Ultrafavola
Poltronova beyond the mirror

As part of the Milan Furniture Fair and Milan Design Week 2023, the Italian furniture manufacturer "Centro Studi Poltronova" is renewing its synergies by collaborating with Mosca Partners to present new variations of its unique design classics. We cross the threshold of the magnificent Palazzo del Circolo Filologico Milanese in the heart of Milan's Brera design district. From April 17 to 23, 2023, the Tuscan design company "Centro Studi Poltronova", Poltronova for short, will present iconic design objects in the spacious and impressive "Liberty" hall, which the masses would certainly consider unattainable art objects, but which connoisseurs and design obsessives use as the most exclusive living objects in their studios, villas, yachts, penthouses and exclusive hotels.

Iconic objects and staged living utopias

Under the light of a historic and sumptuous skylight, in a labyrinth of small and large rooms that seem to float under a timeless hemisphere, the design manufactory presents its iconic objects and staged living utopias in the company of over ten thousand library volumes located here and the oldest cultural association in Milan, which has its headquarters right here.

ULTRAFAVOLA and other utopias

Under the title ULTRAFAVOLA and inspired by the legendary wall mirror of the same name, Ultrafragola, which Designer Ettore Sottsass once designed, the Centro Studi Poltronova invites you, as in Lewis Carroll's novel "Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found There", to go beyond reflective surfaces and discover the magical dimension of a part of the fantastic Poltronova collection.

More than a selfie mirror

Described by the New York Times as "Everyone's Favorite Selfie Mirror", the Ultrafragola mirror certainly stands "pars pro toto" as a reflective medium of the hedonistic dimension of contemporary social networks. It is almost forgotten that, since the 1970s, there has been more to this design object than just a medium of contemporary expressive practices. The mirror is a "threshold phenomenon" in the reflections of well-known semioticians (Umberto Eco, Sugli specchi e altri saggi "On Mirrors and Other Essays", 1985), just as it has a strong symbolic value in photography and the performing arts (Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mirror Pictures).

Reality and truth

"When is reality different than it appears? When you look at its image in a mirror." With these words, Luigi Pirandello describes in "I vecchi e i giovani" (in German: "The old and the young") from 1913, in reference to the myth of Narcissus, the mirror, which "doubles" reality by reflecting its image, as an ambiguous instrument that reveals the truth or projects the illusion, as something that can help people in their development or drive them mad.

Bubble rooms with reflective floors

Based on these historically proven findings, Poltronova stages the mirror here as an element that reinforces his own multi-layered and complex identity. The visual and performative journey in Milan's Pallazzo takes us on a journey through eight spatial experiences: so-called "bubble rooms", each dedicated to a single furnishing object. Joe Baselball armchair, Ultrafragola Mirror, Safari Sofa, Superonda Sofa, Plasma armchair, Mies Lounger, Rumble Couch and Canton Bench in new finishes, in which the audience can breathe in their surreal atmosphere and wander around and let their imagination run wild through a play of curtains made of metallized foil strips and reflective floors.

Lighting sculptures as amplifiers

Incidentally, it should be noted that design objects such as the lighting sculptures "Gherpe" - a sea monster in the Tuscan fairytale tradition, "Sanremo" and not forgetting "Passiflora" reinforce the surreal and dreamlike spheres of the installation.

Autostrada and autograph sketch

Like the yellow brick road that leads to happiness to connect the different environments, Poltronova thinks of a path made of Autostrada carpets, which represent the real novelty of this year and will be shown exclusively at Fuorisalone 2023. Designed by Lapo Binazzi, a former member of the radical UFO collective, and produced in a single copy by Poltronova in 1990 on the occasion of the exhibition "Il Dolce Stil NovoQ (della casa) curated by Andrea Branzi at the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, project Autostrada has been rediscovered and reworked on the basis of an autograph sketch kept at the Poltronova Study Center for Design Archives.

Carpet trio made in Naples

The result is a new cult object, a carpet that reproduces a roadway with a dotted center line and a grassy sward on the sides. The hand-tufted wool rug consists of two modules: one curved and one rectangular, which also play with three different color combinations and offer endless combinations.
"Autostrada" is not the only rug that complements Poltronova's unique collection. Thanks to the collaboration with cc-tapis, an Italian company that produces modern and hand-knotted carpets in Naples, Poltronova presents "Autostrada". carpets Poltronova presents another new trio of rugs:

Archizoom Associates and Superstudio

"Farfalla", "Prato" and "Cielo" are inspired by the vibrant fabric patterns designed by Archizoom Associates in 1967. "Stella" and "Stellina", on the other hand, are a nod to the iconic Joe-armchair in honor of Joe DiMaggio. "Sofo" a full-scale reinterpretation of the brand mark and logo designed by Superstudio for the identity of the colorful modular seating of the same name. These carpets are "the deck of the boat" that wants to cover the distance, is the Poltronov quote to be read here.

Artificial and artistic universe

In the Palazzo del Circolo Filologico Milanese, as part of the Salone del Mobile Milano 2023, Poltronova has created an artificial and artistic universe that defines the habitat in which the design objects want to be read as an integral part of the evolutionary dynamics of our society and are the result of a search for form and substance that translates the desire for vitality and individuality.