Barnaba Fornasetti takes a tour of the other world
Barnabas Fornasetti meets designboom in the Fornasetti showroom apartment, located on the corner of Milan’s famous shopping streets, Via Senato and Corso Venezia. After ascending levels of plates, vases and home decor displayed on the typical blank, monochromatic walls of a showroom, the upper floor suddenly bursts into decorative extravagance. A striking green wall opens up the space, appearing at first to be marble, though something seems slightly off. On closer inspection, the strokes reveal a witty trompe l’œil. Here, the eye is meant to be deceived – falling into a maelstrom of Ionic columns with a single glance at a carpet – signaling that you have entered Fornasetti’s imaginative universe, where reality and dream constantly blur.
barnaba fornasetti at casa fornasetti in 2021 | image from Fantacuzzi Galati Cortili
playful characters and archival pieces shape the world of fornasetti
The environment of the printed characters, whose gaze seems to follow you as you move around the corners of the exhibition space, looks like they are taken from illuminated manuscripts. Despite their inconsistency, they are remarkably strong in the way they tell stories with raised palms and wide eyes. Barnaba, in stark contrast, is incredibly quiet. Sitting near the turntable, in a voice so soft you have to lean in to catch it, he tells the stories of his family’s dream world and the cultural influences that have created the legend printed on the porcelains and silks of Fornasetti’s objects.
For the past few decades, Barnaba, the son of the late Piero Fornasetti, has steered the ship as the brand’s artistic director. ‘I try to respect the DNA of the company my father started. The differences are quite minimal and often imperceptible. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish what happened before and after the leadership of the company.As Barnaba approaches new items in the still growing portfolio, he approaches it as an act of repetition. ‘Even if our archive is extremely huge, it is often not necessary to do new things,comments on contemporary works. ‘We can simply edit or revisit the tracks that already exist. At most, we adapt the design to other formats.‘
the office at casa fornasetti | image courtesy of Fornasetti
casa fornasetti as a treasure trove of dream forms
Barnaba speaks to the inner logic inherent in the design language: it flourishes with characters, often rendered in the style of metal plate engraving. Within all of its characters and spaces, it’s almost as if a myth unfolds over the dozens of faces on ceramic plates, the families of owls perched on vases, and the perception-bending corridors that lie across the expanse of a carpet. Barnaba points out that “there are some more popular figures, such as the woman’s face and neoclassical architecture.” Then there are others that are “lesser-known details, like flowers, which (he) would like to feature more,” as he expands the brand’s universe. The character collections echo the family’s historical tendency to collect objects.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Barnaba is still adding to their hoard of “glasses, vests, masks, vinyl records and various other things.” He stocks up on these additions by visiting mercatini, or street markets, which are full of oddities, antiques and curios. And not only the outdoor ones that decorate the streets of Milan, but also exploring the stands and bazaars wherever it is in the world. He shrugs a bit before adding, “it depends on the moment.”
the garden at casa fornasetti | image by Guy Hervais courtesy of Fornasetti
gio ponti, orfeo tamburi and others influence the visual language
The history of Milan, and indeed of Italy, is inextricably linked with the history of the Fornasettis. There are stories of how the artist Lucio Fontana and the architect and founding editor of Domus magazine, Gio Ponti, would pass by their iconic private residence to print their works. From these stories, one can only imagine the glittering company of Italy’s great creators that Barnaba witnessed from a young age. However, when asked about those iconic names that knew his father, he laughs softly: “I was too young to remember Fontana and the others who would come to the house to print.” Fornasetti smiles and then remembers, “but I remember Orfeo Taburi. He used to come and joke with my mother!”
When asked about his dream for the future of the brand, Barnaba points to the incredible number of drawings and paintings that Piero did, “from when he was young until the end of his life.” He talks about creating an exhibition, not only with these works, but also with artists and creators outside the world of design. Before leaving, Barnaba turns to the record player underneath a reproduction of the room divider, Stanza Metafisica. A simple staircase and a small staircase lead to alcoves in an otherwise endless level. A cast shadow indicates a source of light somewhere outside the frame, a source of energy from beyond that shapes the composition. It was created in 1958 from a design by Piero Fornasetti, probably within a few years of Barnaba’s birth. Unperturbed by passers-by snapping photos of the plush interior, he gently flips open the knob that controls the volume of the music playing. And then, as silently as he enters this space – this extension of the universe he and his father built – he leaves the exhibition space.
