“I have always thought that design begins where rational processes end and magic begins.” – Ettore Sottsass

The iconic Galerie Laffannour Downtown pays homage to Ettore Sottsass by unveiling the most sophisticated side of his revolutionary designs. In occasion of the 100-year anniversary of his birth, the gallery showcased a series of unique pieces of furniture that convey an image and perception of Sottsass‘s work different than the usual. His incredibly vast design legacy has been tackled with the finest curatorial attention, offering an exquisite compendium of Sottsass‘s career from 1950s to 2000s. Laffannour Downtown aimed to highlight his extraordinary understading of pure forms, as well as his architectural sensibility, while keeping the pop and hironic attitude that made him famous to the general public as a soft background.  Concepts that inspired Sottsass‘s whole approach to design such as the privilege of meaning over form, the ritual over the strict functional, the idea of design as an architectural excercise, stood out through the powerful selection of works, which also invite viewers to consider the existence of Ettore Sottsass as human being, and his praise for solitude and need of freedom to achieve consciousness and creativity. This relates to the designer’s multiple stays in India, where Sottsass was able to punctuate the hectic tempo of the Western lifestyle that he often tried to escape. Nature and what surrounded him were always of great inspiration, and so India’s bright colors as well as the saffron and herbs that spiced his meals influenced his daring color palette made of strong orange, pink and turquois shades. The exhibition at Galerie Laffannour Downtown offers a deep insight into the richness of Sottsass‘s body of work, including glass, ceramics and other design objects, utlimately celebrating not only his groundbraking genius but his view on design as a way to conceive and understand the world.