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在线翻译:
szdaily -> Culture -> 
Pleasant surprises in Gaetano Pesce exhibition
    2021-09-30  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

    Cao Zhen

    caozhen0806@126.com

    “I WISH I could have one!”

    That was the mostly heard comment at the preview of Italian architect, designer and artist Gaetano Pesce’s exhibition in Shenzhen. The furniture and household items displayed at the “Gaetano Pesce: Nobody’s Perfect” exhibition, like chairs, cabinets, sofas, vases and coffee tables, are all in a bewildering diversity of shapes and colors, defying tradition and mediocrity and rendering something joyful and humorous.

    “Pesce’s works revive the golden age of the post-war period in Italy which was composed of critical thinking and optimistic spirits,” said Zhao Rong, director of the Shenzhen-based Design Society that co-hosted the exhibition together with Gaetano Pesce Office.

    “It’s hard to describe how Pesce manages to create rich connections in between history, emotion and the functionality of design, so that he succeeds to deliver pleasant surprises from mundane life, and precious peacefulness of being loved. I believe visitors will physically feel the intangible power from the exhibition,” she added.

    Each exhibit has a brief description attached explaining Pesce’s ideas behind the creation, ensuring visitors will understand the art luminary’s longtime experiment with colors and industrial materials, his broad and humanistic outlook and his combination of social commentary and design. If you don’t want to bend over to read every description on the floor, you can still enjoy the merry atmosphere in this “wonderland” filled with unconventional objects.

    Most exhibits were created from industrial resins which feature strong plasticity, so Pesce crafted a variety of oddly-shaped items, such as “Medusa Coffee Table” supported by messy resin strips like Medusa’s hair, “Onion Light” inspired by layers of onion leaves, “Cabinet of the Tired Man” in the shape of a man bending his extremities, and various sinuous vases.

    In a video made for the Shenzhen exhibition, Pesce says that he doesn’t like traditional materials, such as wood, iron, metal and stones, but likes polyurethane foam and resin. “I cannot use materials from the past,” he says. “My time is a time which is very liquid in the spirit and liquidity means that values in our time go up and down, disappear and reappear. They are one against the other and I mix them like making a cream.”

    The one-of-a-kind exhibits, spanning from the 1960s to the present day, also include Pesce’s representative works such as the “Nobody’s Perfect” chair, the “Born to Love You” cabinet, “Pratt Chair” and “UP5_6 Armchair.” In past interviews, he has talked about his fondness of “beauty full of mistakes” because he believes “we are human and perfection is for machines.”

    Born in 1939, Pesce studied architecture at the University of Venice and was trained as both architect and industrial designer. His architecture achievements include the Organic Building in Osaka and the New York office of ChiatDay. Reproductions of his architectural drawings are also displayed at the exhibition.

    By living and working around the world, Pesce has developed an international style that uses figurative imagery in bright colors to forge an emotional connection with users. He explained in an earlier interview with SSENSE that “we are in an era where communication has dramatically grown to the point where it has become a characteristic of our times, and art needs to take this into account. I believe that in order to communicate we must use a language that is understandable for those who follow us, and the simplest one for this would be the recognizable figure.”

    Pesce straddles the boundaries between disciplines, saying one of his role models is Raphael who showed that “you can be a designer, you can be a painter and you can be a sculptor.” In the video made for the Shenzhen exhibition, Pesce introduced himself by saying “If you want to know what defined me, it is curiosity.”

    “My objects and architectural projects are not traditional at all because I like to discover, and I believe that our work is done for discovering what the future is for us. Doing the work, I allow the future to become present and then in that moment we do something that is very innovative,” He says.

    Dates: Oct. 1-Feb. 27, 2022

    Tickets: 98 yuan (discounted or free tickets for seniors, students and children)

    Venue: Sea World Culture and Arts Center, Nanshan District (南山区海上世界文化艺术中心)

    Metro: Line 2 to Sea World Station (海上世界站), Exit A


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