Roots and design of a new way of living

Friday 27 September 2024 at 18.00 to the Riding stables of Palazzo Costantino it opens in Palermo Domestic, Mediterranean, the exhibition curated by Joseph Arezzi and promoted by ABADIR as part of the XII edition of iDesign Palermo, dedicated this year to travel theme (Going through worlds – Design moving through time and space).

The exhibition Domestic, Mediterranean it is the point of arrival of Mediterranean Operandi, a nine-month project path, carried out within the annual laboratory of Design III driven by Joseph Arezzi.

The third year students of the three-year course started from this question Product Design and Visual Communication, questioning the vernacular traditions of the Mediterranean territories and investigating the actual state of the production realities still alive, between architecture and craftsmanship, looking for a contemporary design rooted in the landscapes, history and imagery and traditions of southern Europe. 

The study of traditional materials and ancient production techniques, reinterpreted so that they can be projected into a concrete future, has given life to to a series of new objects which are proposed as expression of a new Mediterranean culture and new housing needs: emotional projects, in which functionality absorbs memory, amazement, regret, joy and trust for what will happen; a domesticity far from the rhetoric of the local style, capable of reconciling artisan tradition, contemporary languages ​​and cutting-edge manufacturing techniques.

- eight prototypes They were created thanks to the collaboration with companies from Southern and Central Italy, united by the ability to have been able to reinterpreting the knowledge and skills of the past in a contemporary key: Ninefifty, a Calatino atelier specializing in the production of terracotta and Etna lava stone majolica; Living Interweaving, artisan company in the heart of the Macerata hills, specializing in weaving natural raw materials such as wicker, rush, and bamboo; Lispi, an Umbrian wrought iron workshop that creates designer furnishings; Desine, a Grammichele-based company that offers collections of objects and furnishing accessories; Samson Floors e Guastella Timber, companies in the Ragusa area specializing in concrete surfaces and wood and semi-finished products respectively.

The exhibition will be open to visitors free of charge until 6 October, with daily opening from 15.00 am to 18.00 pm.