Let's come to the project you presented at Fuorisalone together with Incalmi, Ossimori. Has the project evolved from how it was initially conceived?LDB: Ossimori is an open project: we wrote it as if it were the outline of a film, we knew that, partly because of the choice of combining different materials, which was the diktat from which we started, and also because of a question of the way of working and the people involved, something unexpected would be created. In the beginning, we would not have expected to create together with the product also an environment Ossimori - it was a circumstance related to the Salone del Mobile, to the location that was proposed to us by
Design Variations - but in the end we managed to bring the viewer into the world Ossimori. At the design level, many things have changed over time, but by changing the addends the result does not change, the oxymoron is there, and it is even stronger.
DDM: It has become more Incalmi. We started from the narrative, putting together a rational design, which then became filled with the opulence that is also somewhat intrinsic to the materials, for example having used Murano glass enriched the design. Also adding the complements strengthened what at first glance could have been an almost conceptual design, beautiful but not usable, giving it a human proportion because the objects, the scale of the objects, made a product that was in danger of being museum rather than domestic.
Perhaps this served to remain consistent with your approach, converging form and function. DDM: Yes, it had to be a real experience, we wanted people to be able to touch it, use it, it had to be not just seen but experienced.
LDB: We like the paradox that a museum design object creates a short-circuit with everyday life. It is a living object, you just have to move it around or change your point of view to notice details, appreciate its shape and interactions with light.
How did you approach the theme of color in this project? DDM: It was very interesting to see Incalmi at work: we started with an idea, but then we realized that both glass and enamel are living materials, they are materials that once put in the kiln can completely change color depending on the temperature of the kiln, the time they are in the kiln. We did a lot of testing to get the perfect balance of chromatics. It was not a desk choice, it was a laboratory choice.
LDB: An apricot color, which will be one of the trendy colors in the next few years, came out, not even to my knowledge.
What evolutions do you imagine for this project? LDB: Ossimori is not finished. The collection seen at the fair will be able to expand into different forms - in the project we had also included mirrors and other furnishings made in the same way. Plus at this point we've brought Murano glass into play: it will be fun to see what glass allows us to do, and we'll see how traditionally coded colors change when combined with these sheets. If pink can become an apricot, we'll see what happens with blue and green. The project has five or six other themes that will be developed from now on at the complement level, objects that play with perception, with perspective, and with contrast between materials, which may not even be a contrast between different materials but a single-material contrast though that plays with different chemical reactions in the same material.