Before, After and Beyond

Curated by Martino Gamper and Sarah Douglas
7-26 October 2024
11 Mansfield Street, London W1G 9NZ
By kind permission of Maja Hoffmann
Admission free, no appointment needed.
Opening hours:
Frieze week 7-13 October, daily 10 am to 8 pm
14-26 October, Tuesday to Sunday 12 noon – 7 pm

Before, After and Beyond

Before, After & Beyond is Gampers first full London retrospective since his seminal '100 Chairs in 100 Days' in 2007.

Bringing together the many different aspects of his design and craftsmanship and highlighting Gamper's use of design to create interaction.

The exhibition, which is a full transformation of a London house, covers the entire range of Gamper's practice from early one-off experiments to museum projects and industrial products. The installation explores the domesticity of Gamper's work, as well as the processes of assembling, reflecting his motivation to connect people and his interest in the social dimension of furniture.

Photographer : Angus Mill

JB BLUNK CONTINUUM

JB BLUNK
CONTINUUM
Fondation d’entreprise Martell
JUNE 8 - DECEMBER 29,2024

The Fondation d’entreprise Martell is delighted to present the first retrospective exhibition in Europe of the American sculptor JB Blunk (James Blain Blunk, 1926-2002), organized in collaboration with his daughter Mariah Nielson, director of the JB Blunk Estate, with contributions from Anne Dressen, curator at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

The scenography was specially designed by designer Martino Gamper in collaboration with graphic designer Kajsa Ståhl (Åbäke).
The exhibition spans 900m2 and approaches Blunk’s work through 6 thematic sections – Japan, Landscape, Home, Archetypes, Process and Public Projects – presenting his holistic approach to design, art, and architecture. Just as Blunk did not delineate between his life and work, the exhibition sections are intertwined and porous, giving the visitor the experience of his different methods, materials, and inspirations as he experienced them: in constant, insistent conversation with each other.
Photographer Credit:Sylvie Becquet

Rubelli presents Martino Gamper – Figura

Rubelli, Milan
Milan Design week, April 15 2024

On the occasion of Milan Design Week 2024, Rubelli presents FIGURA, a project by South Tyrolean designer Martino Gamper, who lives and works in London and is known for his diverse activities on an international level
Figura is an innovative idea for designing an armchair and is an expression of the mix of design, art and craftsmanship that distinguishes Gamper's creative process.
The peculiarity of the project is that it requires the creative intervention of the end user to take shape.
Figura is a modular armchair that can be "built" to your liking, combining the different parts that make it up in a variety of ways: seat, backrest, armrests, and sides. These 4 elements - entirely covered in fabric - are offered in 3 different shapes each: some are angular and sharp, others are softer and more bodily figures. It is the use of Rubelli fabrics that enhances the personality and uniqueness of this singular armchair.
For its debut at the Fuorisalone in the Rubelli showroom, Figura is exhibited in 16 of the 81 possible combinations, playing with the various shapes (but the upholstery possibilities are unlimited).
Gamper, referring to the various forms, speaks of "a sort of new alphabet of figures capable of creating a language that is an expression of a polyhedral imagination that combines past and present."
This vocabulary is enriched by the possibility of choosing from a range of rigorously selected Rubelli fabrics, such as Bouquet, Fabthirty, Fabthirty+ and Mundus, all of which can dialogue with the shapes created by Gamper. The fabrics - whether velvet or tweed, flame retardant or natural (wool or linen and cotton), elegant or informal - describe each individual armchair, giving it personality and uniqueness. The shapes belong neither to the past nor to the present and are neither minimalist nor maximalist. Pure expression of Gamper's singular and lyrical imagination, they defy any classification.
Suitable for the most diverse environments, these comfortable armchairs personalise the spaces in which they are placed, making them more lively and witty.
With these words, Gamper exemplifies the creative process behind his work: "I like to create pieces of furniture more than sculptures, objects that can be used by people. Of course, I do it with the freedom of expression of an artist. For me, this is what counts, not having to follow well-trodden paths, making products that we already know […]”

Photographer: Claudia Zalla

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Martino Gamper & Adam Pogue

Martino Gamper & Adam Pogue
Blunk Space, 11101 CA-1 #105, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956
October 21–December 3, 2023

Blunk Space is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by London-based designer Martino Gamper and LA-based artist Adam Pogue. Each has spent time at JB Blunk’s home and studio in Inverness, CA. Like Blunk, their work is playful, intuitive, and resourceful, investing their intentionally-designed objects with the chance of abstraction. For Pogue and Gamper, the necessity to create something useful while also being creative is a puzzle to be intuitively resolved, just as Blunk believed "the process is the doing, the bringing together.”

While Gamper’s practice includes interiors, textiles, and design objects of all scales and types, one of his foundational projects, 100 Chairs in 100 Days, involved collecting discarded chairs on the streets of London and making one new chair each day from the old. The resulting amalgamations were humorous and thought-provoking, a hodgepodge of seating and questions about seating. Pogue has created his own textile appliqué language, inspired by Korean bojagi and traditional quilting techniques, using textile remnants and vintage fabrics sourced from LA’s Garment District. The resulting artworks are patchworks of playful grids and incidental orthogonals.

"I was interested in how, despite the difference in their materials, Martino and Adam have a similar approach to sourcing materials and to making,” explains Mariah Nielson, Director of the JB Blunk Estate and Blunk Space and curator of the exhibition. “Martino assembles his tables and chairs from discards and off-cuts, and Adam hand stitches salvaged textiles. They're also both continually inspired by my father's intuitive process and use of salvaged materials.”

For this show, both Gamper and Pogue will work without preconceived ideas, making intuitively and allowing the materials at hand to govern the resulting works. Gamper will use salvaged wood from local wood sawyer Evan Shively to produce cutting boards, mirrors and a table; Pogue will make several cushions, a large hanging piece, and two sculptural chairs.
Photographers Credit: ©Chris Grunder

Martino Gamper & Adam Pogue at Blunk Space

Blunk Space, 11101 CA-1 #105, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956
October 21–December 3, 2023

Blunk Space is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by London-based designer Martino Gamper and LA-based artist Adam Pogue. Each has spent time at JB Blunk’s home and studio in Inverness, CA. Like Blunk, their work is playful, intuitive, and resourceful, investing their intentionally-designed objects with the chance of abstraction. For Pogue and Gamper, the necessity to create something useful while also being creative is a puzzle to be intuitively resolved, just as Blunk believed "the process is the doing, the bringing together.”

While Gamper’s practice includes interiors, textiles, and design objects of all scales and types, one of his foundational projects, 100 Chairs in 100 Days, involved collecting discarded chairs on the streets of London and making one new chair each day from the old. The resulting amalgamations were humorous and thought-provoking, a hodgepodge of seating and questions about seating. Pogue has created his own textile appliqué language, inspired by Korean bojagi and traditional quilting techniques, using textile remnants and vintage fabrics sourced from LA’s Garment District. The resulting artworks are patchworks of playful grids and incidental orthogonals.

"I was interested in how, despite the difference in their materials, Martino and Adam have a similar approach to sourcing materials and to making,” explains Mariah Nielson, Director of the JB Blunk Estate and Blunk Space and curator of the exhibition. “Martino assembles his tables and chairs from discards and off-cuts, and Adam hand stitches salvaged textiles. They're also both continually inspired by my father's intuitive process and use of salvaged materials.”

For this show, both Gamper and Pogue will work without preconceived ideas, making intuitively and allowing the materials at hand to govern the resulting works. Gamper will use salvaged wood from local wood sawyer Evan Shively to produce cutting boards, mirrors and a table; Pogue will make several cushions, a large hanging piece, and two sculptural chairs.
Photographers Credit: ©Chris Grunder

"Sitzung" Haus der Kunst

Martino Gamper will be in residence at Haus der Kunst, creating a series of newly designed chairs, a development of his celebrated long-running project “100 Chairs in 100 Days”. During the run of the exhibition, the new chairs will be freely reconfigured by the public and the staff — to gather, to rest, and to play — turning the Mittelhalle into a vibrant, constantly changing social space. The reconfigurations will be based on a series of rules that Gamper will deliver at the beginning of the project, defining a choreography that will transform the appearance of the whole space weekly. Alongside furniture, Gamper will create a new light design that will change the atmosphere of the Mittelhalle from a usually transitory space to one of gathering.
Andrea Lissoni, Artistic Director, Haus der Kunst, said: “The Mittelhalle of Haus der Kunst is an extraordinary space. This collaboration between Martino Gamper and our curatorial and education teams gives us an opportunity to experiment with this important space, inviting everyone to be involved in literally creating their own space.”
Speaking about the project, Martino Gamper said: “For Haus der Kunst, the furniture will be made in a variety of ways including craft and industrial processes, using a huge range of materials. The chairs will be experimental, fit for purpose but imperfect, rather than products they are vehicles to explore seating as a sculptural object.”
The project highlights the path towards new forms of engagement and learning that Haus der Kunst started in 2023. It has been developed in cooperation between Martino Gamper, the curatorial team and the engagement and learning team at Haus der Kunst.
Martino Gamper (b. 1971, Merano, Italy) is internationally recognised for his groundbreaking work “100 Chairs in 100 Days”, which he embarked on in 2006 to systematically collect discarded chairs and to then spend 100 days reconfiguring the design of each one in an attempt to transform its character and/or the way it functions. Gamper’s practice challenges boundaries between design and visual arts. Constantly looking for new ways to engage with and activate design within our everyday lives, Gamper’s work sits across art, design, performance, and curation.
A cooperation between Martino Gamper, the curatorial team and the mediation and education team at Haus der Kunst (Andrea Lissoni, Emma Enderby, Hanns Lennart Wiesner, Camille Latreille). Martino Gamper's "Sitzung" at Haus der Kunst Munich, illuminated by Occhio.
Install images ©Judith Buss
Individual Chair Images ©Frank Stolle

Martino Gamper: I am many moods

Martino Gamper: I am many moods
Anton Kern Gallery, New York
June 7 - August 11, 2023

Recently Martino Gamper has been in a very good mood, making over 700 hooks and vases which form a loose family of functional objects.

This exhibition at Anton Kern is Design in an art gallery.
Form follows function is a principle of design which suggests that the shape of an object should primarily relate to its intended purpose. This is not as limiting as it sounds. Gamper has screwed, drilled, cast, carved, sawed, sanded, printed, extruded, chainsawed, blown, welded, flame/laser/water cut, forged, torched, and torn many materials including wood, metal, glass, steel, plastic, crystals, ceramics, bronze, aluminum, brass, stainless glass, cork, marble, stones, and branches. Once formed, these objects were polished, painted, anodised, plated, powder coated, enameled, sanded, sprayed, sandblasted, heated, and vibrated.
This might sound like a fight between materials, technique, and form; but in fact the mood is positive, the feeling exuberant. The sheer number and variety of hooks and vases creates a poetic frenzy of excited chaos. Between a whittled stick and large cast bronze, the materials and techniques run the gamut between low and high. Here, there is an object for everyone.

INNESTO Salone Del Mobile 2022

Nilufar Depot
Viale Vincenzo
Lancetti, 34
20158 Milano
07/06/2022 - Autumn 2022
Open Monday till Saturday 10:00 - 19:00

Rubbing up the wrong tree
Grafting is used when a gardener wants to grow a new branch onto an established plant. The graft can lead the specimen to generate something very different out of its original form.
The master furniture for this project was acquired by Gamper from antique dealer Adam Hills. Unwanted by the former owner and left to languish like neglected rootstock, the pieces were in poor condition. Once they were safe in the studio, Gamper measured, photographed, disassembled and then digitally re-drew these prototypes long hidden from view in mothballed obscurity.
The discrete original parts subsequently formed a framework for inquiry. He radically adapted them with insertions of flat laser-cut steel implanted into the original hollow tubular legs.
The purity of the original design is fused with these alien circle and arch motifs, giving rise to an experimental language whose incongruous vocabulary gives a vital new voice to these curious and flourishing hybrids.

The Dior Medallion Chair

IL PALAZZO CITTERIO - MILAN
SEPTEMBER 5TH - 10TH 2021

DIOR MAISON INVITED SEVENTEEN ARTISTS TO REINTERPRET ONE OF ITS ICONIC EMBLEMS: THE MEDALLION CHAIR. A SYMBOL OF LOUIS XVI STYLE THAT CHRISTIAN DIOR CHOSE AS SOON AS HE FOUNDED HIS HOUSE, IN ORDER TO SEAT GUESTS AT HIS FASHION SHOWS IN A “SOBER, SIMPLE AND ABOVE ALL CLASSIC AND PARISIAN” DÉCOR, AS HE RECOUNTED IN HIS MEMOIRS. THE ESSENTIAL OVAL SURMOUNTED BY A FONTANGES BOW BECAME ONE OF THE MAJOR CODES OF 30 AVENUE MONTAIGNE, THE BEATING HEART OF DIOR. FEMININE AND SENSUAL, IT PUNCTUATED, IN BLACK AND GOLD, OR PINK AND GRAY, THE BOTTLES AND COFFRETS OF THE HOUSE’S LEGENDARY FIRST PERFUMES (FROM DIORAMA TO DIORISSIMO) AS WELL AS IN-STORE DÉCOR, STARTING WITH “COLFICHETS” – THE FIRST DIOR BOUTIQUE, INAUGURATED BY THE FOUNDING COUTURIER IN 1947, WHERE MEDALLION CHAIRS WERE ELEGANTLY CLAD IN CANNAGE AND TOILE DE JOUY. TODAY, THE HOUSE’S GUEST DESIGNERS OFFER THEIR VISIONS AND ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL SENSIBILITIES – FROM JAPAN TO ITALY BY WAY OF KOREA, LEBANON AND FRANCE – TO RECONCEIVE THIS OBJECT OF DESIRE WITH BOUNDLESS CREATIVITY. AMONG THE MOST INFLUENTIAL IN THE WORLD, THESE ARTISTS HAVE EXHIBITED IN PRESTIGIOUS MUSEUMS INCLUDING THE MOMA IN NEW YORK, THE MAD IN PARIS AND THE V&A IN LONDON. AN UNPRECEDENTED AND PLURALISTIC COLLABORATION, A REFLECTION OF THE HOUSE’S TIMELESS MODERNITY THAT REINVENTS THE DIOR DREAM AND LETS IT LIVE ON.

FOR DIOR, GAMPER HAS ONCE AGAIN REWORKED THIS ESSENTIAL OBJECT, SIMPLIFYING ITS LINES WHILE PRESERVING THE UNIQUE ALLURE OF THE MEDALLION. HIS REINTERPRETATIONS ARE THE RESULT OF A COMBINATION OF COLOURS AND FABRICS – AND OFFER A REFINED AND CONTEMPORARY VISION OF CHAIRS, THESE "FUNCTIONAL, ELEGANT AND TIMELESS WITNESSES."

LDF Legacy Project with The American Hardwood Export Council

Musical Shelf by Martino Gamper for Tamra Rojo
LDF Legacy Project with The American Hardwood Export Council
Made by Benchmark Furniture UK

Sir John Sorrell, Chairman of London Design Festival, invited leaders of London’s cultural institutions to collaborate with some of the world’s most prolific designers to create a ‘Legacy’ piece of design – an object of personal or professional relevance to them.
Each of the pieces – 10 in total – were beautifully crafted in American red oak, an exciting and sustainable hardwood species that grows abundantly in American forests, and were fabricated at Benchmark Furniture in Berkshire. Nine of the pieces, including Gampers, were presented as a group exhibition at the V&A, before they were relocated to the homes or institutions of each of the commissioners.

Gamper created a modular free-standing shelf for storing Tamara Rojo's (Artistic Director of the English National Ballet),record collection.
By turning the shelves at an oblique angle the covers are clearly visible making it easier to find which ever record Tamara may be looking for.
The darker horizontal elements are made of fumed red oak while the vertical ones are covered in a lighter diagonal veneer to create a contrast and emphasise the oblique design.

The 10 commissioners and designers were;
TAMARA ROJO CBE Artistic Director, English National Ballet, with MARTINO GAMPER
ALEX BEARD CBE Chief Executive, Royal Opera House, with TERENCE WOODGATE
AMANDA NEVILL CBE CEO, British Film Institute, with SEBASTIAN COX
HANS ULRICH OBRIST Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries, with NINA TOLSTRUP and JACK MAMA, STUDIOMAMA
SIR IAN BLATCHFORD Director and Chief Executive, Science Museum Group, with MARLÈNE HUISSOUD
IWONA BLAZWICK OBE Director, Whitechapel Gallery, with YAEL MER and SHAY ALKALAY, RAW EDGES
SIR JOHN SORRELL CBE Chairman, London Design Festival, with JULIET QUINTERO, DALLAS-PIERCE-QUINTERO
KWAME KWEI-ARMAH OBE Artistic Director, Young Vic, with TOMOKO AZUMI
DR MARIA BALSHAW CBE Director, Tate, with MAX LAMB
DR TRISTRAM HUNT Director, V&A, with JASPER MORRISON

Photography: Petr Krejci

Prada Hideaway

A pop up designed by Martino Gamper for Prada
Harrods, London, 4 - 27 September 2020

Prada Hideaway is a site-specific pop up for Prada at Harrods, London, conceived by renowned designer Martino Gamper. Using vertical and horizontal lines, the bespoke furniture defines and divides the space covering 90 square meters. Wooden patterns fold across the walls to become wooden landscapes with both intimate spaces and openings with views.

Harrods storefront window displays have the texture of a wooden environment - a fragmented tree. Black and white cyclic moving images of branches, wood grain and growth rings contrast with the soft natural tones and tapered edges of the oblique shelves. This play between the foreground frame and backdrop creates interior movement and unusual perspectives highlighting a timeless, natural beauty.

The products’ offer reflect the idea of simplicity, the return to the quintessential quality and beauty of natural materials: it includes women’s ready to wear, bags, accessories and footwear, with a focus on a special selection of shearling jackets in neutral tones as well as a variety of garments made of the finest cashmere with special hand-made treatments.

In collaboration with Kajsa Ståhl from ÅBÄKE
#PradaHideaway

Images courtesy of Prada.

Le Réfectoire, Parc des Ateliers

Martino Gamper on the renovation site of Le Réfectoire

Renovated in 2020 by Selldorf Architects, this historic hospital center has been redesigned to accommodate one of the restaurants in the Parc des Ateliers. The Italian designer Martino Gamper’s studio is responsible for the interior design and decoration as part of the “Tutti Frutti” project. During a residency at LUMA Arles, Gamper developed a range of custom-made furniture for the building and its terrace.

The design was made in close collaboration with Atelier LUMA and local collaborators, and the objects created were manufactured on site. The resulting pieces of furniture are richly rooted in the region and imbued with a strong artistic dimension.

Text:Luma.org
Images:© Adrian Deweerdt

Musical Shelf by Martino Gamper for Tamra Rojo

LDF 2019- Disco Carbonara & Idiosincratico

LDF 2019- Disco Carbonara & Idiosincratico
MARTINO GAMPER

DISCO CARBONARA
Coal Drops Yard,
Stable St,
London, N1C 4DQ

IDIOSINCRATICO
Samsung KX
Coal Drops Yard
King's Cross,
London, N1C 4DQ

September 14, 2019 - September 26, 2019
Hours: Mon Sat 10:00-20:00, Sun 11:00-18:00

Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross will be home to a Festival Commission by Martino Gamper. This one-off site specific installation is a playful temporary addition to the King’s Cross architecture, a false facade with traditional cladding from the Italian Alps.

Inspired by the concept of a Potemkin village- a construction built to deceive others into thinking that a situation is better than it really is. The term comes from stories of a fake portable village built to impress Empress Catherine II by her lover Grigory Potemkin during her journey to Crimea in 1787.

Gamper’s concept is designed as a gateway to Coal Drop’s Yard, with an archway creating a new entrance for visitors to walk through. The temporary structure will have a low environmental impact, with all materials as waste products, recycled or later repurposed.

With thanks to ALPI Wood, Italy.

2019 Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale

2019 Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale

9 May - 15 September 2019

Social Seating: Curated by Jasper Morrison.
Gamper presents- Bi-compo Bench
A social bench made from Wood Plastic Composite.

Jasper Morrison will introduce to the visitors to Fiskars, eighteen designers of his choice, including Martino Gamper. As one could expect from Morrison, the brief for the designer was clear and simple: design and build a bench. The bench is designed to be shared, thus beautifully reflecting the Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale’s message of coexistence.

Founded on the Fiskars river in 1649, the small iron works community is considered the birthplace of Finnish industrialism. The historical buildings in the village, all listed for conservation, and the surrounding biodiverse hardwood forests make the area a unique destination. Currently Fiskars Village is home to some 600 inhabitants, and it is a significant centre for handicrafts in Finland. The village is also a birthplace of the world-famous brand Fiskars, today known for the orange handled scissors, garden tools and various tableware brands as Iittala and Arabia.

Hookaloti

Hookaloti

3 April – 4 May
Preview Wednesday 3 April 6–8pm

Michael Lett
312 Karangahape Road
Cnr K Rd & East St
Auckland 1145
New Zealand
P +64 9 309 7848
contact@michaellett.com

Tuesday–Friday 11am–5pm
Saturday 11am–3pm

Hookaloti presents a playful environment filled with hundreds of wall mounted hooks. The hooks are all functional, yet decorative, designed to be used individually or in clusters, and incredibility idiosyncratic. Made in ceramic, hand-formed glass, recycled plastic, wood, found objects, forged steel and sand cast aluminium, Gamper has piggybacked on various New Zealand workshops of friends and craft studios. This is a project about exploration, invention and collaboration. All the work is informed by the place that it is made, the possibilities and limitations of each studio. The artisanal interests of each host has had huge bearing on what work has been made. The aluminium hooks from Karl Fristch’s Wellington Studio, were carved rapidly from polystyrene and sand cast within minutes. Recycled Christchurch plastics in Rob Upritchard’s studio were shredded, heated and sausage like extrusions were hand formed into plausible hooks. The glass hooks were fabricated in Monmouth Glass studio, Ponsonby, in a single morning. Rather than blowing glass, the artist and Stephen Bradbourne decided to work with the natural inclinations of the material by elongating a glass drop. The ceramic hooks in this show were made in multiple potteries over the last 5 years- Shoal Bay (Great Barrier), Rahu Road Pottery (Paeroa), Mount pottery (Mount Manganui), Nicholas Brandon’s pottery (Kaimata) and Barry Brickell’s Driving Creek Pottery.
Gamper is foremost a wood worker. During his New Zealand trip he made 2 tables out of 40,000 year old swamp Kauri, mined in the 1980’s and sourced as a ‘job lot’ from Kaitaia, carefully conserved by a local woodturner, in Darryl Ward and Katie Lockhart’s Hillcrest garage. ‘Trade Me’ found, 1970’2 NZ manufactured chairs, caught Gamper’s eye because of their mid-century design quality have been transformed into a group of 4 velvet upholstered chairs.

An installation titled Gesamtkunsthandwerk will also be showing across Michael Lett and Ivan Anthony galleries. The title refers to a fusion of art, design and craft, with a focus on the handmade. A continuation of a project by Karl Fritsch, Martino Gamper and Francis Upritchard begun in 2011 at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth, Gesamtkunsthandwerk includes artworks by Nicholas Brandon, Jaime Jenkins, Laurie Steer and Lisa Walker.

FOG Design+Art 2019

Martino Gamper, Francis Upritchard
Anton Kern Gallery
FOG Design+Art 2019

January 17 –20, 2019

Enveloped by India yellow walls, Anton Kern Gallery’s debut booth at FOG Design+Art is the stage for an intricately designed installation of Francis Upritchard’s sculptures, ceramics, and drawings, coupled with Martino Gamper’s furniture. Wife and husband, and frequent collaborators, Upritchard and Gamper bring together contrasting yet complementing approaches to the making of three-dimensional objects.

The couple’s joint presentation at FOG is decidedly inspired by the counter-culture and Nature Boys movements that sprang up in California in the 1940s and 50s, and culminated in the 1967 Summer of Love in San Francisco. In addition, it can be read as an homage to the spirit of legendary sculptor and designer J.B. Blunk, who had built his home and studio in the 1960s near the town of Inverness, CA: exactly where Gamper fabricated the tables, seats and shelves shown at the fair. Combined with Upritchard’s marvelous and eccentric figures, glass and bronze sculptures, as well as watercolor drawings, this collaboration creates a synergetic environment that echoes the spirit of the city.

Arnoldino

Coming Soon....

Arnoldino

A 2018 Arnold Circus update in smaller kid size proportions.
Perfect for children to sit on, as well as for storage or side tables in their spaces. The design is still as light and versatile as the original.

Available in a full range of colours from Martinos shop in early 2019.

www.arnoldcircusstool.com

Martino Gamper in conversation
with Alice Rawsthorn

26 November 2018

Sir John Soane's Museum
13 Lincoln's Inn Fields
London WC2A 3BP

Doors open at 6.30pm
Talk 7–8pm
Drinks reception 8–9pm

Arnold Circus Stool Special Colour-Pistachio

NEW- Arnold Circus Stool Special Colour-Pistachio

Rotation moulded plastic
430 x 350 x 440mm l/w/h

Arnold Circus stool in Pistachio Green is a new special edition colour, with all profits from its sales going to the Friends of Arnold Circus.

Arnold Circus is situated in the heart of Shoreditch, East London. Built on the rubble of the old slums,  it is part of the Boundary Estate, London’s first council housing project.

The Arnold Circus Stool was designed by Martino Gamper as part of a regeneration project in 2006. It is the official seating for Arnold Circus events like the circus picnic, brass band concerts, carrom tournaments, flower plantings, music and film events.

Round & Square Collection

Round & Square Collection

Brompton Design district
London Design Festival
4 Cromwell Place
SW7 2JN

16 - 24 September 2017

Gamper presents Round & Square, a new collection of studio-made furniture based on an intricate wood joint. All hand-crafted in his workshop in Hackney, they form a home collection that includes chairs, tables, shelves, armchairs and stools/side tables.

www.bromptondesigndistrict.com
www.londondesignfestival.com

Images: Angus Mill

Middle Chair

Martino Gamper- Middle Chair
Pollok House,
Glasgow
05/06/2017—30/07/2017

Preview Sunday 4 June, 2017, 2 - 5 PM

Pollok House,
Pollok Country Park
Glasgow · G43 1AT ·
Mon - Sun: 10 am - 5 pm

‘Middle Chair’ is a project presented by The Modern Institute taking place within Pollok House, which brings together chairs made by Martino Gamper, installed throughout the 18th century stately home.

Replacing several of the chairs in the house’s interior collection, Gamper’s intervention places his contemporary design pieces as a central part of the existing display and function of the publically accessible house. Contrasting the period furnishings, Gamper’s uniquely built chairs are hybridised forms using found pieces of furniture, cut and assembled with new materials. Intended to assume the roles of either display chairs, within the collection exhibits or as chairs for use by invigilators and visitors. Gamper’s chairs can be found as a main part of a room’s display set up, as if part of the originally operational house - a desk chair in The Morning Room, or a dining set around the existing table in The Dining Room. Gamper’s chairs can also be found on the edges of the corridors and rooms, amongst the many not-in-use chairs within the house’s collection, as well part of the current functioning chairs, replacing the stackable modern chairs in daily use.

www.themoderninstitute.com

100 Chairs in 100 Days

City Gallery Wellington
Civic Square, Wellington, New Zealand
08 April - 13 August 2017

Martino Gamper says, 'There is no perfect design and there is no über-design. Objects talk to us personally. Some might be more functional than others, and the emotional attachment is very individual.' Some ten years ago, the London-based, Italian-born furniture designer initiated his project, 100 Chairs in 100 Days. He made a new chair a day for a hundred days by collaging together bits of chairs that he found discarded on the street or in friends’ homes. Blending found stylistic and structural elements, he generated perverse, poetic, and humorous hybrids. The project combined formal and functional questions with sociological and semiological ones. Or, as Gamper put it: ‘What happens to the status and potential of a plastic garden chair when it is upholstered with luxurious yellow suede?’ The project was all about being creative, but within restrictions—being limited to materials at hand and the time available, with the requirement that each new chair be unique. Gamper's ‘three-dimensional sketchbook’ brought him international recognition. The project was exhibited in London in 2007, at the Milan Triennale in 2009, and at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, in 2010. For our show, ninety-nine chairs from the original project were lent by Nina Yashar, of Nilufar Gallery, Milan. While in New Zealand to install the show, Gamper made a new hundredth chair especially for our show.

A project by Martino Gamper
Collection loaned by Nina Yashar - Nilufar Gallery
Graphic Design: Åbäke
Curated for City Gallery, Wellington by Robert Leonard

http://citygallery.org.nz/

SCREENSHOT

SCREENSHOT
BY MARTINO GAMPER AND BRIGITTE NIEDERMAIR
In Association with Wallpaper*

10 - 18 March
Wallpaper* Exhibition Space
1 Poultry Lane, London, EC2R 8EJ

DEDAR ANNOUNCES A NEW WAY TO LOOK AT THE WALL
In 2017, the Italian interior textile house, Dedar, celebrates its fortieth anniversary with a new collaboration between the designer Martino Gamper and the artist Brigitte Niedermair.
Screenshot is a conceptual photography project synthesising 500 years of the colour blue in figurative art. This concept is transposed onto Dedar’s sophisticated fabrics, which are then further transformed into a design serial piece of art.

The result is a highly unexpected and innovative project, which takes the idea of a wall decoration, combining the realms of three-dimensional design and art history, and produces a series of beautifully printed panels framed in teak and brass. The panels can be customised for each owner into any number of configurations, thus offering endless opportunities and possibilities.

Dedar has worked with a range of creative minds in the past but this collaboration is the first time that it has united an artist and a designer in this way.

www.wallpaper.com

No Ordinary Love - Martino Gamper with Friends

SEASON 3, 17 Sep – 20 Jan
SEE••DS
3, Launceston Place, London, W8 5RL

The design of unique pieces and artisanal objects motivates the ongoing and consuming question, “design or art?” Today, the opening of countless galleries enhances the production and stimulates the market for this kind of design.
SEE••DS, a space that has emerged on the scene, placing itself midway between art and design, is treating this debate with conscious levity: on the one hand, hoping to overcome it; on the other, dealing with new possible interpretations and welcoming projects that are provocatively fun. This is the case with the exhibition "NO ORDINARY LOVE – MARTINO GAMPER W/ FRIENDS", which brings about collaborative creation dynamics that are capable of highlighting inconsistencies in the "design system" through the objects that arise from these collaborations.

The experiment started from the workshop aimed at fostering a collective-based project, bringing together a group of designers — Tiago Almeida, Faudet Harrison, Lars Frideen, Max Frommeld and Arno Mathies, Martino Gamper, Gemma Holt, Jochen Holz, Max Lamb, Will Shannon, Silo Studio, Harry Thaler, Bethan Wood — who are already friends, but had never previously worked as a collective.

After having introduced our first rule DAZE OR DOUBLE questioning the importance of the authorship in design and our second rule AUCTION NO AUCTION, putting into evidence the role of fate or randomness in the value of a piece, we would like to reinstate, for the third and final opening of SEASON 3, the primordial link between the production material and the value of a design piece. For SCALE UP AND GIVE IN, we will show a new production of bronze candle sticks made by NO ORDINARY LOVE 'Collective' and each piece's final price will literally depend on its weight. Taken from the press release.

NEO - J & L Lobmeyr

On the occasion of Vienna Design Week Passionswege
30 Sep - 08 Oct 2016
J. & L. Lobmeyr
Kärntner Straße 26
1010 Vienna

NEO - a tumbler with contemporary ornament. Martino Gamper is known for his
curiosity and his radical sense for experimentation. A very simple Double old
fashioned whiskey tumbler gets transformed by cutting, engraving, polishing, sand-blasting, hand-painting, gilding, and lustre painting.
“I wanted to take on the challenge of creating a contemporary ornament using the traditional Lobmeyr-techniques”. The project is part of the Vienna Design Week 2016 “Passionswege” project. The one-off prototypes are signed and sold as one group of 53 glasses. All single items will be produced on order. Taken from the press release.

www.lobmeyr.at
www.viennadesignweek.at

St Marks Chair and Table for Moroso

St Marks Chair and Table for Moroso

In anodized aluminum or aluminium satin matte or ash and alumnium hybrid

www.moroso.it

100 Chairs in 100 Days - RMIT

RMIT Design Hub
Building 100, Corner Victoria and Swanston Streets,
Carlton, Melbourne 3053 Australia
26 Feb 2016 - 09 April 2016

Renowned for his cross-disciplinary and culturally responsive approach to design, London-based Martino Gamper came to major acclaim with 100 Chairs in 100 Days. In this project Gamper collected disused chairs from alleyways and friends’ homes and reassembled them — one per day — into poetic and often humorous forms. Shown in Australia for the first time, 100 Chairs in 100 Days is an experiment in transforming limitations into possibilities. For RMIT Design Hub, Gamper will create a new version of the 100th chair, fabricated within a single day and only using found materials, structures and designs. The exhibition incorporates a workshop or ‘ideas exchange’ where Gamper will discuss his process-driven practice with local invited designers. Taken from the press release.

A project by Martino Gamper
Collection loaned by Nina Yashar - Nilufar Gallery
Graphic Design: Åbäke
Curated for RMIT Design Hub by Fleur Watson

http://designhub.rmit.edu.au/

Francis Upritchard & Martino Gamper

Anton Kern Gallery
532 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011
January 14 - February 20 2016

Wife and husband and frequent collaborators, Francis Upritchard and Martino Gamper bring together contrasting approaches to the making of three-dimensional objects. Upritchard is a sculptress from New Zealand with an extensive history of museum and gallery exhibitions, and Gamper an Italian designer with a wide and fascinating array of design exhibitions and commissions.

Their first joint exhibition at the gallery will blend sculpture and furniture in such a seamless way that genre or category seems temporarily thrown overboard. Upritchard and Gamper play with ideas of origin and derivation by combining figures, artifacts and pseudo-anthropological objects with newly designed as well as re-appropriated furniture, denying every concept of cultural purity and authenticity. Exhibited together, the works evoke ideas of the Gesamtkunstwerk and of cabinets of curiosities, albeit not in a Baroque palace but rather a contemporary cosmopolitan environment. The exhibition will include figures of varying sizes and materials, bronze dinosaurs, along with tables, chairs and consoles, and an assortment of ceramic bowls, pots, hats, lamps, and ornaments. Taken from the press release.

www.antonkerngallery.com

The Marksman Public House

Upstairs dining room designed by Martino Gamper.

254 Hackney Road, London E2 7SJ

www.marksmanpublichouse.com

Photography ©Anabel Navarro Llorens

Post Forma - British Art Show 8

9 October - 27 October
Leeds Art Gallery,
The Hepworth Wakefield
Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle and British Art Show 8 present a new commission by leading designer Martino Gamper.

Post Forma, a major new commission by acclaimed Italian designer Martino Gamper, will open at Leeds Art Gallery on 9 October 2015 (until 11 October), as part of the opening weekend of Hayward Touring’s British Art Show 8 exhibition. Post Forma then move on to be presented at The Hepworth Wakefield (24 – 25 October) and at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (26 – 27 October). The British Art Show continues at Leeds Art Gallery until 10 Jan 2016.

As part of Post Forma the artist will be asking the public to bring along belongings to be renewed rather than thrown away. This new commission is driven by Gamper’s interest in how an object can be transformed or reused and by interactions with the public. This design process will involve the expertise of local craftspeople, who will meet and engage with visitors by providing a service in a public place, hosting workshops to learn new skills and sharing traditions.

A working loom will be located in the sculpture galleries at Leeds Art Gallery, where artisans will work on a daily basis to create a woven wall hanging that will evolve throughout the exhibition period. There will also be demonstrations of design interventions by skilled craftspeople in the gallery, with workshops specialising in book binding, shoe cobbling and chair caning, for the public to learn and contribute to a craft process that transforms repaired objects.

Post Forma has been by commissioned by Yorkshire Festival and Hayward Touring, in partnership with Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle and Arts Council England’s Strategic Touring Fund.

The British Art Show is a landmark event for the visual arts which defines current tendencies and directions in contemporary art, and introduces a new generation of artists to a wider public. British Art Show 8, curated by Anna Colin and Lydia Yee, will take over Leeds Art Gallery (from 9 Oct 2015 –10 Jan 2016). Taken from the press release.

Photography Jerry Hardman-Jones

www.ysculpture.co.uk

www.britishartshow8.com

100 Chairs in 100 Days

MIMOCA, Maragame, Kagawa, Japan
13 Jun 2015 - 23 Sep 2015

Martino Gamper (born 1971 in Italy, resides in London), known for his crossovers between fine art and design, came to major acclaim with 100 Chairs in 100 Days (2007), for which he culled disused chairs from London alleyways and friends' homes and reassembled them one per day into poetic, often humorous forms. Drawing upon the history of furniture yet altogether unique and original improvisations, he has toured 99 chairs around the globe, always creating another 100th chair in each new location. So for this exhibition, he will create a yet-unveiled 100th chair from a find here in Marugame. Working within self-imposed parametres — found materials, structures, designs and a single day — Gamper's 100 chairs showcase his wit and experiments in transforming limitations into elements of possibility. Transcending mere design and function, Gamper's unprecedented methodology lets us glimpse the stories hidden within things. Also on show in the entrance is a collection of vases made by Gamper. Taken from the press release.

design is a state of mind

Museion, Bolzano
06 Jun - 13 Sep 2015

In 2011 he designed the space of Passage, in 2015 the designer Martino Gamper (Merano, 1971) returns to the Museion as a curator of the exhibition "design is a state of mind."

The project is in cooperation with the Serpentine Galleries, London, (05/03- 21/04/2014) and the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Turin (24.10.14 - 01.03.2015)

design is a state of mind: the exhibition highlights the history of the design objects and their impact on our life with a wide selection of shelving systems from 1930 to the present day. Moving in a range which includes design classics historic, unique pieces, works of industrial design and functional contemporary, recently commissioned or otherwise, will be exhibited projects by Gaetano Pesce, Ettore Sottsass, Ercol, Gio Ponti and IKEA. Each element exhibition will be used to organize and display collections of objects from the personal archives of friends and colleagues of Gamper, along with a wide library of publications on contemporary furniture from all over the world.  For the occasion will also be made of new shelving Michael Marriott and the same Martino Gamper, co-produced by the Serpentine Gallery, Museion and the Pinacoteca Agnelli.

"There is no perfect design and there is no ultra design. The objects speak to us in a personal way. Some should be more functional than others, and the emotional impact they have on us is very individual. The exhibition highlights a very personal way to collect and collect objects, with pieces that tell a story".  Martino Gamper
Taken from the press release.

Photography Luca Meneghel
www.museion.it

Magnetico curated by Martino Gamper for Valextra

Milan, April 2015 - Valextra, the Milanese manufacturer of the most desirable leather goods, has teamed up with designer Martino Gamper to create a series of new products and a store installation that will be unveiled during the Salone del Mobile, the international design fair.

This is the first time that Valextra has worked with an outside designer to develop both products and an in-store display and Martino represents the perfect match.

Small but powerful magnets are part of Valextra’s repertoire of parts and Martino Gamper has decided to make them fundamental to the ingenious installation. For the windows and the first part of the store, Martino has created a space within a space . The walls and windows are lined with magnetic sheets, hidden behind panels upholstered in sleek Kvadrat wool. Magnets concealed inside every bag, wallet and leather item allow each product to be attached, as if magically, to the wall. “It means you can see the bag better, through 270 degrees,” says Martino. “and I love the idea of objects floating in space.” “Magnets are potent things, as is the idea of attraction and seduction, which is important in retail,” says Martino. The magnets are also part of Valextra’s ongoing interest in the discreet but serious engineering that underpins its products. Taken from the press release.

www.valextra.com

Corners / Martino Gamper for Prada

Corners is an evolutionary window design concept by Martino Gamper in collaboration with Prada which pays homage to the humble corner. The design draws its inspiration from perspective, fragments and contrasts between natural materials. Those elements are enhanced by the simplicity of a corner which is a common thread for all the displays. Corners is a space within a space, making each display a unique story designed to evolve with the seasons. Taken from the press release.

design is a state of mind

Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103
10126 Torino, It
www.pinacoteca-agnelli.it / www.serpentinegalleries.org / www.museion.it

22 October 2014 – 22 February 2015

Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli is very pleased to announce its presentation of the exhibition design is a state of mind, curated by Martino Gamper.

The project is closely related to the mission of Pinacoteca Agnelli: the study of different ways of collecting and of private collections. It is also inspired by explorations into the practice of accumulation, a concept that has been developed by the artist through many aspects of his work.

The show has been produced in collaboration with the Serpentine Galleries, London (5/3/2014 – 18/5/2014) Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli in Turin (22/10/2014 – 22/02/2015) and Museion in Bolzano (12/06/2015 – 06/09/2015).

design is a state of mind will present a landscape of shelving systems, telling the story of design objects and their impact on our lives.

An extensive display of shelving systems from the 1930s to the present day will form the backbone of the exhibition. Ranging from historic design classics and one-off pieces, to industrial, utilitarian, contemporary and newly commissioned work, the exhibition will include designs by Gaetano Pesce, Ettore Sottsass, Ercol, Gio Ponti and IKEA.

Each display system will also be used to organise and exhibit collections of objects curated from the personal archives of Gamper’s friends and colleagues as well as an extensive library of contemporary furniture manufacturing catalogues from around the world.

"There is no perfect design and there is no über-design. Objects talk to us personally. Some might be more functional than others, and the emotional attachment is very individual. This exhibition will showcase a very personal way of collecting and gathering objects – these are pieces that tell a tale".  – Martino Gamper. Taken from the press release

Recto Verso

“Recto Verso is a simplified, modernised take on the traditional café chair. It is a bit about my fascination with the bentwood chair and a bit about my frustration with the furniture industry that I wanted to manufacture a chair myself. The chair is strong, easy to use; it stacks.” Martino Gamper

Launching at Ace Hotel during the London Design Festival:
Ace Hotel London Shoreditch
100 Shoreditch High Street
London E1 6JQ

Cuttings by Martino Gamper

for
J.HILL's Standard

J. HILL’S STANDARD, a new mouth-blown, hand-cut crystal maker from Waterford, Ireland is to launch its first two collections – by Martino Gamper and Scholten & Baijings – at the world renowned Spazio Rossana Orlandi during Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2014 (8th–13th April). J. HILL’s Standard represents the marriage of centuries old craft and fresh design thinking. Working with master craftsmen and an international stable of designers, this new company seeks to introduce crystal design that is relevant, desirable and useful to the modern consumer.

Cuttings – has been designed by the Italian-born, London-based designer Martino Gamper. As the ultimate contemporary craftsman, Gamper has brought a great deal of skill to the J. HILL’s Standard collaboration.

Martino Gamper is a natural interventionist – cutting to create shape and interest is characteristic of his work. For J. HILL’s Standard Gamper worked directly with the crystal, removing the material in a manner that felt instinctive, free and pleasing. The result is a series of three distinctive cuts that appear across a family of functional tableware.

This series features strong, intuitive marks confidently hewn out of the surface of lead crystal. The process of making cuts in this instance is less about applied decoration and closer to sculpture, hence the series name.

The tactile crystal forms feel rugged and primitive in the hand; fingers naturally seek out the smooth hollows and crisp ridges of the cuts. The Cuttings collection of glasses are easy to live with and lend themselves to many uses. The Cuttings series includes a champagne glass, a wine and beer glass and a carafe that can also be used as a vase.

Gamper says: “My approach to the technique for this collection is about revealing the potential of the cutting process. The glasses feature deep and expressive cuts far beyond the usual superficial and decorative surface.” Taken from the press release.

www.jhillsstandard.com

Photography by Tom Brown

Cuttings

In a State of Repair

8 – 13 April 2014
A unique collaboration between designer Martino Gamper, la Rinascente
department store in Milan and London’s Serpentine Galleries

Artisans’ performing hours
10am – 10pm 8 April
10am – 8pm 9 – 11 April

A new collaboration between renowned Italian department store la
Rinascente, designer Martino Gamper and London’s Serpentine Galleries
celebrates the craftsmen, craftswomen, artisans and technicians who repair
the things that break, stop working or go wrong. Launching on the occasion
of Salone Internazionale del Mobile, In a State of Repair explores the
expectations of customer service and continues the story of consumption, a
story that does not necessarily end when a person purchases an object and
leaves the store.

Martino Gamper said:
“As well as celebrating the skills that are sadly hidden from view, I hope this
installation encourages people to keep their belongings rather than discard
them, to improve what they buy rather than throw it away. Ultimately, the aim
is that people will appreciate the transformation of their object through the
process of repair. So, please bring us your broken things and watch them
being repaired in front of your eyes.”
As a designer, Gamper always anticipates how he can improve or repair
something. As part of the installation for la Rinascente, Gamper designs and
curates a series of eight workshop stands dedicated to fixing products,
brought to him by members of the public, free of charge. Situated in front of
and within the eight storefront windows of the Milan branch of the flagship
store, In a State of Repair re-creates the workshops that are normally hidden
from view, revealing what happens when your goods are taken to be repaired.
Each window will be dedicated to the display of different category of repaired
object: accessories, shoes, books, toys, electronics, clothing, chairs and
bicycles. Gamper will develop a set of material and process-based constraints
for each craftsman that means that each repaired object becomes a one-off
piece of design.

Julia Peyton-Jones, Director, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director of
Serpentine Galleries said:
“The Serpentine Galleries continually explore how to present art, architecture
and design in new ways. In a State of Repair represents a unique opportunity
to temporarily transform la Rinascente into an extension of our Galleries.”

Alberto Baldan, CEO of la Rinascente, said:
“la Rinascente is proud to host In a State of Repair, a collaboration that
represents a revolutionary new frontier in customer service. This unique
partnership with Serpentine Galleries and Martino Gamper fits perfectly with
the philosophy of la Rinascente, a department store where every day brings a
unique experience for the shopper.”
Martino Gamper’s design is a state of mind exhibition takes place at the
Serpentine Sackler Gallery until 18 May 2014. Taken from the press release.

www.rinascente.it
www.serpentinegalleries.org

Period Room

3 - 21 April 2014
Palais De Tokyo, Paris

Steven Claydon, Isabelle Cornaro, Glass Fabrik, Martino Gamper, Elias Guenoun, Anthea Hamilton, Michel Heurtault, Jean-Louis Hurlin, Franck Jalleau, Aude Marie, Janaïna Milheiro, Philippe Millot, Mydriaz, Alexandre Poulaillon, Chloé Quenum, Clément Rodzielski, Atelier Thiery

Organised in the framework of The European Artistic Craft Days, the exhibition Period Room brings together the collaborations of around 20 creators: craftspeople, artists, designer, graphic designer, architect, who have chosen to work together to create this setting composed of works and objects that testify to their respective approaches and to their desire to experiment through their common invention of new forms.

The ‘period room’ is a museum convention that consists in reconstituting an historical space within a room in a museum - reading room, French 18th-century salon, music room - missing paintings, sculptures, furniture, tapestries and other art objects. This mode of presentation shows the supposed coherence of a period to make it possible for the public to imagine it. Very popular from the beginning of the 19th century, these reconstructions were later questioned for their fictitious and unscientific nature. After the war, period rooms were out fashioned by the display of objects shown alone and based on their aesthetics rather than on their perceived context, thus bringing to and end the coexistence of plastic and applied arts within the same space.

Inspired by the period room model, this exhibition substitute to the artificial reconstruction of a historical period the creation of a prospective space and time where daily objects and usages are reassessed.

Period Room is a multidimensional space where the blending of genres occurs: between applied arts and plastic arts, decoration and figuration, function and form, ornament and frame shifting.

The exhibition Period Room has been conceived for the European Artistic Craft Days (4-6 April 2014).
During these 3 days dedicated to the preservation and regeneration of the intangible heritage of crafts know-how, numerous events, exhibitions and workshops opening, and exploring the theme ‘Time of Creation’ are being organised in Europe. Taken from the press release.

www.palaisdetokyo.com

Chair Lift

8 – 13 April 2014
Showroom Moroso
via Pontaccio 8/10, Milan, It

Martino Gamper & Peter McDonald

Intersections of sensorial density, disembodied chromatic surfaces concretely inscribed in everyday life.
Inside the drawings of Peter McDonald the distinctive marks in the traits of people do not appear: men and women are sensitive entities open to the invisible flow of relationships that permeate space. A loss of appearance which does not generate conformity but, on the contrary, reveals with plain simplicity, unmapped explorative trajectories.

The installation, however, does not suggest a rule or a key to interpretation, but rather offers an example of how to experience the represented projections of a parallel and temporary place. Seated, we find ourselves necessarily involved in a space that resets the distance: we are in the things (part of) the world. Taken from the press release.

www.moroso.it

Edge of the Seat: The Artist’s Chair

14 March – 14 June 2014

Large Glass
392 Caledonian Road
London N1 1DN

Group show with Phyllida Barlow, Susan Collis, Adam Colton, Dorothy Cross, Jimmie Durham, Martino Gamper, Antony Gormley, Jana Sterbak and Richard Wentworth.

www.largeglass.co.uk
all photography©Alex Delfanne

design is a state of mind

5 March 2014 – 18 May 2014
Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London Uk
www.serpentinegalleries.org

Serpentine Galleries has invited the influential London-based Italian designer Martino Gamper to curate a new exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery. design is a state of mind will present a landscape of shelving systems, telling the story of design objects and their impact on our lives. This is the second major design exhibition staged by the Serpentine, following Design Real curated by Konstantin Grcic in 2009.
Martino Gamper said: “There is no perfect design and there is no über-design. Objects talk to us personally. Some might be more functional than others, and the emotional attachment is very individual. This exhibition will showcase a very personal way of collecting and gathering objects – these are pieces that tell a tale.”

An extensive display of shelving systems from the 1930s to the present day will form the backbone of the exhibition. Ranging from historic design classics and one-off pieces, to industrial, utilitarian, contemporary and newly commissioned work, the exhibition will include designs by Gaetano Pesce, Franco Albini, Ettore Sottsass, Ercol, Gio Ponti and IKEA. Each display system will also be used to organise and exhibit collections of objects curated from the personal archives of Gamper’s friends and colleagues as well as an extensive library of contemporary furniture manufacturing catalogues from around the world. Among the designers whose collections will be displayed are: Enzo Mari; Paul Neale; Max Lamb & Gemma Holt; Jane Dillon; Michael Marriott; Sebastian Bergne; Fabien Cappello; Adam Hills; Michael Anastassiades; Andrew McDonagh & Andreas Schmid; Daniel Eatock and Martino Gamper himself.

Martino Gamper: design is a state of mind is presented in collaboration with Museion, Bolzano, Italy and Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli in Turin and runs concurrently with an expansive exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery by American artist Haim Steinbach. Furthering the Serpentine’s commitment to contemporary design, both exhibitions highlight objects that have made a significant impact on our lives and offer new perspectives on material
culture.

The exhibition is sponsored by renowned Italian department store la Rinascente who have – in collaboration with Serpentine Galleries – commissioned Martino Gamper to conceive a site-specific installation for the arcades of their Milan store. This exciting new commission, In a State of Repair, will be launched at Salone Internazionale del Mobile International furnishing accessories exhibition in April. Further support for the exhibition comes from the design is a state of mind Exhibition Circle and the Italian Cultural Institute, London. Taken from the press release

Photograph: © 2014 Hugo Glendinning

Trade Show

7 December 2013 – 22 February 2014
Eastside Projects will be closed 22 December – 8 January.
Preview Friday 6 December, 7-9pm
Curated by Kathrin Böhm & Gavin Wade

An Endless Supply, atelier d’architecture autogéréé, Sam Curtis, Valie Export, Field Cycles,
Martino Gamper, Ella Gibbs, Katherine Gibson, Jens Haaning, Christine Hill, Myvillages,
Kate Rich, Bob & Roberta Smith, Barbara Steiner, Apolonija Šušteršič.

‘Trade Show’ is a group exhibition that exercises the function of art to exchange, present and enact
different economic practices and cultures of trade. Over the last decades artists have claimed and
reclaimed trade as a socio-cultural space by producing their own shops, swaps, stalls, deals, exchange centres and distribution systems.

The first trade of ‘Trade Show’ is with the economic geographer Katherine Gibson who is writing an essay in exchange for James Langdon’s redesign of ‘The Economy as an Iceberg’, an illustration she has used in presentations around the world since 2001 to symbolize her feminist critique of political economy that focuses upon the limiting effects of representing economies as dominantly capitalist.

The exhibition presents trade as a universal activity deeply embedded in almost everything we do. Art proposes and enacts forms of trade that remind us of the possibilities and complexities of living in a society where everything must mean something, and everything must be worth something. ‘Trade Show’ contributes to a strong trading culture where roles are changeable, economies are collaborative and the imperative of a not-only-for-profit ethos prevails. Taken from the press release.

www.t-r-a-d-e-s-h-o-w.org

Tu Casa, mi Casa

9 Nov 2013 - 25 Jan 2014

The Modern Institute
3 Aird's Lane
Glasgow, G1 5HU
www.themoderninstitute.com

The Modern Institute are delighted to present ‘Tu casa, mi casa’ the first presentation in Scotland of the work of Italian designer Martino Gamper.

Gamper’s practice is infused by spontaneity and a refined ease for working with a variety of materials and processes. While incorporating faithfulness to the history of Italian design, Gamper’s work encompasses artisanal ‘one-off’ pieces, industrially produced design, and design for both social and exhibition contexts.

‘Tu casa, mi casa’ addresses Gamper’s interest in the psychosocial connotations of furniture and use of space. Opposed to a typical gallery presentation, where objects appear stark and decontextualised, Gamper has created an environment within which we are welcomed. The gallery is used a hybrid living space, complete with a wood-burning stove, day bed, table, chairs, carpets and lamps. Gamper’s house is a beautiful homage to craft, design, and domestic functionality.

Inspired by the notions of space explored in Le Corbusier’s drawing Elements and determined indeterminate (‘Proposal for a Living Habitat’, c. 1959), ‘Tu casa, mi casa’ presents an open plan area, separated only by room dividers, creating small islands of furniture symbolising rooms. Gamper has incorporated a variety of materials and distinguished techniques to produce his furniture and objects, such as: glass blowing and fusing, woodcarving, cabinet making, carpet embroidery, blacksmithing and wrought iron processes, marquetry, and enamelling. This amalgamation of techniques references both Arts and Crafts, as well as more industrial methods of construction. Central to the exhibition is Gamper’s systematic adaption of existing objects. Sourcing Moroccan carpets; these have been embroidered and re-configured with geometric lines, allowing them to take on a new unification of pattern and form. An essential element within the space is a circular table (‘Fragmental Dinning Table’), made from linoleum, wood board and powder coated steel; the top presenting segments of colour, which resembles a pie-chart formation. Completing this set are six appropriated teak chairs, titled ‘Friends #1-6’, carved into the back of each comprises the sentence: “The Ornaments in this house are the friends who frequent it”. Appropriating this phrase from one found in an antique shop in New Zealand, Gamper uses it to suggest the thematic underpinning of the exhibition.

Presenting a graphical aesthetic and a disparate use of material, method and re-appropriation of objects, ‘Tu casa, mi casa’ is predominantly a space, which encourages social interaction - a space designed to be functional and communal. Taken from the press release.

ICA Off-Site: A Journey Through London Subculture: 1980s to Now

13 Sep - 20 Oct 2013
The Old Selfridges Hotel, 1 Orchard Street, W1H 6HQ London

A major new project at The Old Selfridges Hotel in London as part of a series of off-site events this summer, A Journey Through London Subculture: 1980s to Now illustrates a perceived thread of creativity between the post-punk era and the present day - a legacy that underpins London's incredible creative potential in the present.

Gilbert & George, John Maybury, House of Beauty & Culture, Tom Dixon, Jeffrey Hinton, Bodymap, St John, Alexander McQueen, Martino Gamper, Julie Verhoeven, Giles Deacon, Charlie Porter, Chisenhale Gallery, Lucky PDF, Vogue Fabrics Nightclub, Sibling, J W Anderson, Bethan Laura Wood, Matthew Darbyshire and Louise Gray are amongst the 60 influential figures from London’s creative scene involved in the project. Taken from the press release

Some Days, Some Chairs

Trattoria Circolare

— with Åbäke, Martino Gamper & Alex Rich
8 June 2013
Lungomare, Bolzano, Itlay

A fire place in the middle of the garden, people are sitting around it ready to take part in the evening long dinner. The hosts of the evening Martino Gamper, Åbäke and Alex Rich change the spatial setting of the Gasthaus for the evening and invite the guests to interact with them as well as to enter in dialogue with each other. Rather than recreating and archaic moment to celebrate nature and the pure way of living the evening is a way of questioning how we will live in the future and how our being in common can be shaped. Developed for the Lungomare Gasthaus “trattoria circolare” is a re-edition of the “trattoria al cappello” project that the four designers have started more than ten years ago in London stimulated by a common passion for food, cooking and the interest to trigger unusual moments of interaction and dialogue.

www.gasthaus.lungomare.org

100 Chairs in 100 Days

100 Chairs in 100 Days is travelling again
To
Benaki Museum, Athens, Gr
06 Jun - 28 Jul 2013

www.benaki.gr

Jason Dodge/ Martino Gamper

13/03/2013 - 29/04/2013
American Academy In Rome, It.

This artist-curated exhibition in the AAR Art Gallery and in the Cryptoporticus of the McKim, Mead & White building looks at the everyday world through the work of two artists whose practices are very different but who have in common a fascination with the potential of the Found Object to become something else. American artist Jason Dodge's installations find new narratives in the insignificance and marginality of objects taken from everyday life (gloves, blankets, pipes, lightbulbs, electrical wires). The total work is composed, both by the visible part of the object and by the invisible story surrounding and penetrating it: the detail becomes the mark of a generality bypassing it. Italian artist Martino Gamper has a particular interest in the psycho-social aspects of furniture design, including corners (the multiple emotions provoked by the single right-angled boundary) and underused spaces. His art often reworks unwanted objects through craftsmanship, and the story behind his art involves materials, techniques, people and places, the finished product being a token of all of these things that inhabits the brief interlude between making and using. Taken from the press release.

www.aarome.org

Martino Gamper is in town!

Everyday Needs
6a Kirk St, Arch Hill, Auckland Nz
Wednesday 13th March
5.30 - 8.30pm

We would like to invite you to meet him. Our showroom will be full of Martino's one off creations, not to mention a limited run of various everyday needs that he has produced especially for your home. Chopping boards, door stops, wooden spoons and book ends!!

www.everyday-needs.com

100 Chairs in 100 Days and its 100 Ways

3rd Edition 3rd Size

Available now from www.dentdeleone.co.nz

A recalled dialogue from some time ago:

Martino: I will make 100 chairs

åbäke: What, the same one 100 times?

M: No, they will be different. They’ll be actual size 3D sketching, somehow, you know, instead of drawing on a piece of paper.

å: Sounds great. Do it in 100 days then.

Author / Editor: Martino Gamper
Year: 2012
Price: £11.00 Postage & Package not included
Pages: 100
Third Edition: 5000 copies
ISBN number: 978-1-907908-09-5
Weight: 103.00g
Width: 10.20cm
Height: 17.00cm
Language: English
Cover: Softcover
Binding: Open

100 Chairs in 100 Days and its 100 Ways (3rd Edition, 3rd Size)

100 Chairs in 100 Days and its 100 Ways
3rd Edition 3rd Size

Available now from www.dentdeleone.co.nz

A recalled dialogue from some time ago:

Martino: I will make 100 chairs

åbäke: What, the same one 100 times?

M: No, they will be different. They’ll be actual size 3D sketching, somehow, you know, instead of drawing on a piece of paper.

å: Sounds great. Do it in 100 days then.

Author / Editor: Martino Gamper
Year: 2012
Price: £11.00 Postage & Package not included
Pages: 100
Third Edition: 5000 copies
ISBN number: 978-1-907908-09-5
Weight: 103.00g
Width: 10.20cm
Height: 17.00cm
Language: English
Cover: Softcover
Binding: Open

MONACOPOLIS

19 Jan 2013 - 12 May 2013
The Nouveau Musée National de Monaco

Architecture, Urbanism and Urbanization in Monaco, achievements and projects - 1858-2012
Commissioner: Nathalie Giordano-Rosticher, Chief Curator NMNM
Design: Martino Gamper, Maki Suzuki / Abake, London

MONACOPOLIS analyzes the density of a saturated territory, and explores its many different dimensions. It restores readability to what already exists and re-creates the different layers of an urban development that has proceeded uninterruptedly since the mid-19th century, thanks to a novel overlapping of archives and works little or never seen hitherto. In the absence of any Archives Nationales in Monaco, this exhibition restores to the public the documents and the sources which make it possible to write the history of the country’s architecture. Since a complete saturation of the territory, this latter has been wavering between three tendencies which tally with experimental trends producing projects involving “realistic utopias” : verticality (first additional height, then actual high-rise buildings), excavating the ground, and the creation of man-made lands. Taken from the press release.

Thanks Domus

www.nmnm.mc

Shop Till You Drop

2012
Kunstverein, since 1817.
Klosterwall 23
20095 Hamburg

The "Arnold on Acid", a special edition of the Arnold Circus stool with color gradients for 'Kunstverein', was originally developed for the Arnold Circus. A small park built on rubble in the Boundary Estate, which was one of the earliest urban planning projects to tackle poverty in the eastern slums of London. The Arnold Circus stool serves as the sites official seating for all events taking place. Due to its shape it is stackable, multi-functional and suitable for indoor and outdoor use. It is no coincidence that "Arnold Circus stool" is a piece of furniture with a social dimension. Gamper often uses existing material, recycled, processed and transformed what once was actually waste. With his project "100 Chairs in 100Days" he made use of discarded or disused chairs and created new seating, dissembling and adding different elements to form a chair again. A plastic garden chair may well meet one of it’s designer colleagues. He responds to the idea of an ideal design by advocating responsibility and respective capabilities and requirements. Accordingly, it’s benches and chairs should not be seen as isolated objects, but rather as places that highlight the fact of being present in a space, and the social implications of that. Taken from the press release.

www.kunstverein.de

House of Voltaire

17a Adam’s Row, London, W1
21 November – 15 December 2012
Mon – Sat 11am – 7pm / Sun 12 - 6pm

A temporary shop selling a diverse selection of artists’ works, limited editions and original pieces by leading contemporary artists and designers in support of Studio Voltaire. Including glassware & coasters by Martino Gamper.

www.houseofvoltaire.org

Martino Gamper Sample Sale

Thursday 15th November 11am – 8pm
St Hilda’s East Community Centre
18 Club Row E2 7EY London

with Ally Capellino,Tracey Neuls, Jo Gordon & Squat

Entry Fee of £2 goes to The Spitalfields Crypt Trust
& St Hilda’s Community Centre. Cash Sales Only.

Bench Years

Victoria & Albert Museum John Madejski Gardens, London
14 - 23 September 2012

Established & Sons has collaborated with the London Design Festival to create a series of one-off benches to mark 10 years of the festival. The Infinity bench by Martino Gamper has been produced with material supplied by American Hardwood Export Council; thermally modified American red oak,
soft maple, ash, yellow birch and tulipwood.

Watch a short film about the project here

www.establishedandsons.com
www.americanhardwood.org

Photography ©Petr Krejci

mono.kultur #32

Martino Gamper 'All Channels Personal'

With mono.kultur, Martino Gamper talked about his idea of fun, why a chair is the ultimate challenge and what design has in common with cooking.

Visually, the issue is bursting with references and ideas, reclaiming image material from left and right, while unveiling the structure of a book with three booklets of different sizes all lovingly assembled into one – and manually at that, which makes for some rough edges or rather what we like to call extra personality. Taken from the press release.

Interview by Emily King & Kai von Rabenau / Works by Martino Gamper / Design by Kai von Rabenau
Summer 2012 / English / 15 x 20 cm / 56 Pages

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