On the occasion of the Milan Design City, Listone Giordano and Stefano Casciani, present a preview of Natural Geniusthe innovative publishing project that not only celebrates 10 years of the collection of the same name, but also narrates an exciting journey through design, nature, flair and creativity.
"It all began in the Big Apple on the night of 30 March 2006. In the centre of the Rotunda of the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, the eighty-eight keys of the Fazioli Gran Coda and the fingers of Danilo Rea were one and the same'.
The book opens with this vivid memory and a clear stream of words flowing from the pen of Andrea Margaritelliwhich emotionally traces the genesis of the Natural Genius project.
A refined publication that benefits from the curatorship of an expert like Stefano Casciani, the dreamy illustrations of Sabina Betti and the art direction of Marco Tortoioli Ricci. A book that pays tribute to the most authentic genius, to the talent 'distilled' into drops of genius that make a natural being, the tree and its wood, immortal.
An astonishing mixture, obtainable by crushing simple elements of nature in the same crucible with the vitalising touch of human imagination and genius. A crystalline elixir that can only be obtained by skilfully weighing the different ingredients according to a singular alchemical formula capable of transforming everything into something marvellous. Design does the same.
Thus Natural Genius has become a cultural project of the Guglielmo Giordano Foundation. On the trail of that thin red thread that unites the inventiveness of the great masters of the past with that of their contemporaries. A journey studded with many stages and wonderful travelling companions that have led, hand in hand, to the creation of small masterpieces of nature.
In the beginning there were five protagonists, designers with different histories and sensitivities: Michele De Lucchi, Massimo Iosa Ghini, Matteo Nunziati, Enzo Calabrese, Marco Tortoioli Ricci. And they all faced the same indomitable challenge: interpreting the 'material' par excellence, wood, through the spirit of contemporaneity. A challenge to make even the most skilled and mature professionals shake their wrists.
"Designing in only two dimensions instead of three - i.e. rigidly imprisoned in the plane instead of free to move in space - meant giving up a vital degree of expression". stresses Andrea Margaritelli.
It was also a question of dealing with a material that has always accompanied our civilisation, which the hand of man has 'designated' over the centuries and throughout history. A material that, above all, nature itself has been able to design and enrich with precious details and graceful veins.
Natural Genius has become over time a collection of wooden surfaces, open to change, dynamic and ready to embrace new challenges that have been joined by other design protagonists from Patricia Urquiola, to Marc Sadler, from Matteo Thun names from the international scene, to important high-end furniture brands such as Paola Lenti and Giorgetti.
A collection that aroused enormous interest and garnered international critical and public acclaim, in the best tradition of first works.
For Listone Giordano meant a new look at the world of wood, inaugurating the organic and stable relationship between design and wood flooring, which surprisingly had previously had no, or at least very little, attendance. The rest is recent history. This publication pays tribute to the first stretch of this fascinating journey and its various protagonists. But above all to the ingredients that continue to fuel it: curiosity, research and the spirit of experimentation.
The book is enriched with a number of stories, both published and unpublished, from the skilful pen of Stefano Casciani and his profound knowledge of project culture. Among his best-loved ones are 'Listen to Your Heart Nature' and 'The Tree Factory', with an intense and poetic narration capable of permeating the company with a dormant ontological sense, recounting its spirit and the values that animate it from the depths.
These stories are flanked by the three short stories, small fictional masterpieces dedicated by Casciani to three of the book's protagonists, in a dreamlike journey between present and past, caressing the light border between reality and dream.
