Catellani & Smith at ‘I Maestri del Paesaggio 2018’ 24.09.2018
When a light becomes nature
In the stillness of Tresoldi Garden, the lamps of the outdoor collection by Catellani & Smith sprout up among hedges and flowerbeds. Again this year Catellani & Smith participates in the international meeting I Maestri del Paesaggio with an extraordinary installation that plays between light and nature, designed by Maurizio Quargnale, Valter Angeli and Guido Parenzan. Now in its eighth edition, the event hosts internationally renowned landscape architects and lovers of landscape and garden design in the city of Upper Bergamo. The theme of this year’s edition and the common denominator of all the different installations that punctuate the city is ‘Plant Landscape’, suggested by the garden designer Piet Oudolf, who considers garden design to be “not just plants, but above all emotion, atmosphere and a sense of contemplation”.
The interpretation given by Catellani & Smith to Oudolf’s notion has been converted into an enticing itinerary inside Tresoldi Garden for the visitor, who is led in discovery of an intimate and secret world. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the lights by Catellani & Smith pay a tribute to nature by discretely emulating the beauty of natural elements. On the vertical gardens that cover the two large arches adjacent to the entrance, several lamps spring up as fruit of light: there are More wall lamps, the new Medousê wall lamp (a hemisphere made of handcrafted industrial glass), here presented in a new green finish, then several Syphasera standing lamps, which look like bright ears of wheat, and a custom version of Syphasfera, similar to a ‘bouquet’ made of three small glass spheres with brass stems. Along the pathways of this green ‘living room’ of Tresoldi Garden, other lamps seem to grow spontaneously in the ground with their luminous buds: Syphaduepassi and Syphasera, thanks to their minimal design, integrate perfectly with the surrounding environment as if they were part of nature itself. But what grabs the visitors’ attention is the spectacular Albero di Luce (Tree of Light), which resembles a weeping willow, whose thin brass branches swing in the wind with their buds of light, creating around itself a magical and cozy ambiance.
Giardino di Casa Tresoldi, Città Alta, Bergamo
Outdoor Lighting Installation
Project by Maurizio Quargnale, Valter Angeli e Guido Parenzan
Photo credits Nava Rapacchietta