How many times have you heard that design was more about the process than the final result? And yet, how many times has the final result influenced the way you viewed, understood and appreciated the process through which it was brought to light? While we can undoubtedly affirm that design is so much more than the physical form of an object, nevertheless, without it, all the social, cultural, economic, technological, productional implications of a designed object couldn’t be brought to light. This is precisely why Studio Formafantasma’s work is so powerful: because it fuses thoughts, ideas, critiques and concepts into an exceptional, intriguing physical form.

Usually developed for specific events and exhibitions, all of their projects have never been shown together. Thus, the exhibition “Prima Materia” currently on show at the Stedelijk Museum in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, appeared the perfect occasion to analyse their past projects, sense their poetics and delve in their design process. In fact, the title of the exhibition itself is a sort of a key for all of their projects, where “Prima Materia” refers to alchemy, or the transformation of everyday raw materials into precious goods, a method used for their Botanica, Craftica, Autarchy, Baked or Moulding Tradition projects. In revealing the process which glues together all the different project, the designers have divided the show in two parts: videos, sketches and material samples along the entrance corridor give a look at the duo’s thought and work processes before the finished pieces are viewed in the main space.

To understand their projects, in fact, one must take into account their personal and professional histories. Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin met while studying in Florence and later went to study together at the Design Academy Eindhoven, the hub of speculative, critical, experimental or socially and politically engaged design, that has characterized Dutch design production in the last three decades. In fact, Studio Formafantasma fits perfectly within this strand of design production, while still developing projects whose subtle poetics might appear the opposite of those explicitly bold objects produced by Droog.

In fact, Farresin and Trimarchi have told us a while ago that they really enjoy not belonging to anything or anywhere: “We always say we’re bastards, because if you put together Dutch and Italian design, it seems like nothing can come out of it or have a strong identity.” On the contrary, all of their projects have a strong identity that informed their practice since the very beginning and which draws on the past and exploration of traditional crafts in “offering an alternative vision to today’s consumer society and the role that design plays in it”.

“Prima Materia” runs until the 15th of June at the Stedelijk Museum in s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands.

Could you tell us something about your project for the Triennale, “Cucina Sambonet”?

We were invited to interpret and develop the project on the work of Roberto Sambonet, who was in a way one of the last famous Italian designers. The reason why it is called Cucina Sambonet is because he designed a lot of objects for the kitchen, he was also a good cook and had a column in “Il Sole 24 ore” about cuisine and food. While the overall concept for the Triennale was very interesting, we also fell that we wanted to use this possibility to say something that goes beyond the work of Sambonet himself. We needed a fictional project where his works and drawings, drawn from his archive, could become scenographies. We worked with a movie director and an actor interpreting Sambonet, basically preparing a dish using his most famous piece within the same scenography. The text used comes from an interview he gave in 1994, where we selected some parts and kept on writing it, imagining him thinking about what would happen with design in the future. So, we are more or less making a statement on the necessity, for instance, of no longer talk about national design, while also trying to push back history, since the tendency in Italy is to keep on reviving what happened in the past.

How has this design culture influenced your work, seen that you have studied abroad?

I think you can see there is the Italian influence in most of our projects, but it is mixed with more conceptual projects related with Dutch design. We really enjoy not belonging to anything or anywhere. We always say we’re bastards, because if you put together Dutch and Italian design, it seems like nothing can come out of it or have a strong identity. That’s why we are so sick speaking about national identity or national design. It’s absolutely irrelevant.

So, let’s take a step back. How did you two meet and started working together?

We met when we were both studying at ISIA in Florence. We started to collaborate when we had a little bit of freetime because, even if ISIA was a product design school, we were interested in graphics design. We worked together on preparing our portfolios for two different schools where we wanted to continue our studies at. In the end we decided to go to Eindhoven because we could really relate to what was happening in the Netherlands. 
The story of how we got there is actually really nice, because we sent only one portfolio! Since the beginning, we applied as a team and when we came there we discovered that it was quite an exception.

What would you say is the most important characteristics of your work?
It’s critical and conceptual and not really formal. Of course it is formalized, but we don’t start by sketching a lot of shapes. That’s not the point in our work. We are really interested in the ideas and the expression of ideas and concepts through our work and not only the formal qualities of an object.

You often experiment with new or unusual materials, showing the process of your work. Why do you think it is important to also show the process of the design and not only the final product?
I think that in recent years, we displayed production, because things are produced elsewhere and you don’t know where they come from, you don’t know how they are produced. It’s a way of giving information. I think people nowadays want to be more involved and knowing where things come from and how they are produced. Showing the process is really about transparency.

You don’t work with the industry but mostly with galleries on specially commissioned projects. Do you feel this as a necessity or is it a conscious choice for you? What does this type of production allow you to do?
No, not really, because we are now, hopefully, starting to work with companies. It’s not a choice, it’s an option we investigated in the beginning. Let’s say that the way we worked until now is really much more speculative and galleries fit in much more with this type of production. Galleries are a place for discussion.

Let’s finish with your thoughts on this years Salone. Do you have any other projects displayed around Milan?
We have a couple of other projects displayed but we are more focusing on September and February when we will have two solo shows. We actually haven’t seen so much of the Salone yet, but we have a strange feeling of calmness. There is the crisis, and it’s visible. That’s nice though, because it’s not about big bold statements but about the human scale in things.

Looking at the shows presented every three years at Triennale, we can see the Italian design culture grow and develop itself in what will later be recognized as an untouchable international excellence. From the shows devoted to Italian regime during the 30s to the innovative pavilions designed by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni for Rai, each and every Triennale was a showcase of true design spirit, the one that changes profoundly our material reality. It is exactly this spirit, particularly significant in the context of the Salone, that the current Triennale Design Museum tries to reflect upon in a show that intertwines past, present and future, titled “The Syndrome of Influence”.

Structured in three different chapters, the show’s main goal is to tell its visitors how the famous Italian design culture was formed, starting from the period between the two World Wars. Hence, the first part of the exhibition gives the opportunity to several contemporary Italian designers (among which our favourites Studio Formafantasma and Martino Gamper to reflect upon the work and heritage of some of the most appreciated masters of Italian design. The second part of the show features a series of interviews with designers like Enzo Mari or Mario Bellini, who have witnessed the radical crisis in Italian design in act after the economical growth of the 50s and 60s.

The final stage of the show displays the work of some of the most interesting Italian brands, like Magis, Kartell or Alessi, reflecting upon the relationship between Italian companies and single designers, particularly significant for Italian design. Thus, this part of the exhibition tells us how ‘made in Italy’, which we are all so proud of, would never have happened without the curious intelligence of a handful of talented impresarios.

“The Syndrome of Influence” is particularly significant seen in the context of Salone del mobile, since it can teach us how only through silent dedication for one’s work, passion and wit, design classics can be brought to life, quite the opposite of what we can witness during one of the most frenzied design weeks, driven by pure need for novelty, marketing and, fundamentally, economy.

Every year around April the global design community freaks out. As Salone del Mobile approaches steadily and inevitably, we can’t avoid asking ourselves a few questions. Are these hundreds of fairs taking place each year, where Salone is the most prestigious one, really necessary? If one of design’s fundamental premisses is sustainability, how can these fairs be justified?

While the Salone fever is getting wilder and wilder in Milan, Design Museum in London is hosting quite a different event. During the first week of February the nominees of the annual “Designs of the Year” award have been shyly presented. Sorted up in seven categories (architecture, digital, fashion, furniture, graphics, product, transport) this year’s nominees have all an extremely socially aware and technologically experimental character in common, which differs considerably form designs appraised each year during the Salone.

Among the other eighteen nominees in ‘product’ category you can find a name that may ring a bell: Studio Formafantasma.

Formafantasma is an Italian design duo, Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, that was formed and is currently based in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Formafantasma has been nominated for the award for their project “Botanica” developed in 2011. “Botanica” is only the latest creation in a series of projects, developed after their graduation from Eindhoven in 2009, that address the following issues: “the role of design in folk craft, the relationship between tradition and local culture, a critical approach to sustainability and the significance of objects as cultural vectors”.

Hence, “Botanica” explores the possibility of producing natural polymers extracted from plants, as if the oil era has never existed; “Autarchy” proposes a series of objects made from a bio-material composed of flour, agricultural waste and natural limestone, further developing their previous project “Baked”; “Moulding Tradition” explores the importance of craft in witnessing the past.

MoMA‘s senior curator Paola Antonelli has already declared Studio Formafantasma one of the most important designers of the 21st century. Hopefully someone will take note for this year’s Salone. We’re keeping our fingers crossed!