The cosmography of Formafantasma

摘要

The interweaving of a complex network of relationships forms the skeleton on which Formafantasma's work is developed, drawing on in-depth research that taps into past potential and reuses it through the object. Their projects are an expression of design that exploits open-source practices, craftsmanship and DIY By challenging design's tendency to see as contemporary only what is new, Formafantasma seems to reject the accepted concept of progress. Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi's designs frequently recoup and put to good use the potential in ideas, processes, techniques, means and relations from the past-cast aside in the relentless race forward in search of something new: They exploit design to express these recovery efforts because objects are the most immediate way to circulate a new system of meanings. This is the approach that produced Botanica, in which the quest for organic plastics from a pre-oil era shows how things from the past can assume new meanings in a contemporary context. Most of all, however, it invites us to think about today's potential materials. "There's nothing more contemporary than a natural, biodegradable, organic material like cow dung, which we saw used in a whole host of different ways-from fuels to filters-on our recent trip to India," they explain. "One of the reasons we are more drawn to working with traditional objects than with others is that we're convinced they represent their own culture. Objects exercise extraordinary communicational pressure thanks to their special ability to become 'cultural carriers'. By changing or reproducing them, you are returning them to the world, and this challenges the culture they represent. Nothing is needed more at the moment, especially in Italy."%La tessitura di una complessa rete di relazioni è lo scheletro su cui si sviluppano i lavori di Formafantasma, frutto di un'intensa ricerca che recupera le potenzialità del passato per metterle a frutto attraverso l'oggetto. I loro progetti sono l'espressione di un design che punta su open-source, artigianato e fai da te II lavoro di Formafantasma si contrappone, apparentemente, alla comune idea di progresso: spesso i progetti di Simone Farresin e Andrea Trimarchi guardano a idee, processi, tecniche, mezzi e relazioni del passato, che sono stati abbandonati nella corsa lineare e incessante verso il nuovo, per recuperarne le potenzialità e metterle a frutto. Quest'azione di recupero si esprime attraverso il design, perché gli oggetti sono il mezzo più immediato per mettere in circolo un nuovo sistema di significati.