The French Maison once again chooses Palazzo Serbelloni to present its new design collaborations on the occasion of the Salone del Mobile 2023. The eighteenth-century residence with its neoclassical style becomes the perfect setting for a dialogue between past and future, between existing and innovation, highlighting the timeless character of the elements presented. The Objets Nomades are in complete evolution, linked to the concept of travel so dear to Vuitton. Each year they are enriched with new design names that reflect in a unique and personal way on the craftsmanship and values of the brand, working with the Maison’s great design classics and re-proposing them from a present and personal perspective.
The futuristic guise of the project takes shape in the courtyard of the Palace, with the Nomadic Pavilion, a colossal structure in silver-plated steel, intriguing and irresistible, designed by architect Marc Fornes’ Theverymany studio. An architecture that seems catapulted from the future, and which directly triggers a confrontation with history. From 2012, the year the Objets Nomades collection debuted, to date, 60 pieces have been presented signed by famous names in international design. The 11 new objects designed for the occasion include furniture and creative pieces of various kinds, and feature the work of Atelier Biagetti, Atelier Oi, Marcel Wanders, Raw Edges, Studio Campana, Studio Louis Vuitton and Zanellato/Bortotto in sophisticated workings of the Maison’s iconic objects applied to a future-oriented interior context. Atelier Biagetti’s Flower Tower lamp is a column made of flower-shaped glass bubbles, creative and luminous, that seems to magically float in plays of light and shadow. Atelier Oi instead presents four different objects: Chandelier, a sculpture of leather and light with twisting two-tone straps that create volume and take shape thanks to metal circles; Quetzal, on the other hand, is a large decorative object, an expression of the elegant idea of flight thanks to an applied plumage composed of vivid colors of leather; the Piva pendant lamp is then an ode to the wonder of light and color in continuous evolution, and is made of frosted glass elements alternating with a series of leather ‘feathers’; the Origami Bowls are practical and ingenious objets d’art, each moulded from a single piece of leather skillfully folded to create three-dimensional shapes. The two Binda chairs are the result of the work of British designers Raw Edges, becoming imposing, sculptural objects inspired by the curved lines of a tennis ball. The rounded regularity of the design is chromatically accentuated by the shiny leather exterior and the soft velvet of the seats. Campana’s famous Cocoon is presented this year in a new ‘disco ball’ guise, covered in a mirrored silver mosaic, in line with the Bomboca sofa which is presented as a dazzling sculpture with a metallic effect. On the other hand, the Louis Vuitton Studio signs the Flower Carafe and the Twist Glass, handmade by Venetian craftsmen and worked in fluid forms that develop into a spiral with the Monogram flower-shaped base; the new Bookend, in marble and aluminium, are designed to be combined with each other. The Italians Zanellato/Bortotto present the Basket Table, with three horizontal bands of leather woven into a metal honeycomb structure, topped with a reflective, enameled lava stone top.
Another world premiere presented in Milan for the occasion is the collaboration with internationally renowned Australian designer Marc Newson, who skilfully reworks the traditional Louis Vuitton hard-sided travel trunk into an elegant space for storing the most precious objects. It has a Monogram canvas lining and inside it features 19 leather-covered metal cubes, some with secret compartments. The Cabinet de Curiosities is made in a limited edition of 40 pieces worldwide, taking several hundred hours to make and around fifty steps in total. The craftsmanship aspect and the manufacturing process itself make one think of each item as a work of art, a true sculpture, a poetic object.
The Objets Nomades collection and the Nomadic Pavilion will be on display at Palazzo Serbelloni, Corso Venezia 16, from April, 19th to 23rd, from 10 am to 8 pm.
The Cabinet de Curiosities will be exhibited in the Garden of Palazzo Serbelloni at Via Melegari 3, with entrance by appointment from 10 am to 2 pm, at louisvuittton.com.
