On Thursday 21st October at the Palazzo della Farnesina in Rome, the offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Elica, in partnership with the Fondazione Ermanno Casoli, will present the variant series of Pescecappa, the cooker hood created by Gaetano Pesce.
An edition composed of fifteen declinations, each of them unique, numbered and signed by the artist, who, with his expressive, iconic and personal sense of design, interprets the innovative spirit of Elica. These are ideas that subvert how we see industrial production and the relationship with those who make use of the product, bringing about new modalities of interaction. Pescecappa’s features make it something akin to a work of art rather than a domestic appliance and it is a public that is inquiring and sensitive to innovation, one interested in the world of contemporary art, fashion and design, which makes up the ideal audience for this startling venture: the transformation of a cooker hood into a practical investment, an element that can be considered as part of someone’s very own personal art collection.
Each declination, all different from each other, have developed out of the original model, a special cooker hood created for Pescetrullo, the highly individual dwelling place that Pesce designed for the Apulian countryside in the south of Italy. In the hood, Pesce highlights natural products such as vegetables, fruit and pulses “the typical things that we use to prepare our food with”, as the artist himself says, expressing a link with the land, simple flavours and odours with a rich history behind them, symbols of a healthy, environment-friendly philosophy of life.
Presented in 2009 at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile di Milano, the work has become part of the Collezione Farnesina Design, a collection wished for and promoted by Minister Franco Frattini with the aim of highlighting Italian design at an international level. The Collezione Farnesina Design is the dynamic centre of a variety of activities such as exhibitions, conferences and conventions, and is thus the ideal setting for the meeting with Gaetano Pesce as a concrete example of the links between culture and industry.
Pescecappa represents a singular interpretation of an industrial product, and was commissioned from the experimental architect by the Fondazione Ermanno Casoli with the aim of creating new opportunities for the worlds of art and industry to work together. A perfectly achieved intention, in which the beauty of the product resides in its very uniqueness, an indispensable quality to affirm a concept of individuality that is often lost but which, in order to locate the person once again at the centre of the production process, is necessary, thus aesthetically enriching the content of objects that are otherwise standardised.
The presentation, which is to be held in the Sala Aldo Moro of the Ministero degli Affari Esteri, will be transmitted via streaming in the company’s Milan showroom where the Pescecappa n. 1/15 is installed. Gaetano Pesce will be on hand to illustrate the concept of “industrial declination”, while Elica President Francesco Casoli will relate the evolution of the company’s relationship with design. Marcello Smarrelli, artistic director of the Fondazione Ermanno Casoli, will describe the artistic contamination which has been such a stimulant to the company over the years. The event will be introduced by Angelo Capasso and Renza Fornaroli, curators of the Collezione Farnesina Design.
For the occasion, the website www.pescecappa.com will be inaugurated, featuring information, images and purchasing details for the Pescecappa and its catalogue.
