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 through a collaboration 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, or Poltronova for short, will present iconic design objects in the spacious and impressive Liberty Hall. These pieces, which the general public would certainly consider unattainable works of art, are used by connoisseurs and design enthusiasts as the most exclusive furnishings in their studios, villas, yachts, penthouses, and in upscale hotels.

Iconic objects and staged residential utopias

Under the influence of light from a historic and magnificent skylight, in a labyrinth of small and large rooms that seem to float beneath a timeless hemisphere, the design manufactory showcases its iconic objects and staged residential utopias in the company of the more than ten thousand library volumes housed here and Milan's oldest cultural association, which is located right here.

ULTRAFAVOLA and other utopias

Titled ULTRAFAVOLA and inspired by the legendary and eponymous Ultrafragola wall mirror, the Designer Ettore Sottsass Once designed, the Centro Studi Poltronova, like in Lewis Carroll's novel "Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found There", invites you to go beyond reflective surfaces symbolically and to discover the magical dimension of 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, the mirror serves as a "pars pro toto" as a reflective medium for the hedonistic dimension of social networks in our time. It is almost forgotten that since the 1970s, this design object has represented more than just a medium of contemporary expression. The mirror is a "threshold phenomenon" in the considerations of renowned semioticians (Umberto Eco, "On Mirrors and Other Essays," 1985), just as it possesses strong symbolic value in photography and the visual arts (Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mirror Pictures).

Reality and truth

„When is reality different from how it appears? When one looks at its image in a mirror.“ With these words, Luigi Pirandello, in „I vecchi ei giovani“ (in English: „The Old and the Young“) from 1913, alluding to the myth of Narcissus, describes the mirror that „doubles” reality by reflecting its image as an ambiguous instrument that reveals the truth or projects illusion, as something that can help man in his development or drive him to madness.

Bubble rooms with mirrored floors

Based on these historically documented insights, Poltronova stages the mirror here as an element that reinforces its own multifaceted and complex identity. The visual and performative journey in the Milanese palazzo transports us to eight spatial experiences: so-called "bubble rooms," each dedicated to a single piece of furniture. The Joe Baselball armchair, Ultrafragola mirror, Safari sofa, Superonda sofa, Plasma armchair, Mies van der Rohe chaise longue, Rumble couch, and Canton bench, all in new finishes, invite the audience to breathe in their surreal atmosphere, wander through a play of curtains made of metallized foil strips and mirrored floors, and give free rein to their imagination.

Lighting sculptures as amplifiers

It should be noted, incidentally, that design objects such as the lighting sculptures „Gherpe“ – according to Tuscan fairy tale tradition, a sea monster, „Sanremo“ and not to forget „Passiflora“enhancing the surreal and dreamlike spheres of the installation.”.

Autostrada and autograph sketch

Like the yellow brick road that leads to happiness, connecting different environments, Poltronova envisions a path made of Autostrada carpets, the true novelty of the year, to be shown exclusively at Fuorisalone 2023. Designed by Lapo Binazzi, a former member of the radical UFO collective, and produced by Poltronova in 1990 as a single piece for the exhibition „Il Dolce Stil NovoQ (della casa)” curated by Andrea Branzi at the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, the Autostrada project has been rediscovered and reworked based on an autograph sketch preserved in the Poltronova Design Archives Study Center.

Carpet trio made in Naples

The result is a new cult object: a rug depicting a road with a dotted center line and grass on either side. The hand-tufted wool rug consists of two modules: a curved one and a rectangular one, each featuring three different color combinations, offering endless possibilities.
„Autostrada“ is not the only carpet that complements Poltronova’s unique collection. Thanks to the collaboration with cc-tapis, an Italian company based in Naples that produces modern, hand-knotted carpets, Carpets Poltronova, which manufactures, presents another new trio of carpets:

Archizoom Associates and Superstudio

„Farfalla“, „Prato“" and "„Cielo“are inspired by the vibrant fabric patterns created in 1967 by Archizoom were designed by Associates.„Stella“" and "„Stellina“In contrast, „Sofo“ is an allusion to the iconic Joe chair in honor of Joe DiMaggio. It is a scale reinterpretation of the trademark and logo designed by Superstudio for the identity of the eponymous colorful modular seating. These carpets are „the deck of the boat“ that intends to cover the distance, according to the Poltronov quote found 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 are to be read as an integral part of the evolutionary dynamics of our society and stand as the result of a search for form and substance that translates the desire for vitality and individuality.