In an unprecedented commission by Creative Director Matthieu Blazy last September, the architect, artist and designer Gaetano Pesce was given creative carte blanche to produce a temporary site-specific artwork as the show space for Bottega Veneta’s Spring/Summer 23 fashion show in Milan. The space included a sculptural resin floor and four-hundred resin chairs created in a spectrum of vivid colors. 

Keeping the spirit of the SS23 collection alive, the Italian house then took the artwork on tour, and installed it at the iconic design fair, Design Miami/, which took place last week on the 30th November until the 4th December. The Come Stai? Chairs were displayed, inaugurating the commission of a limited edition book featuring the work of Pesce, with a live discussion between the designer himself and Design Miami/ Curatorial Director Maria Cristina Didero, followed by a book signing. 

The exhibition and the live talk in Miami were a celebration of the project. Come Stai? Is a new design for Pesce, his first original chair for several years. The construction is a cotton canvas based on traditional toile fabric, dipped in colored resin and at times featuring hand drawings – each one is distinct and unique. 

“The chair is a tribute to diversity. It is about the human being: we are all different. People who say we are all the same – fuck them! We are all different and this is our defining quality – otherwise, we are just a copy.” says Pesce. 

With an insightful interview between Pesce and Hans Ulrich Obrist, the limited-edition publication explores the ideation, approach and process of the collaboration, uncovering the many connections between Pesce and Blazy’s creative practices and values. Contributions from Blazy and Maria Cristina Didero document the project’s origins and place in Pesce’s wider œuvres, while a vivid layer of photographs by Stephen Shore and Sander Muylaert illustrate the chair’s development and production. The volume carries over the Come Stai? design with an atypical profile informed by the chair shape, and a cover inspired by the chair’s materials. Just like Come Stai?, each book is unique. 

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