The Sensitive Soul of Things Elena Salmistro

Product designer and artist, Elena Salmistrato lives and works in Milan. Graduated at Milano Politecnico in 2008, she founded her own practice Alko_studio together with architect Angelo Stoli in 2009, where she has been working on architectural and design projects ever since. Working as designer and illustrator, Elena took part to many different exhibitions such as L’anima sensibile delle cose (The sensitive soul of things) The New Italian Design and in 2016 to W-Women in Italian Design, all at Triennale Design Museum in Milan; her works has been exposed at the Shangai Biennale in 2013 and within her portfolio you could find creative industries such as Bosa, Seletti, Bitossi Home, Yoox, NasonMoretti, Massimo Lunardon, Okinawa, Offiseria, Texturae, Duram.

Elena Salmistraro Primates

Fascinated by the relation between human and physical object, Elena is constantly looking for and researching the balance, an armory between shapes, colors, content: her design language is poetic and mark itself as a different from the classical project panorama. The Nature ist her first inspiration:she follows her instinct, she projects with passion and give birth to objects directly form her fantasy; iconic and figurative subjects full of the finest crafted details. Her last creation Primates, a collection of vases in fine ceramic, designed to remind the delicate relationship between man and ape; ape evokes man, in the shape of the body, expressions and movements: This power of similarity to man is what makes it fascinating and inspiring, it seduces us with their vital force: pattern, colors, shapes.

Elena Salmistraro Loricato

Just before it, came Loricato and Kehpri, projects chosen to be exposed at Animalità, an exhibition at the Triennale Design Museum, curated by Silvia Annichiarico. In all these projects animals are the main characters: Loricato talks about the armadillo,which lives in shadows; Native Americans considered it as a unique animal, a sort of inspiring guiding light, able to reassure and comfort the soul, reject hostilities, and overcome fears. The Loricato’s symbolic, initiatic and social meaning lies in its armor; Kehpri from Ancient Egyptians history, regards scarab as a symbol of eternal rebirth, able to transfigure on earth, promising happy events. It is the symbol of constant evolution, through the free soul’s reincarnations. This symbolic and ritual elements reinforce the evocative value of these objects become a memory keeper reminding us of the close relationship we had with animals whose presence in our life has gradually changed due to the man’s living choices.

Elena Salmistraro Kehpri

Follow Elena on her instagram profile  https://www.instagram.com/elenasalmistraro/  considered as one of the most interesting emerging italian designer, Elena’s project are waiting for you at Milan Design Week 2017.

How To Design Happiness Jaime Hayon

Jaime Hayon TIOVIVO

Spanish artist-designer, Jaime was born in Madrid in 1974. As a teenager, he submerged himself in skateboard culture and graffiti art, the foundation of the detailed, bold-yet-whimsical imagery so imminent in his work today. After studying industrial design in Madrid and Paris he joined Fabrica – the Benetton-funded design and communication academy in Italy- in 1997 where he directed the design department until 2003. In 2000 he founded his studio and dedicated himself fully to his personal projects. His singular vision merges different approaches: blurs the lines between art, decoration and design and a renaissance in finely-crafted, intricate objects within the context of contemporary design culture. 

Jaime Hayon TOURNAMENT

He is an artisan. “It is important to remember that my design is made for humans – to be used by humans. I believe that design should provoke emotions. Design should make you feel good. Create happiness.” His spanish heritage and sense of humor are always inherent in everything he creates: in “The Tournament”, the massive chest playground – projected for the London Design Festival “ in 2009 – represent the The Battle of Trafalgar as a game of naval strategy. Elements of the city of London and its history have been encoded on the pieces using Hayon’s very personal style. With “Tiovivo” the site-specific interactive installation on the Carroll Slater Sifly Piazza in front of the High Museum of Art of Atlanta recreates familiar shapes of animals or objects, that inspire playfulness and joy. Each whimsical structure features a colorful pattern and sets of stairs and slides with openings specifically sized for children that encourage guests to interact with the sculptures; this installation transforms the space into an outdoor art gallery, playground, and refuge, creating an atmosphere for socializing and recreation. The boundary within art and design always attract more public and request: be impressed, be involved, be attracted and discover new experience and places through the lens of this works. With Jamie Hayon sometimes it feels to make a jump in the same time in the italian radical design 70’ years, baroque époque and in a Bruno Munari book.

At the Fuorisalone of the Milan Design Week 2017, for FRITZ HOTEL, his interior design project, Via San Carpoforo 9

The sun crosses the horizon Eske Rex

Eske Rex DIVIDED SELF

Danish, indipendent, designer, craft art, materials. These few words define the essence of Eske Rex, danish designer and artist, graduated at The Danish Design School in 2008; he experienced the carpenter work through his apprenticeship in 1999 and is now an independent artist and a material “artisan”. He express his artistic pov through installation and sculpture: the point of departure of his work is always a material and its intrinsic physical and mechanical characteristics. The material is worked to the limits of its inherent ability; fabric is stretched and wood split to the point of breach and their primary characteristics are laid bare in the demonstration of the condensed definite matter. Simple and stylistic, shapes are cleaned and processed off from excess elements which gives space to the public to concentrate and experience those materials on the work are made of. A found poetic silence comes from their presence in the space, a minimal conceptual idea that balances a paradoxal experience between material fetichism and timeless aesthetic. Works like DIVIDED SELF presents suspended wood sculptures, a pairs cutter from a single piece of wood. From the roof and from the ground – opposite floating – the two shapes are involved in an endless and vibrant dance of non-touching. The visitor presence infuences their movements; new images are constantly being produced in the interaction between upper and lower part: the general human feeling of holding multiple personalities.

Eske Rex SUN BED

Danish, indipendent, designer, craft art, materials. These few words define the essence of Eske Rex, danish designer and artist, graduated at The Danish Design School in 2008; he experienced the carpenter work through his apprenticeship in 1999 and is now an independent artist and a material “artisan”. He express his artistic pov through installation and sculpture: the point of departure of his work is always a material and its intrinsic physical and mechanical characteristics. The material is worked to the limits of its inherent ability; fabric is stretched and wood split to the point of breach and their primary characteristics are laid bare in the demonstration of the condensed definite matter. Simple and stylistic, shapes are cleaned and processed off from excess elements which gives space to the public to concentrate and experience those materials on the work are made of. A found poetic silence comes from their presence in the space, a minimal conceptual idea that balances a paradoxal experience between material fetichism and timeless aesthetic. Works like DIVIDED SELF presents suspended wood sculptures, a pairs cutter from a single piece of wood. From the roof and from the ground – opposite floating – the two shapes are involved in an endless and vibrant dance of non-touching. The visitor presence infuences their movements; new images are constantly being produced in the interaction between upper and lower part: the general human feeling of holding multiple personalities.

With SUN BED, in collaboration with Maria Mengel, Eske Rex presents its art at the 2017 Design Week of Milan at the MINDCRAFT17 Exhibition.  SUN BED represent the duality between the night time sleep and dreaming and the sun inviting us to be awake and alert: based on the notions of travel and transition, the 2 artist explored sunrise as a figure and a time span – when ‘just before’ becomes ‘just after’, as line and circle intersect and the sun crosses the horizon.

MINDCRAFT17 Exhibition takes place at Chiostro minore di San Simpliciano, in Piazza Paolo VI 6 a Milano Who wants to see more of Danish? I’m in.