earth,” the Paduan artist declares. “Currently, these are tiny plates that are always made of enamelled copper and have simple symbols that may represent a leaf or a cactus. They might evolve into furniture, items, or something else in the future”.

To give depth to the images, Malfatti uses both transparent and opaque enamels. «It is precisely this feeling of depth, which is produced through the colour and which varies according to the light, that makes each piece precious».

Face to face
with Alessandra Malfatti, Padova

Interview by Anna Vullo
Director Maurizio Natta
Cinematographer Fabrizio Polla Mattiot @ateliermistral
Filmed by Maurizio Natta, Fabrizio Polla Mattiot @ateliermistral, Gianlorenzo Bernabò di Negro
Audio post production Top Digital
Soundtrack Universal Music Publishing Ricordi Srl

L'articolo Face to face with Alessandra Malfatti proviene da Paola Lenti.

To meet Nicolò Morales we went to Caltagirone, in the heart of south-eastern Sicily, where the landscape unfolds in an ups and downs of hills and mountains.

A harsh land of contrasts and chiaroscuro. This is where Morales lives and works, the protagonist of the second episode of Face to face, a series of video interviews conceived to unveil how the unique pieces of the Paola Lenti collections are brought to life.

Morales is a master ceramist, the rebellious son of a tradition that every year attracts thousands of tourists to the city. His creations inevitably draw inspiration from classical canons, but from a very young age, with his first experiences in the workshop, he felt the urgency to find his own path: in a stubborn and opposite direction.

Intolerant of standard productions and colours, he travels the countryside and collects soils and minerals. Manganese, copper, cobalt oxide: the basis of the shades offered by the territory that he then grounds and fires, like an alchemist.

For Paola Lenti, the master ceramist from Caltagirone produces tables, side tables and movable backdrops in hand-painted ceramic, with a technique that leaves colours deliberately fluid, creating this way shades that change depending on the light. Unique pieces whose value lies in the extra-ordinary beauty, as well as in the unmistakable craftsmanship.

«Paola Lenti was looking for unusual finishes» explains Morales while kneading clay in his workshop. « I showed her what I was experimenting with and it immediately created a connection, a symbiosis of ideas. Obviously, we look in the same direction».

«For those who, like me, grew up immersed in tradition it is not easy to innovate», he adds at the end of the interview. «Paradoxically, when you depart from it you are considered a subversive. And I am happily subversive».

Face to face
with Nicolò Morales, Caltagirone

Interview by Anna Vullo
Director Maurizio Natta
Cinematographer Fabrizio Polla Mattiot @ateliermistral
Filmed by Maurizio Natta, Fabrizio Polla Mattiot @ateliermistral, Gianlorenzo Bernabò di Negro
Audio post production Top Digital
Soundtrack Universal Music Publishing Ricordi Srl

L'articolo Face to face with Nicolò Morales proviene da Paola Lenti.

What has always distinguished Paola Lenti is research. Not only in its specific realm – yarns, fabrics, colours – in which it has established itself as an avant-garde company, but also in the field of other materials, provided they have a story to tell. It is these stories that Paola Lenti seeks out, along with the skills, the passion, the beauty they bring with them and the manual dexterity handed down from one generation to the next. As it is in her DNA. 

From these stories, exclusive collaborations with artists-artisans selected throughout the country arose, in line with a philosophy that has chosen to favor the excellence of Made in Italy. Over the years, the collections have been enhanced with new families of products designed to dialogue with the company’s furnishings and colours, in tune with a harmonious and yet heterogeneous living concept. Different materials – ceramics, lava, metal and glass – have brought to life products, which are exclusive because they are made with ancient techniques and crafted, painted and finished by hand. Unique pieces that have contributed to making Paola Lenti brand unmistakable all over the world.

Marella Ferrera is the protagonist of the first episode. She is Sicilian and heir to a tailor’s shop that has been a point of reference for Catania high society since the 1960s: grand evening gowns, elaborately embroidered wedding dresses; suggestions that recall the atmospheres of the well-known Italian novel Il Gattopardo together with nonconformist proposals, such as the synthetic fur collars that anticipate the 1968 eagerness to sweep away bourgeois conventions.

Marella was in search of her own personal path. In the nineties she makes her debut in Rome in the haute couture with the idea of narrating Sicily through traditional materials such as lava stone and ceramics. She reinterprets, experiments, deconstructs: a stylistic approach that will later allow her to tune in with the vision of Paola Lenti.

The meeting takes place in Sicily, where Marella Ferrera has returned to continue the narration of her origins by observing them up close. Paola Lenti asks her to use lava to dress living spaces. Together, they try to melt fragments of glass directly on the stone, with effects that evoke the colours of the sea, the shades of green of the gardens, the lava flows of Etna. Sciara is brought to life, a luminous and very resistant material that today covers the surfaces of tables, side tables and partition walls in the company’s collections. The study of local ceramic floorings has instead given rise to a collection of embroidered rugs that reveal the signs of the dominations of the island. The yarns are Paola Lenti’s technical ones, the workforce is a family heritage. They are Marella’s aunts, the same ones who once embroidered trousseaus and corsets in her mother’s tailor shop.

Face to face
with Marella Ferrera, Catania

Interview by Anna Vullo
Direction by Maurizio Natta
Filming by Gianlorenzo Bernabò di Negro, Maurizio Natta, Fabrizio Polla Mattiot
Editing by Fabrizio Polla Mattiot
Soundtrack Universal Music Publishing Ricordi Srl

L'articolo Face to face with Marella Ferrera proviene da Paola Lenti.

The postcard image of Miami framed by palm trees and beaches is a thing of the past. Today the most famous city in Florida attracts visitors from all over the world for its rich cultural and artistic offer. It embodies a cultivated and cosmopolitan glamour and is home to one of the most awaited events of the year, Art Basel Miami, the US equivalent of the Basel fair, the prestigious rendezvous with the best of international contemporary art.

At the same time, the most Latin city in America has experienced a growing interest in design, promoting another event, Design Miami, which has become a fixed appointment for architects, planners and interior designers from all backgrounds.

The indoor space of over 650 square meters with large windows overlooking the street is surrounded by a lush garden of local plants. More than a store, the flagship is a concept house, divided into different environs, the sum of which aims to convey an overall vision and propose harmonious, balanced and bespoke living spaces, which have always been the cornerstone of the company philosophy.

Paola Lenti has decided to open the store on the occasion of the 2022 editions of Art Basel and Design Miami that this year took place almost at the same time, between November 30 and December 4, to present to the American public the new Metamorfosi collection, penned by Brazilian designers Fernando and Humberto Campana and entirely made of Paola Lenti production leftovers.

Six unique pieces living at the intersection of art and design that seduced visitors thanks to their inedited forms and the bright colour palette, unmistakable hallmark of the company. It is a sustainable and responsible collection, born from the desire to reduce waste, that involves migrant women at risk of social exclusion in the production process.

The wide space of the store, opened in partnership with Casual Furniture Group, showcases all of the most representative products of Paola Lenti, from those that made the history of the brand to the most recent ones, such as the Eres furnishings, the first collection entirely made of natural materials, or the outdoor chaise lounges Jardín, a tribute to Cuban born designer Clara Porset. The garden offers comprehensive outdoor solutions, created with modular structures designed to protect from the sun, like Resort, and seating furniture with exclusive technical upholstery covers, which are resistant to humidity, rain and ultraviolet rays, hence ideal for Miami climate.

Furthermore, it boasts a consolidated tradition in the boating industry, a sector where Paola Lenti has gained a considerable market share thanks to the high performing technical materials used for its products, capable of withstanding particularly severe climate conditions.

L'articolo Miami Design and Art Basel 2022 proviene da Paola Lenti.

Be responsible. Do not waste. Reuse. Find a way to give new life to thousands of offcuts, fabric and cord remnants, selvages, processing leftovers. A multicolored wealth of yarns and materials that are still performing – still alive – normally destined for landfills. What to do with it? Paola Lenti began to ask herself the question a few years ago, while pondering over the profound meaning of sustainability, a term now overused. How can we be sustainable, this was the exact question, when every year we produce more than 10 tons of leftovers, the disposal of which requires energy, people, machinery? Furthermore, why define them as waste or treat them as such, when they could turn into something unexpected?

Following the thread of this thought, Paola Lenti metaphorically began to fill drawers: in practice, dozens of boxes of different materials meticulously catalogued by color, type of fabric, size. A memory archive, a piece of company history.

In order for that thought to take shape, however, a new sign was needed, capable of revealing the essence of the material by changing – somehow shaking up – its original appearance. Brazilian brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana, renowned all over the world for their iconic pieces produced with waste materials, could have been the ideal partners.
Different in style – nonconformists, out-of-the-box -, but at the same time close to Paola Lenti for the philosophy that has guided their design career: the urgency of identifying a way of producing that combines ethics and aesthetics, the importance of creating from existing materials. Furthermore, the common sensibility for colour, more instinctive in the case of Campana, the result of a long chromatic research for Paola Lenti. Finally – no less pivotal – a shared vision of social responsibility: the awareness that there can be no ethics without inclusion and that, therefore, it is necessary to look for talents even among disadvantaged people; give them the deserved value, make them flourish. So that talent is not wasted either.

Paola Lenti sent to Brazil boxes full of textile remnants to explain to the brothers Campana the potentialities of this project. The answer: “This is a treasure”. A series of remote meetings led to the partnership. Humberto Campana designed shapes and volumes of the first prototypes; Paola Lenti shared her knowledge of the materials and her innate sense of colour, the brand hallmark. A team of artisans in the Meda factory got to work to bring the two thoughts together.

Test after test, matter regenerated and acquired a new form. Rope, Paola Lenti first high tech yarn for the outdoors, revealed the versatility of polypropylene, the material, of which it is composed. Naturally opening up, Rope cords have brought to life “flowers”, as soft as puffs in infinite shades, and expanses of “seaweeds”, silky to the touch, with which seats have been covered, inviting you to rest and play. With other fabric remnants, a rug has been designed with a patchwork effect; with still others the soft tubulars, similar to tentacles, which serve as backrests. The products finished, Humberto Campana commented:

Metamorfosi, this is the name of the new collection designed by Campana, draws inspiration from the natural world and its mutations. Morpho, Centopeia, Alicia, are organisms inhabiting our earth and our seas. The observer, though, is free to interpret appearance and shapes. The border with a work of art is very thin: they are unique pieces that arouse wonder.

Victoria and Saly Samba have been involved in the production of the prototypes from the social tailor’s shop CouLture Migrante in Como that uses itself discontinued fabrics for its products and offers job opportunities to migrant men and women at risk of social exclusion. This is the sign that includes: the people, Paola Lenti and Campana ideas. And all comes full circle.

L'articolo The seduction of Metamorphosis proviene da Paola Lenti.

Guerrilla gardeners plant flowers “clandestinely” in degraded places.
Mona Caron, somehow, does the same with her brush. The aim is the same as well: make the beauty flourish where there is none. Rundown districts, proletarian suburbs, anonymous skyscrapers.
However, Mona Caron, contrary to the guerrilla gardeners, sows her seeds of beauty rising from the ground and pointing straight towards the sky, because the peculiarity of his monumental works is to literally climb on the facades of the buildings, “blossoming” where the view begins to get lost against the horizon. With a magnificent visual impact.

Growing up in the woods of Switzerland, American by adoption, Mona Caron is the antithesis of the mannered artist. Her “uniform” is limited to sneakers and wide trousers, her hair tucked underneath the helmet, essential to safely create the gigantic murals that made her famous internationally.
The subject is symbolic: ordinary flowers and weeds growing spontaneously in the cities, breaking through the cracks in concrete walls. A tribute to resistance, or resilience, to use a rather misused but very current term, of those that “have no place in this world – the artist explains -, that are not part of plans, and nonetheless go on fighting and pushing to emerge”.

The series of the hurban weeds, as Mona Caron calls them, started on the walls of San Francisco, where the artist lives, and then crossed the borders of the United States and “invaded” the skyscrapers of San Paolo or gray suburban apartment blocks in Portugal and Sweden.

“I look for clandestine plant life in the city streets. When I find a particularly heroic specimen growing through a fissure, I paint it big, at a scale inversely proportional to the attention and regard it gets. Against the hardest cement, against all odds, we too can find our fissure, and keep pushing. That’s the way change happens”.

To create her murals, Mona Caron often collaborates with Brazilian Mauro Neri, her life partner, and many other artists-activists. Where she makes flowers bloom, they restore body and dignity to the invisible – homeless, indigenous, seasonal workers – portraying them in the little big daily battles. Making them feel represented.

L'articolo The artist Mona Caron: ”A flower can grow from concrete” proviene da Paola Lenti.

Under the expert guidance of art historian Caterina Napoleone, Paola Lenti made a poetic, inspirational journey – at times oneiric – throughout Italy in search for mosaics of neglected beauty.

Paola Lenti tracked them down with the meticulousness of a historian and the amazement of a neophyte, in search of inspirations and assonances with the wefts and warps of the weaves and fabrics of her company, which, since the inception, have made up the colourful “mosaics” of its rugs and upholsteries.

The result is a book, l giochi delle Muse (published by Corraini), which reveals the chromatic correspondences between fragments of mosaics and fabric offcuts; the compositional analogies between the floors of ancient patrician domus and hand-sewn decorated rugs; the similarities between the craftsmanship of imperial Rome and the contemporary one of the Meda-based company.

A sort of journey revisiting the art of mosaics that unfolds from North to South – along an imaginary axis that goes from Murano to Brescia, from Oplontis to Piazza Armerina – recomposing, step by step, the tesserae of “stone carpets”, as Caterina Napoleone defines them.

A book to leaf through to discover an invaluable heritage and what continues to make our country unique: craft excellence.

Video © Maurizio Natta, Fabrizio Polla Mattiot

L'articolo “I giochi delle Muse”<br>A surprising journey of discovery of the analogies between mosaics and fabrics proviene da Paola Lenti.

It was 1957 and, with only two other women, Sheila Hicks graduated with a degree in Fine Arts from Yale University. With artist Anni Albers she had already discovered certain weaving techniques and had plunged into the ideas of the Bauhaus and Modernism. Shortly thereafter she would be inspired enormously by a trip to Chile and by Raoul d’Harcourt’s book Les textiles anciens du Pérou and, thanks to the colors and fibers of South America, Hicks moved on from a passion for painting to the use of textiles as an expressive means.

Overcoming barriers of politics and gender, this United States artist will transform the most ordinary materials into the most extraordinary visual language. In her more than sixty-year career, her talent for color has experimented with monumental forms and has intertwined relationships with cultures from everywhere, bringing her work into hundreds of museums, from the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York to the MAK in Vienna.

For all images, courtesy of the artist and Galerie Frank Elbaz

L'articolo (Extra)ordinary textures proviene da Paola Lenti.

At the Accademia di Agricoltura in Turin, Garnier Valletti’s essays on pomology surprise in their richness and variety. They may be written in the late 1800’s but they also give food for thought on one of the most central themes in our life today: biodiversity.

How many varieties of apple are we able to recognize today? While the European Union works on shared strategies to bring nature back into our lives and promotes direct channels of distribution, Copenhagen is a shining example of urban agriculture that shortens and improves the food supply chain. The winner of the tender for the supply of apples to schools and retirement homes in the Danish capital has offered to supply 38 different types of apple fruit: this is promising news.

The Fruit Museum of Turin is an opportunity to delve into the past, and while reflecting on the role of biodiversity in our society. The museum has more than a thousand “plastic artificial fruits” made by Francesco Garnier Valletti in the second half of the nineteenth century. These fruits trace the history and scientific heritage of the Stazione Sperimentale Agraria (Agricultural Experimental Station) founded in 1871. Through this journey we witness the turning point that transformed fruit and vegetable production from artisanal to industrial, introducing new methods of cultivation, conservation, distribution and consumption.

What is most striking about the museum, besides the hundreds of varieties of pears, apples, peaches… is the culture of perfection with which these fruits were made, thanks to a patented technique.

After starting his career as a confectioner, Garnier Valletti began crafting flowers and ornamental fruits in wax and resin, attracting the interest of the Imperial Court of Vienna and then that of Tsar Nicholas I Romanov. Presented at exhibitions and competitions, its fruits win medals and awards at international exhibitions. In addition to adorning the elegant tables, the fruits were also purchased by nurserymen, fruit-farming schools, collectors and enthusiasts who appreciated their unique aesthetics.

Today these fruits continue to amaze. And they return to being valuable inspiration and notes for scholars of the genetic heritage of fruit farming.

Sources: fao.org; ec.europa.eu; National Geographic Italy; museodellafrutta.it

L'articolo Tutti Frutti<br>The apples of concord proviene da Paola Lenti.

More than 70% of the surface of our planet Earth is covered in water, 95% of which is salt water. 

Francesco Bosso, a photographer born in Barletta, Italy in 1959, has dedicated his life’s work to seascapes, capturing the primal force and calmness of this environment while also encapsulating the fragile balance of its existence. 

Water, with its continuous flow and strength, shapes, transforms and creates – a continuous and eternal becoming where everything is born from water and to water it returns.

His book “Waterheaven”, published by Silvana Editoriale to coincide with the recent exhibition at Turin’s CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, is a journey through water’s fascinating creative force between perception and reality, a succession of recollections and fragments of memory. With his photographs, Bosso recreates distinct moods and an ambience that not only represents an ode to nature but also an invitation to reflect on the idea of conservation, with a particular attention to the liquid element, water as a primordial element and source of life. «Through the photographic medium – says CAMERA director Walter Guadagnini – Bosso communicates ethics of protection and conservation of the natural landscape. With the adept use of black and white he celebrates his subjects, and at the same time alerting the viewer to the fragility and uniqueness of this heritage». 

Water is the most precious element for the hydrosphere and even life itself. It is an integral part of the complex equilibrium that has always determined Earth’s climate. However, global warming and carbon emissions are seriously endangering this balance. The most noticeable effects are the rise in the sea level, the intensification of hurricanes, and – due to acidification – the disappearance of many species. The deterioration of marine and coastal ecosystems, though less obvious, is also a danger to the economic and physical survival of local communities. 

According to a study by the University of Melbourne, 4% of the global population will be affected by coastal flooding. While adaptability seems the only solution, with migratory phenomena and possible conflicts arising from access to resources, some people are working to try, at all costs, to reverse climate change. 

For example, the International Union of Conservation of Nature, an association with 1400 members amongst governments and citizen organizations, has committed to protect 30% of the oceans by 2030. This will be done through banning uncontrolled fishing and drilling, which will allow the sea to find itself again.

Sources: hoepli.it, theguardian.com, rinnovabili.it, woi.economist.com, iucn.org

L'articolo Waterheaven proviene da Paola Lenti.