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KYMA by Serena Confalonieri for Sambonet

From design to production, the project found its raison d'être entirely in Italy

KYMA

In Greek, ‘Kyma’ means wave, but it is also the name of a basic architectural element with its origin in ancient Greece, one that become well known in the great works of the following eras. This smooth, curvilinear or moulded band, used to separate or smooth the passage between two surfaces on an item, is the birth, development and life of Kyma: an original collection of furnishing designed by Serena Confalonieri for Sambonet.

The Italian designer tried her hand at studying shapes in order to conjoin the solidity of plane geometry with the lightness of a smooth decorative mark. In Kyma, a sine wave – represented by a stainless steel tube – runs along the outside of the objects, gently tracing their profiles. The broad waves give continuity and movement to the clear lines of the inner geometry in this series of accessories based on hexagonal, octagonal, square and rectangular shapes.

For this project, Sambonet chose next-generation finishes in copper, gold and Hi-Tech shades, the product of technological research developed in the application of PVD to steel and electropolishing and silvering techniques for steel as well. The methods are taken from other fields, skilfully formed to bring pleasing tints to the table and other rooms in the house.

The same movement that characterises the design in this series is taken up again in the curves of the candelabra and is projected on the whole surface of the table mat: a disk of steel moved by vibrations that produce waves on the surface until it attains a dynamic volume with great emotional impact.

From design to production, the project found its raison d’être entirely in Italy, taking advantage of artisan know-how and perfectly uniting it with next-generation techniques developed and implemented through the company’s expertise.

With this collection, Sambonet again emphasises its vision for living as a space that gives expression to artistic and qualitative values, drawing from these fine objects the beauty and personality to transfer to our everyday lives.

Serena Confalonieri After earning a degree in Interior Design at the Milan Polytechnic Institute, Serena Confalonieri (born in 1980) is working in important architecture and design studios in Milan, Barcelona and Berlin and collaborates with the Polytechnic’s department of interior design. She is an independent designer and art director who lives and works in Milan, where she collaborates with Italian and international companies. Her work lies in the nexus of graphics and product design: a careful study of surfaces is always evident in her projects. Over the years, she has been chosen for design seminars and workshops in Italy and abroad, and her work has been published in important newspapers and magazines. She has won prizes like the Special Mention at the Young & Design Awards 2014 and at the German Design Awards 2016, and her Cora and Lea lamps were displayed at the Triennial in Milan.

Kyma meets the tradition of Deruta ceramics

To Kyma’s all-Italian good taste and stylistic research, Sambonet is adding an exclusive special edition of artistic Deruta ceramics, interpreted from the original expressive language of the fashion designer Gianni Cinti. This project sprang from a fascinating dialogue between an object of industrial design – featuring the strength and continuity of contemporary graphic design – and the excellence of artisan ceramics and its ancient artistic legacy, clearly recognisable by its traditional Renaissance decoration.

The challenge from Sambonet’s creative director, Paola Longoni, was to bring together tradition with innovation once again, joining Italian worlds and specialities from different spheres. Entrusting the decorative design for the Deruta plates to Gianni Cinti, a name already famous in the fashion industry, and working side by side with MOD – Maioliche Originali Deruta – was key to the success in casting a designer object between art and fashion.

In the class of authentic ceramic products, these plates are the result of the abilities of artisan experts who, working entirely by hand, transfer the local painting traditions into the richness of decoration, intentionally exaggerated for this project. This was able to transform the visual and emotional impact of Kyma itself.

Through an elegant philological study of the oldest designs of Renaissance Deruta products, Gianni Cinti offers in each special edition article a totally personal re-reading of these original, free-form decorative elements, at times reconsidered and influenced by his style. This was the context in which these four fine decorative objects were designed and, while maintaining strong ties with the past, they draw on elements from different cultures and fields of endeavour, including the fascinating world of fabrics.

Within this same space, the fashion designer skilfully brought together prints and patterns with the colour tones typical of the Deruta ceramic tradition. The nuance of manganese, the ramina green and peacock blue are thus combined with the sophisticated golden, pink, mint and indigo tones of antique Chinese silks and fabric prints for fashion. The decorative elements that border the Deruta plates become one with the fantastic Asian-style flowers, acanthus leaves, natural elements together with geometric, pictorial and “a grottesche” decorations that characterise each piece.

‘I must say I consider them to be the result of the deep planning needed to bring together the practical necessities of design with the will to last over time - in fact, breaking with the belief that fashionable products necessarily have short lives. Rather than Fashion, I call it The Fashion.’ Gianni Cinti

Gianni Cinti

‘His creativity is an open space that he arranges from time to time.’ GF Ferrè

He was born in Marsciano, Perugia, in 1979. After his early artistic training in Deruta, he specialised in graphics and design at the prestigious Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche in Urbino. He has worked with some of the most famous brands in Italian and international fashion like Alberta Ferretti and Marithè and Francois Girbaud, even working with Gianfranco Ferré as a member of the creative staff of the Maison. In 2010, he founded his Fashion Design Studio in Turin, assembling a team of highly qualified professionals. He claims collaboration with prominent international figures and, especially in Shanghai, is considered one of the most interesting emerging designers, due to his creative production, which ranges from fashion to designer ceramics, from graphics to textiles. He holds classes and workshops in his speciality and teaches personal design at the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan.

MOD - MAIOLICHE ORIGINALI DERUTA

Deruta’s artistic tradition has ancient origins, but it was during the Renaissance and the early 1900s that the city reached the heights of its artistic perfection. Today one can see precious examples of ancient Deruta ceramics around the world, not only in private homes and collections of connoisseurs but also in more than 120 museums, including the Louvre, the Hermitage, the Metropolitan, the Victoria and the Albert Museum.

These excellent products are still made in factories where expert artisan-artists create wonderful majolicas. ‘MOD’ - Maioliche Originali Deruta - has for more than fifty years positioned itself as a company that faithfully reproduces ancient decorations with skill, professionalism and an artistic quality that stands among the best in the market.

Getting involved in the entire production cycle allows the creation of any shape moulded on a lathe or by hand and, thanks to research into the use of brand-new high technology ceramic materials and the utilisation of alternative decorative techniques, giving life to limitless possibilities for contemporary creations. The care in execution and the very high level of artisanship in all phases is ensured by the chosen professionalism of its collaborators, including young graduates in art schools and established designers. In its decades of business, MOD has had the privilege of producing articles for royal houses, internationally famous actors, major department stores, prestigious boutiques, museums, and collectors of art objects, as well as the regional board of Fine Arts, for which it made the facing for the dell’Ovato Fountain at Villa d’Este. The company’s strong inclination for exporting the culture of Deruta led it to host a pottery school, a place of reference for tourists, fans, schools and groups from around the world wanting to see this fascinating world, one of the purest expressions of ‘Made in Italy’.

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